The study site is located on the west bank of the River Trent to the west of Gainsborough. The floodplain is bounded to the east by the Jurassic escarpment of the Lincoln edge and to the west by the Mercia Mudstone. The geology consists of the drained and reclaimed Holocene alluvium which overlies Devensian First Terrace sands and gravels, which also outcrop along the floodplain edge and in places as ‘islands’ within the alluvium. Coring was undertaken to the east of the site in two fields along two transects which were located to follow the line of the proposed pipeline. A total of 10 subsamples were assessed for pollen from one core. A total of 2 sub-samples were submitted for radiocarbon dating. The accumulation of peat at the sampling site was taking place in an alder carr floodplain environment by the Middle Bronze Age (c. 3200 years before the present). Mixed oak-hazel woodland was established in the wider landscape. The composition of the local floodplain vegetation shifted to sedge carr during the Iron Age (c. 2000 years before the present). The exact nature or timing of this change is unclear due to the poor pollen preservation in the middle segment of the diagram, but the vegetation changes were probably related to hydrological fluctuations at the sampling site during sediment deposition. This might have been related perhaps to the elevation of local water tables or the migration of the river closer to the sampling site. Alternatively, it may be associated with the effects of human activity on the river system. As pollen preservation was generally poor, no further palynological analysis is recommended on this sequence.