When a digger scratched the surface of a field in Fishbourne 50 years ago this month, little was it realised how much it would change the village for ever.
A group of more than 800 volunteers spent the next nine years unearthing what is one of the biggest Roman palaces in Europe, which has been marvelled at by more than four million visitors. All thanks in part to the Southern Water employee on a JCB.
The memories of those days of discovery of the Fishbourne Roman Palace are still fresh in the mind for those involved, especially for Sir Barry Cunliffe who headed the workforce.
"It was fairly clear in the first Easter that it was a major discovery," he said. "We knew that we were on to something special."
The site was earmarked for a new road but the owner was persuaded to let the archaeologists take over and it was then bought by Roman enthusiast Ivan Margary who left it in the hands of current owners the Sussex Archaeology Society.
Sir Barry added: "I was on site and saw bits of mosaic floor tiles, and big stone blocks on the surface, that was the first inclination something major was there.
"My main concern was to get a quick story out given our limited resources, we probably had half a dozen people digging by hand."
To celebrate the 50th anniversary the museum is planning an exhibition on how it all started. A large amount of material has been kept on file since and is currently being sifted through by staff for the exhibition planned this summer.
One of a number of things the team is hoping to find out is whether it's true that as many as nine couples met and married after meeting at the dig, what it was like camping at a local school, and to find out more about meeting the stars like Laurence Olivier who visited from the newly opened Chichester Festival Theatre.
Senior museum assistant Sheila Marsden said: "It seems like they had tremendous fun. The buzz around Chichester must have been fantastic. Obviously it's 50 years ago and trying to find them is a problem.
"We have been looking through all manner of things, from receipts for food and the gallons of milk they used to drink from the dairy, and from reading the diaries it seems like the chef did a good job."
Geoffrey Curtis was one of the first volunteers working on the site and he remembers the tricks played hordes of media that clamoured to see their work.
"We filled up socks with dirt and put a boot on them and then you had a pair of feet sticking out from a mound," he said.
"I remember the man from Southern Television coming along and he did a double take at it."
Mr Curtis, who has been involved in developing some of the audio and video exhibits at the museum and is now a volunteer, added: "I was thinking all the time about what happened originally at the site, you dream about what it would have been like.
"Every effort should be made to go on and discover more."
Source: Chichester Observer