The site is located to the north-east of the village of Perlethorpe in the civil parish of Perlethorpe cum Budby, in the administrative district of Newark & Sherwood District Council, approximately 10km south-east of Worksop and 30km west of Lincoln. The site is bounded by further fields to the east, Blyth Road to the west, Netherfield Lane to the north and to the south by the River Meden. 47 trenches were excavated, with 46 measuring 1.8m wide and 30m in length and one measuring 50m in length, which constituted 3% of the overall land surface. These were arranged in a grid pattern within the footprint of the proposed reservoir, with slight variation to allow investgation of the anomalies revealed by geophysical survey. Topsoil and other recent deposits were removed by a mechanical excavator fited with a 1.6m wide toothless ditching bucket. Trench bases and representative samples of the trench sides were subsequently cleaned by hand where appropriate, prior to the part-excavation of features and deposits of potential archaeological origin, to ascertain character, extent and date. The trial trenching on land east of Blyth Road, Perlethorpe revealed low to moderate levels of archaeology, with 32 of the 47 trenches containing no archaeological features. Several of the features that were recorded were also considered to be of natural origin, mainly tree throws. Several narrow linear features were recorded across the site, such as those seen in three trenches. Given the dimensions of these features, and the silty nature of the fills they contain, it is likely that there was a series of small drainage gullies across the site. The larger linear features such as those seen across three trenches, suggest boundary ditches used to divide the land. The two phases of ditches recorded in a further trench also seem to indicate recutting, suggesting this former boundary was maintained over a longer period. However, the lack of associated finds militates against achieving a full understanding of the nature and date of these features. No evidence of boundaries within the site area are seen on OS maps from the 19th century onwards, suggesting that these possible ditches either predate the maps, were used solely for drainage and therefore not signifcant enough to warrant inclusion on the maps, or are not ditches at all. To the south of the site, in one trench, a large possible ditch feature may be interpreted as the ditch seen RAF aerial photographs. This feature was interpreted as a possible moated site, but has never been investigated beyond observations based on the photograph and a cursory site visit in 1974. The geophysical survey undertaken prior to this evaluation could not access this corner of the site due to the area being flooded, possibly indicating that the survival of the feature as an earthwork. Although the feature was partally investigated during the evaluation, the lack of dating information from the lower fills makes ascertaining a date for it impossible. Overall, the low density archaeological features recorded during the trial trench evaluaton point to the land mainly being used for agricultural purposes, with a lack of settlement evidence. It is likely that the boundaries of the field varied, although prior to the late 19th century landscape visible on OS maps, these variatons cannot be traced with the currently available map evidence. If the feature in the first trench is part of a moat or large ditched area, the date and nature of this activity cannot be gleaned from the single trench excavated as part of the evaluation.