Norman church in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, in what experts are calling a ‘once in a lifetime’ find.

Archaeologists for the HS2 railway uncovered the three stone busts beneath the ruins of the old St Mary’s church, which was demolished in 1966 for being unsafe.

Two of the figures are adults — a man and a woman, both of which have had their head split from their body — while the third is the head alone of a child.

These ‘remarkable’ finds came in the final stages of the dig, when the team were excavating a circular ditch around what was thought to be an Anglo-Saxon tower.

As well as the busts, the archaeologists also found an incredibly well preserved, Roman-aged, hexagon-shaped glᴀss jug, large pieces of which were still intact.

Other Roman-era finds at the site included large roof tiles, painted wall plaster and cremation urns.

According to the archaeologists, it is not uncommon to find Roman statues which have been disfigured in some form — as the three busts from the St Mary’s church site were decapitated.

Statues were often vandalised before being torn down, they explained.

‘These are early examples of how statues and historic artefacts have been discarded as society has evolved over time,’ the team noted.

‘For us to end the dig with these utterly astounding finds is beyond exciting,’ said Rachel Wood, the lead archaeologist for HS2’s Enabling Works Contractor, Fusion JV.

‘The statues are exceptionally well preserved, and you really get an impression of the people they depict — literally looking into the faces of the past is a unique experience,’ she continued.

‘Of course, it leads us to wonder what else might be buried beneath England’s medieval village churches.

‘This has truly been a once in a lifetime site and we are all looking forward to hearing what more the specialists can tell us about these incredible statues and the history of the site before the construction of the Norman church.’

Based on their excavations, however, the team have been able to make  some determinations about the history of the site prior to the construction of the church.

The setting appears to have been a natural mound which was then built up further by the deliberate addition of soil — perhaps to form a Bronze Age burial site.

This then appears to have been dated by a Roman-era square building which the archaeologists think — based on the ornate but sparse nature of the materials they have found — was most likely a mausoleum.

Finally, the team suspect that the building may have been repurposed in the Saxon period (indicated by the discovery of Saxon pottery and a Saxon coin) before finally being demolished by the Normans when they built the St Mary’s Church on the site.

The walls and demolition rubble of the Roman building, the archaeologists noted, were found directly beneath the Norman church’s foundations — with no build up of soil in-between the two.