ENGLISH Heritage gave Roman soldiers their marching orders forcing a living history group to scrap an event at Maumbury Rings at the last minute.

Stacie Lavis, of the Invaders and Settlers Empire, said the two-day Gladiator Games needed permission from English Heritage to use the ancient monument.

But in spite of getting the go-ahead from the Duchy of Cornwall, which owns the land, and from Dorchester Town Council - which manages the site - English Heritage gave the games the thumbs-down.

The event was to have been held today and tomorrow. More than 40 participants were due to give displays of fighting and demonstrations of everyday life in Dorchester nearly 2,000 years ago with a living history camp.

People coming from Hampshire and the Plymouth area to boost the Dorchester contingent planned to stay overnight on site. But organisers were unable to make alternative arrangements to accommodate the re-enactors.

Mrs Lavis said: "We were told that because of the exceptionally wet weather English Heritage wants to inspect every site before letting events go ahead and it hasn't been possible to do that here in time."

She added: "It's so frustrating. It breaks my heart. We put so much into it and we tried hard to find somewhere else.

"Dorchester Town Council was brilliant and said we could use the Kings Road playing field but people wouldn't be able to stay there overnight."

She said organisers now planned to hold the Gladiator Games in Hampshire in September. And they hoped to be back in Dorchester next summer.

"We apologise to the public for having to withdraw from the weekend's show. But without being able to camp overnight with all our equipment, the main bulk of our Romans and Gladiators just couldn't travel to a last-minute venue.

"If we'd known earlier that Maumbury Rings was out then we would have been able to stage it at Kings Road playing field."

Mrs Lavis said she hoped Dorchester people would support the group's bid to stage the event in future.

She said: "We'd like the local community to get involved and help us get ready for next year. We're hoping for a bit of sponsorship from local businesses and would like to recruit more Roman townsfolk from Durnovaria."

Nobody was available from English Heritage to comment.