A watching brief on topsoil stripping on the refurbishment of a sewer from Oldcotes to Firbeck, Yorkshire. Through the historic core of Oldcotes, the old sewer would be relined to limit modern groundworks to a series of pits. These pits were not included in the watching brief. Outside the village, in the fields and woods, an easement would be stripped of topsoil with a toothless bucket on a back actor. … The topsoil was stripped off a 10m wide easement by a tracked excavator with a c.2m wide ditching bucket. Although the topsoils were shallow in parts of the pipe route, patches of topsoil were often left in place, making it difficult to be certain that no features were missed. [It does not appear that anything was found in the Nottinghamshire section of works] (1) Grid ref for pumping station at Oldcotes, E end of route.