Fossilised footprints made by dinosaurs in Oxfordshire more than 168 million years ago today made a painstaking journey to find a permanent home on display.

It is the end of more than a decade's work after the prints - left by a megalosaurus - were discovered at a landfill site in Ardley, near Bicester in 1997.

Project manager Tom Freshwater, who works at the Oxfordshire Museum, in Woodstock, where the prints will be on display, was overseeing the meticulous five-hour transfer of four of the priceless artefacts from storage in Uffington to the museum.

He said: "The prints weigh three tons each so the main challenge has been getting them into the garden, where they will be displayed.

"They had to be lifted very gently and smoothly because the rock is quite fragile and there are already cracks within the stone so we had to make sure that did not get worse."

The prints, which are 50cm across and are in sections roughly a metre cubed, were encased in plastic and set on steel plates, to bear the brunt of the weight.

They were transported on a 12m truck to the museum, where they were each winched by crane over a 3m fence into the garden, on to reinforced plastic plates capable of taking their weight.

Mr Freshwater said: "There was a possibility that all the months and years of work and effort could have be lost because it could have just disintegrated into rubble.

"We spent a lot of time working out where they can be lifted and where they can be dropped. We also had to make sure they didn't get too hot or dry, because they have been in a moist environment."

But the transfer went without a hitch and the ancient footprints, which Mr Freshwater believed were the only megalosaurus prints ever found, are now ready to be set into the earth.

About 30 to 40 prints were originally discovered at Ardley Landfill and Recycling Centre, run by Viridor Waste Management, and those not been transferred have been preserved under- ground.

They are considered significant as they show how fast the dinosaur, which stood about two and a half metres tall and measured seven metres from nose to tail, could run when chasing predators - they estimate it could have reached 30mph.

Viridor Credits gave Oxfordshire County Council more than £127,000 to help preserve, transport and showcase the footprints.

A walled garden mimicking the natural environment of the megalosaurus is being built, along with a life-size fibreglass model of the dinosaur to go with the exhibit.

Mr Freshwater said: "It's very exciting and we're thrilled to get them. They will be the oldest things in the museum. The exhibit is going to be aimed at children and families to come and see the footprints and learn more about them."

They are expected to go on display in October.

THE MEGALOSAURUS

The first traces of the megalosaurus, pictured, were found in a limestone quarry in Chipping Norton in the 17th century, after part of a thigh bone was found.

More discoveries were made in the 19th century at Stonesfield, between Woodstock and Charlbury, including part of a right lower jaw.

The dinosaur was a meat-eating carnivore, and lived in the Jurassic period.

The prints found in 1997 showed the dinosaur accelerating to chase a cetiosaur, a herbivore similar to a brontosaurus, which would have been its prey.

Its habitat would have been in a warm, shallow tropical sea, surrounded by marshy scrubs.