Rare and valuable medieval artefacts have been found dumped in a supermarket trolley.

Crooks stole the items from the Collections Discovery Centre in Fishbourne, near Chichester, during 2007 leaving the museum's bosses distraught.

But following appeals for help, the artefacts, which included a rare jug, were discovered in the car park of the nearby Tesco superstore on the outskirts of Fishbourne today.

The museum's astonished director, David Rudkin, said: "When I received the phone to say the items had been found, I was speechless.

"Driving to the police station to begin identification, I was shaking with excitement that we had potentially recovered some of these priceless parts of our district's heritage.

"I am just so delighted that some of the items have been recovered but we would want to stress that only some of the objects appear to have been found and there are many more that still remain missing.

"We would appeal to anyone who has information about these objects to contact the police."

Chichester district councillor Nick Thomas, added: "It is great news."

Police are investigating how the artefacts came to be in the supermarket trolley.

A member of staff made the discovery and alerted the store's security manager who in turn rang the police.

Witnesses who have information about the items at Tesco or the others which are still missing are asked to call Sussex Police on 0845 6070999.