An ancient mine will be thrown in to the spotlight when it is featured on national television next week.

Grimes Graves, at Lynford, near Thetford, is Britain's only Neolithic flint mine open to visitors.

The site, which is run by English Heritage, is closed for the winter season but viewers will have the chance to take a deeper look at the history of the mine from the comfort of their sofas.

Grimes Graves will feature on Channel 5's Underground Britain series.

The show sees adrenaline junkie and engineer Rob Bell climb, crawl, dive and burrow his way into the countries subterranean heritage.

The stone-age mines of Grimes Graves feature in the fifth episode of the series, where Mr Bell meets with Dr Miles Russell to learn about an industry that was established 5,000 years ago, before finding out about the life-saving work of the Mine Rescue Service.

English Heritage area manager Mark Ellis said: 'We were delighted to welcome the film crew into Grime's Graves and this site of scientific special interest to help us showcase this fascinating and unique place.

'It really is a hidden gem and hopefully being featured on the programme will inspire people to come along and discover this fantastic Neolithic site when we re-open to visitors next year.'

The grassy landscape of 400 pits was first named Grim's Graves by the Anglo-Saxons.

It was not until one of them was excavated in 1870 that they were identified as flint mines dug over 5,000 years ago.

A small exhibition area illustrates the history of this unique site and visitors can descend 9 metres by ladder into one excavated shaft to see the jet-black flint.

The site, which is an area of special scientific interest and a habitat for rare plants and animals, will re-open at the end of March.

The episode of Underground Britain featuring Grime's Graves airs on Channel 5 at 8pm on Thursday, November 20.

Are you going to be featured on television? Write to reporter Doug Faulkner at doug.faulkner@archant.co.uk