Archaeologists working in the sleepy little village of Grove, Oxfordshire, stumbled upon the find of a lifetime after finding the Roman villa.

It came during survey works for a new housing development.

The site sits along a region rich in history inhabited since the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago.

Discovered by Red River Archaeology Group archaeologists, the villa was found alongside a “huge” number of artefacts.

The group’s project officer said it was “an important centre of activities for a long time”.

While the villa was found to be decorated with painted plaster and mosaics, further discoveries included a giant hall-like “aisled building” dating from the late 1st century AD.

This building sits next to a “winged corridor villa”, a feature found inside the homes of high-ranking and elite Romans with many rooms off-shooting and accused by a central corridor.

Excavations are ongoing, but archaeologists believe the raised building was built after the villa.

“The sheer size of the buildings that still survive and the richness of goods recovered suggest this was a dominant feature in the locality, if not the wider landscape,” Louis Stafford, Red River Archaeology senior project manager, said in a statement.

The “impressive” complex is spread out across an area of approximately 29,000 square feet.

Evidence of Roman activity in the area extends all the way back to the 1st and 2nd centuries and into the late 4th and early 5th centuries, the same period in which the Romans left Britain.

Roman hypocaust box-flue tiles were also found which would have formed a heating system that produced and circulated hot air below the floor of a room, much like modern-day underfloor heating.

Archaeologists believe the owners of the villa would have either been local landowners who adopted the Roman way of life, or settlers who came to Britain from the Empire.

The complexes at the site range from agricultural administration centres for an individual family to more grand complexes such as baths and temples.