David Rudkin finished his working career last Friday on his 65th birthday, having imparted his vast knowledge of Roman history to thousands of visitors.

He has been a part of several important excavations on the site through the years, most notably finding the Cupid on a Dolphin mosaic, and then the Fortress mosaic buried underneath.

He has been on an episode of television series Time Team, and on occasion has chased sheep through the village.

"I have enjoyed it immensely," he said. "Obviously, like any job, it has its ups and downs. Overall, it has given me a great deal of satisfaction.

"I feel very privileged to have steered Fishbourne through the past 29 years.

"When I started I said I wanted to bring more life to the site. I wanted to achieve that by having more re-enactment groups, and farming projects with animals, but that did not last long.

"We could not keep the animals in their paddocks because the sheep could jump out. I remember chasing one all the way down to the water meadows.

"Someone brought him back and I felt the time had come to close it down because it was becoming too dangerous. That was in the early 1980s."

When showing visiting groups around the same exhibits all day long, Mr Rudkin and his team used to keep things as entertaining as possible.

"We used to give guided tours to the public and it ended up being a bit repetitive," he said. "So we used to run a competition.

"When a herd of visitors was seen on the horizon, we were given a word to include as subtly as possibly into our talk. The most difficult one I had was a Russian word."

Although he has officially retired, he will be called upon to help as a volunteer when needed, but he will be putting his feet up in the meantime.

He said: "For a few months I will be doing very little indeed. I will be relaxing and seeing what turns up.

"It will be incredibly difficult to leave. It has become an integral part of my life. It is not just the place, it is the people I will miss."

Click 'next page' below to read more about Mr Rudkin and Fishbourne Roman Palace.

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To see a series of videos showing Mr Rudkin's five favourite items from around the palace click on the links below.

Click here for the video about the Cupid on a Dolphin mosaic which remarkably has all of its pieces intact considering it lay metres from the surface untouched for thousands of years.

Click here for the video about the Fortress mosaic which was discovered in 1979 underneath the Cupid on a Dolphin mosaic which had been lifted from the soil.

Click here for the video about the Intaglio, a stone smaller than a fingernail with a horse and fern leaf carved on to it which would have been used in a piece of jewellery.

Click here for the video about the piece of Samian ware pottery, which shows the maker's stamp and the owner's initials scratched into the bottom of the cup.

Click here for the video about the stone head of Claudius Tiberius Togidubnus, who lived at the palace in Roman times.