The trust for Welsh archaeology, Heneb, made the discovery in Flintshire’s Mancot, amid mining surveys being delivered for the development, and said it was “one of the biggest” Roman artefact collections in the county, the BBC reports.

Conservation has been carried out on a number of brooches and moulds, which will be further analysed at the Cardiff-based National Museum ahead of going on display in north-east Wales.

Project manager Chris Matthews said the discovery altered what was understood about the area’s history. 

Homes have now been developed over the excavation site on Gladstone Way, but not before a number of items, such as pottery, coins and jewellery, had been removed.

The area was also mapped and showed that the settlement extended beneath the village of Mancot, which is situated between Hawarden and Queensferry.

According to Matthews, the Mancot site “possibly” originated in the Iron Age period, prior to the arrival of the Romans, and “continued to have successive occupation for a very long period of time”.

This supposition was bolstered by two coins found there - one from the reign of the emperor Commodus, who was in power from AD 177 to 192, and another depicting Constantine, who reigned approximately two centuries later. 

Evidence of the jewellery workshop found in Heneb’s excavations revealed there was “industry” making use of the rich metal resources in the area, and producing “important commodities for Roman society,” according to Matthews.

The discovery of the lead moulds shows they were creating a “wide range” of brooches.

It is believed the workshop serviced Roman society in Chester.

However, through pottery fragments recovered, there is also evidence on the site that trading was as distant as mainland Europe.