London, June 6 (IANS): An "extremely rare" Roman bronze wing was found during an excavation in England's Gloucester city, the media reported on Monday.

The object, which is 14 cm long, was found during an excavation for a new housing development in Brunswick Road, in an area that would have been just behind the city's Roman wall, BBC reported.

Experts believe it was probably part of a winged statuette to Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory.

"This find once again demonstrates that Gloucester was a high ranking city in Roman Britain and that its public spaces must have been equipped with a number of bronze statues of gods and emperors," said Neil Holbrook, from Cotswold Archaeology (Britain's leading archaeological fieldwork and consultancy practices).

He added that finds of Roman bronze sculpture in Britain are "extremely rare" and "very few depictions of Victoria or eagles" are known from the province.

"It would be nice to think a retired Roman soldier, spending his retirement years in Gloucester, had a nice statuette to Victory as thanks for making it through the Roman invasion of Britain in one piece."

It will be put on display at Gloucester Museum once it has been studied.