The site lies on the north side of Newark town centre, within the Newark Conservation Area, in an area bounded by Mount Lane to the south-east and King’s Road to the north-west. The site covers approximately 0.4ha and lies at an average height of 18m OD. It is the location of a former school with buildings dating from the mid-19th and early to mid-20th centuries formerly occupying the site, all but one of which had been demolished before the commencement of archaeological works. The site was stripped of a c. 0.30m thick tarmac surface using a 6-tonne tracked excavator fitted with a 1.5m wide toothless bucket, exposing made ground and the remains of footings for the Victorian buildings. Foundation trenches were then cut into the stripped surface, beginning at the south side of the site. As the groundworks moved towards the centre of the site, the made ground proved to be so unstable that the methodology had to be adapted: the level of the entire building footprint was reduced, the foundation trenches excavated at an increased width of 1.60m and a cement ‘raft’ laid at the base before the foundation layout was shuttered and spoil was backfilled behind the shuttering. This change in methodology affected the archaeological monitoring, as fewer sections were created – no internal blocks were left standing within smaller areas – but larger areas of natural were exposed. The final phase of groundworks consisted of further excavation along the south edge of the site, in order to construct a retaining wall, as this part of the site was well below the level of Mount Lane. Cartographic evidence indicates that this plot of land was not occupied prior to the early-mid 19th century which may explain the paucity of finds or datable features pre-dating the industrial period. The material observed in sections towards the south end of the site, near Mount Lane, clearly constituted a bank or mound feature. There was no indication, however, of the purpose of the feature from the evidence available. The primary bank deposit was a medium grey-brown sand, but contained elements of red-brown natural sandy clay, possibly indicating that redeposited material had been used in its construction, although it was suggested on site that this material might have been carried down from the overlying layer by bioturbation, such as the burrowing of animals or growth of tree roots. Assuming that one layer was correctly identified as the natural solid geology, there was no evidence for a buried former ground surface below the bank construction deposits, possibly indicating that topsoil had been deliberately removed from the bank footprint as part of the construction project, in order to provide a more stable footing for the bank. If so, it may be postulated that the bank was not constructed as an urgent response to an imminent threat, but that the builders had time to plan and undertake the project thoroughly. The single sherd of pottery retrieved during the monitoring of the foundation trench excavations, which came from the lowest layer of the bank, indicates a 16th - to mid-17th -century date (a range lying broadly between the accession of Henry VIII and the restoration of Charles II). No other dating material was recovered from the deposits constituting the feature; the presence of hammerscale in an environmental sample indicates that iron was being forged in the vicinity at the time the bank was constructed, but this was not necessarily being carried out in a military context (a position at the periphery of a settlement would generally be favoured for the siting of a smithy, as with any industry that presented a fire risk). From LIDAR imagery, the surrounding topography also displays raised ground to the west and north of the feature, which itself shows up as an elongated mound tapering to the south from a wider portion to the north, resembling a tongue of land. The mounds to the west and north may be natural topography or represent parts of a larger artificial feature, truncated by modern development. Although the post-medieval dating evidence from this project was slight, the presence of the Cistercian ware sherd at the base of the bank deposits suggests that it did not form part of the medieval walled defences, which lay relatively close to the site south of Slaughterhouse and Mount Lanes, nor of the earlier Saxon defences that are believed to have been situated further to the south-west. The position of an artillery post at this location might be more likely, either from the strengthening of the town in 1536 during the Pilgrimage of Grace or from the Civil War siege from 1643 to 1646; the dating evidence would allow either interpretation. The position overlooks the castle and crossing over the Trent, although not by much in height, and commands the areas to the south, the direction of the Parliamentarian attack. The recovery of several cannon balls in the vicinity of the mound appears to indicate that it saw some kind of military action, although it cannot be ascertained whether the ammunition had been brought to the mound in order to be fired in defence, or whether it had been fired into the area by attackers.