Site Event/Activity record ENT5349 - Evaluation at Rayton Lane, Obserton

Location

Location Rayton Lane, Osberton, Worksop, Nottinghamshire
Grid reference Centred SK 61265 79620 (284m by 401m)
Map sheet SK67NW
District Bassetlaw
Civil Parish Worksop, Bassetlaw

Technique(s)

Organisation

Cura Terrae

Date

Not recorded.

Map

Description

The Site covered by this phase of evaluation includes the east half of the easternmost field of the development area. It covered an area of 6.2 ha. The field was arable farmland situated to the north of Rayton Lane, which runs east–west and connects Worksop with smaller settlements to the south-west. Much of the Site is bordered by tree belts. A copse of historic woodland, named Black Hill Clump, lies to the north-east edge of the field. Rayton Farm, a historic working farm, is 100 m south-east of the Site. Twenty-four Trenches were excavated at the site, representing a 3% sample across the field. Some of the trenches targeted specific geophysical anomalies, whilst others were situated to test ‘blank’ areas. All mechanical excavation was undertaken by a tracked excavator fitted with a 1.8 m wide toothless ditching bucket. The features identified by the archaeological evaluation align closely with the features identified during previous archaeological works in the same field, undertaken by Cura-Terrae (previously Ecus) in late 2024. During these previous works, twenty-six 1.8 m by 50 m trenches were opened in the western half of the field. In these trenches, an abundance (over twenty) of natural gullies were identified, which closely align with the findings in four trenches of the current works. Each of these features contained a single silt fill and was irregular in plan, suggesting probable natural origins. These features likely formed via a combination of water run-off erosion cutting small irregular gullies into the ground, and vegetation rooting into the disturbed soil that filled them. In addition to these gullies, several tree throws were identified which also align with the findings of the previous investigation. A handful of these were excavated in four trenches for example. It is likely these are remnants of Scofton Wood, which covered the site in the past (Geological Survey of Britain LXXXII 1840). Whilst some archaeological features were identified during the evaluation, no dating evidence was recovered. The features excavated are also not particularly characteristic of the Romano-British field system found in the field immediately to the south of site, which suggests the previously identified field system did not encroach further north. The large feature in one trench appears to be the remnants of a boundary ditch, although no such features were depicted on the geophysical interpretation. Several fills were recorded within, suggesting different periods of backfilling. The darker fill appears to have been deliberately deposited as waste burned material. This was similar to findings in another trench where a large pit also appeared to have been deliberately filled with burnt material. The purpose of this pit was likely to dispose of agricultural waste. The burnt feature in a third trench could be a burnt-out tree throw, where a farmer has set fire to a large tree stump to remove it more easily from the ground. The southernmost ditch in a further may be the same feature encountered in the same trench that involved the possible burnt-out tree throw. These features follow the course of the east–west field boundary noted on the Tithe map of 1847 and still evident on the Ordnance Survey of 1968. The possible right-angled ditch segment mentioned above is not too dissimilar from a segment of a ditch found during another archaeological evaluation in the field directly south of site (Cura-Terrae 2025). No further evidence of the ditch was found in the surrounding trenches, and no ditch of a similar scale was seen within any other trenches across the site. In plan, the ditch segment appears to form the southern corner of a possible field system, which could be situated to the north-east of site. Alternatively, the feature, and the pit it truncates could both be natural in origin. The complete absence of artefacts from the archaeological features is consistent with the results of the previous archaeological works. The recovery of a single (probable) spelt wheat grain from the fill of the southermost ditch is potentially indicative of a late prehistoric / Romano-British agricultural landscape. The purity of the charcoal samples indicated that fuel was being carefully selected and burnt at high temperatures, suggestive of light industry.

Sources/Archives (1)

  • --- Unpublished document: Harry Mixer. 2025. Rayton Lane, Osberton, Worksop, Nottinghamshire: Trial Trench Evaluation Report.

Related Monuments/Buildings (2)

  • Pit at Rayton Lane, Osberton (Element)
  • Possible Boundary Ditches at Rayton Lane, Osberton (Element)

Record last edited

Jul 16 2025 11:30AM

Comments and Feedback

Do you have any questions or more information about this record? Please feel free to comment below with your name and email address. All comments are submitted to the website maintainers for moderation, and we aim to respond/publish as soon as possible. Comments, questions and answers that may be helpful to other users will be retained and displayed along with the name you supply. The email address you supply will never be displayed or shared.