A subsample of 1 litre of the more evidently organic material was disaggregated over a 300-μm sieve. This was found to be so rich in insect remains that paraffin (kerosene) flotation was deemed unnecessary, and all the material retained on the sieve was sorted. Insects, represented by individual sclerites, were picked out under a low power binocular microscope and stored in 70 % ethanol. Identification was achieved by use of reference material in Doncaster Museum and relevant entomological keys. A total of 821 individuals (mni) representing 211 taxa were recovered, of which 618 individuals and 163 species could be identified to species or species group level. Despite the proximity of the Idle, only some 500 m to the east, there is limited evidence for either the river or its floodplain. The Wild Goose Cottage insect fauna indicates a stable landscape, probably largely pastoral, with damp grassland on the adjacent floodplain, and drier, sandier pastures in hedged fields on the Quaternary deposits and Sherwood Sandstone to the west. It is tempting to interpret the paucity of cropmarks close to the site as a result of arable exploitation in small, less substantially ditched plots immediately surrounding the settlement. There is some evidence for slightly warmer summers during the time the sample from the well accumulated, and this more continental climate may have continued until the late medieval shift to a Little Ice Age regime.