UNCONFIRMED reports are circulating that red-faced archaeologists have been seen beating a hasty retreat from a proposed South Derbyshire 'dig'.
Newhall residents are said to have seen the academics loading their trowels into the back of a pick-up and speeding off from a site on Pear Tree Avenue.
A tour of the neighbourhood reveals that the would-be excavators may have been fooled by a crystalline white version of Egypt's splendid Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.
The ancient scene has not been carved in stone, however, but created from the snow that has fallen on the region in such quantities in the last week.
Sporting geometry that the ancient Egyptians would have been proud of, the Pyramids are retaining their shape but, unfortunately, the Sphinx is already falling victim to spring's stealthy advance.