DEVELOPER Linden Homes has revealed the true cost of corporate social responsibility - £1m.

The seven figure sum is how much a big archaeological dig on the site of its planned French Quarter development in the city centre is estimated to have cost the housebuilder.

The cash funded an intensive seven-month dig designed to improve understanding of the city's Saxon history.

In order to make way for 227 homes and ground floor retail and office space, a number of post war buildings had to be demolished, offering a rare chance to look back in time.

Archaeologists were able to dig up the remains of earlier settlements on the site dating back more than 1,000 years to late Saxon times.

Pat Feighery, managing director of Linden Homes Southern said: "We believe that companies have a duty to put something back into the community.

"Having pioneered both the redevelopment of brownfield sites in Southampton, and the practice of close co-operation with archaeologists, it has been a privilege as well as a heavy responsibility to have been involved in this dig."

The site, which is bounded by Lower High Street, French Street, and includes the former Castle Way, yielded up some intriguing finds.

Discoveries ranged from exotic and rare pottery imports to the firing mechanism for a 14th century crossbow.

A previously unknown 16th century well house was found on the site of Polymond House, the home of one of Britain's greatest hymn writers, Isaac Watts.

Other discoveries included the stock of a 1940s chemist's shop which fell into one of the mediaeval vaults as a result of wartime bombing.

The redevelopment, which allows for closure of streets established in the 1950s or 60s, will re-establish the historic street pattern of the area as it was in the 13th century.

This is not the first time Linden Homes has got its hands dirty with a dig. A study prior to the development of Quayside Road, Southampton, revealed the edge of the Roman settlement of Clausentum and in Winchester the perfect footprint of a 13th century Augustinian priory was revealed on a Linden site three years ago.