A UNIQUE collection of over 1,000 Roman artefacts has been donated to Malvern College.

Stephanie Bilton, widow of lifelong archaeological collector and Mal-vern resident Norman Bilton, has bequeathed the collection to the school.

It includes Roman wall plaster, oil lamps and unusual pottery samples, collected from across a wide area, but mostly in Spain in 1969 and the north east of Eng-land, where the Radio Wyvern managing director began collecting as a boy.

Mrs Bilton said: "Norman collected ever since he was a small boy and had the most remarkable ability to spot a piece from miles away!

"I'm giving his collection to Malvern College because I didn't want it to sit in boxes in a museum vault.

"I contacted the college to see if they could use it in a teaching context and I 'm very pleased that is what they are going to do."

The Bilton Collection, as it will be known, will be shown through regularly updated displays and catalogued in the school's library.

The college's head of classics Martin Harris teaches archaeology as part of a classical civilisation A'Level syllabus.

As a result the priceless artefacts will aid hands-on teaching.

"There are examples of Roman wall plaster, probably from 2nd or 3rd Cen-tury Spain," Mr Harris said, "As well as intact oil lamps, some with decoration and illustrations.

"It includes quite unusual and unique samples of pottery and other artefacts from across the Roman empire, also including worked bone, coins, mosaic, glassware, metal objects and pieces of masonry."

To launch the collection, Jane Evans, of Birmingham University's Institute of Archaeology and Ant-iquity, will give a free public lecture on The Archaeology of Roman Mal-vern at the college's St Edmund's Hall at 7.15pm on Thursday, May 8.

Ms Evans was involved with the excavation of a Roman pottery kiln beneath Malvern's Roman Way.

Anyone wishing to attend or want- ing further information can call Martin Harris on 01684 581500 or email Math@malcol.org.