A keen metal detectorist has discovered what could be a Bronze Age site in the Suffolk countryside.

Gary Campion, 48, has had his remarkable find in Wattisham verified by a senior member of Suffolk County Council’s archaeological team.

Mr Campion, of Hawks Mill in Needham Market, was using Google Maps on the internet when he discovered unusual crop marks on the land near the old Roman road of Needham Lane, close to Bildeston.

Interested with his find he contacted the council but they had no prior knowledge of the site. Dr Richard Hoggett, senior archaeological officer of the council’s archaeological service conservation team, said the dark circular marks were likely to be the remains of a Bronze Age burial mound/barrow dating from 2300-700 BC.

Mr Campion has taken a closer look at the land via a public footpath.

He said: “It’s fantastic, most people do not know much about the Bronze Age, it would be interesting to know where they lived, how they lived, whether they lived there for a reason.

“It’s very primitive something like that and could be about 1000BC. It’s quite rare in the UK to find this.”

The council’s archaeological service holds more than 30,000 records of known sites in the county on its Suffolk Heritage Explorer website. Search for “heritage.suffolk.gov.uk”

Dr Hoggett added: “Although we are involved in a number of English Heritage funded projects to map archaeology from air photos, large parts of the county remain unexplored and we are always keen to hear from people who have spotted possible archaeological sites on Google Earth, Bing mapping or other online images.

“We would encourage people who think that they have found sites like this to look at the area on the Suffolk Heritage Explorer to see if we already have record for the site, and, if not, they should contact us through the website or by emailing archaeology.her@suffolk.gov.uk”