Hoard of jewellery discovered under car park immortalises attack on Roman Colchester by the British

Deep below a modern department store, a stash of ancient jewellery has been discovered.

Where shoppers on Colchester High Street now carry away purchases, back in Roman times, the British warrior queen Boadicea - or Boudica - ransacked the town, taking anything she could lay her hands on.

ITV News correspondent Tim Ewart reports:

However you say her name, it was a frightening prospect.

The theory goes that a wealthy Roman hid her gold and silver to retrieve later - but did not survive.

And in this town there is much more to find.

It is the jewellery of a woman who lived, and was probably brutally killed, two thousand years ago.

Gold that still glitters and silver now heavily corroded, hidden as a rampaging army approached.

Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe, has been immortalised in art more recently film.

Her army was not inclined to take prisoners as it routed Britain's Roman occupiers.

As Boudica advanced on the garrison in Colchester, one wealthy Roman hid her jewellery on the site of what is now a department store.

It was discovered by archaeologists when the area was cleared for re-building.

As Boudica torched the town, women who hid in the Temple of Claudius were slaughtered as human sacrifice.

One, at least, can now be remembered after this priceless find.