A UNICORN charm from a child's bracelet has provided a direct link to the former inhabitants of a lost wartime village

The fortnight-long archaeological dig at the site of the demolished Calgarth Estate, near Windermere, has been hailed "a great success" by Trevor Avery, director of the Lake District Holocaust Project.

Bulldozed in the 1960s, the hostels were originally built to house wartime workers at the nearby Sunderland flying boat factory. In 1945 they became a refuge for 300 child Holocaust survivors brought to the Lake District to recuperate after being liberated from Nazi camps.

Among the artefacts carefully unearthed at the site, now a rugby pitch at the Lakes School, Troutbeck Bridge, were a penknife, a bottle of children's hair curling lotion, cough mixture, a comb, and a variety of bricks, including several from Claughton brickworks, near Hornby.

The finds have been sent away for conservation, and Mr Avery said it was unclear if they dated back to the time factory workers dwelled in the hostels, or if they linked directly to the young Holocaust survivors, known affectionately as "The Boys".

"We can't say for certain, but they are all things you would associate with children - poorly children and small children - so we are very close certainly," said Mr Avery.

World-renowned forensic archaeologist Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls led the dig during two weeks of almost constant sunshine, which saw dozens of volunteers and visitors drawn to the site.

They included lifelong friends Sam Laskier and Ike Alterman, now in their early 90s, who came to Calgarth as boys. They were on a train from Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany when they were freed by Czech partisans.

They shared memories of everyday life 74 years ago in the hostels - or "chalets", as they called them - with the archaeologists.

"There wasn't a dry eye in the house, frankly," said Mr Avery, adding that some of the team had described the dig as " the most moving, life-changing project they've ever worked on".

Another visitor was the estate's former ploughman Billy Moffatt, of Natland, who told the team about the "mini museum" of finds he keeps at his home.

Mr Avery said the many stories revealed by visitors to the dig included two proposals of marriage to local girls by "The Boys" before they left, one of them headed for a new life in Mexico.