Roman rubbish tip has been found - in a suburban back garden.

Garden landscaping work at a family home in Pentrebane, Cardiff, has turned up the remnants of a former drainage site nearly 2,000 years old.

The delighted owner, who asked not to be named, dubbed it 'a glorified Lamby Way' where people dumped their rubbish.

A team of local archaeologists has now dug up 300 shards of pottery of more than five types, hob nails from scandals and old building nails.

Graham Oxlade, 53, of Cilfynydd, near Pontypridd, said: 'It's just amazing. I never knew there was a Roman settlement in Pentrebane.

'Everyone knows about Caerleon and the Roman villa at Ely and it is fascinating to discover other remnants of Roman life here.'

He and fellow digger Andrea Walton have pieced together many of the pieces of pottery, most of which, he said, were of a common types called black burnished or grey ware.

A smaller number of others are of a more unusual type of Roman pottery called Samian ware that would have been imported from Gaul - what we now know as France.

'It's what we would have had as Sunday best china.

' It was all imported from Southern Gaul,' explained Graham, who earns his living with a stall selling antiquities, and giving lectures.

The discovery, which was made by the owner after he had levelled off a raised part of his garden, was verified by Dr Peter Webster, an archaeology expert who works at Cardiff University.

The home's owner is planning to incorporate some of the pieces into the new barbecue area in his garden when Graham has finished, and will be keeping other pieces on display at his home.

He said: 'It's not a financial thing. It's historical. It's fascinating.'