A NATIONALLY important project to save more than 100 Bronze Age ceramic pots has been completed.

A celebration to mark the end of the four-year Wiltshire County Council project was held at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum's lecture hall on March 24.

The last pots to be conserved were handed over to representatives of Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum and Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes during the event.

The ceramic pots, which are between 3,000 and 5,000 years old, were discovered near Stonehenge, Avebury and other sites in Wiltshire.

Repairs carried out by the Victorians and later generations used an unusual range of materials, including cement, terracotta plant pots and bicycle spokes, but the previous repairs had started to fail.

Paul Robinson, curator of Wiltshire Heritage Museum, said: "The project meets the expectations of museum visitors today that whatever is displayed will be visually appealing and strictly accurate."

Two conservators worked on the project full-time. A large pot with cement to remove could take up to 230 hours to conserve.

Processes used included rebuilding the pots with modern, sympathetic materials and providing specialist packing for each vessel.

The project cost a total of just under £200,000, with the Heritage Lottery Fund providing nearly £150,000.