The watching brief revealed evidence for early medieval activity in the eastern part of the site, although much of the western part of the site had been disturbed by subsequent activity, associated with the existing cottage and outbuildings.

All exposed archaeological deposits were encountered in a relatively small area, with dating evidence restricted to two 10th to 11th century pottery sherds, one from a made ground layer and one from a ditch, and a Saxon or early medieval pin beater from one layer. Although some intercutting of deposits was evident it seems likely that the remains reflect a relatively short period of activity during the Saxo-Norman period, focused on a well-preserved furnace or oven.

A recorded structure resembles a keyhole-shaped oven, and the palaeoenvironmental remains from the feature provided limited evidence for the drying of cereals and food preparation; however the fired clay edge shows a particularly high temperature was involved, which is more suggestive of an industrial function, such as iron smelting. The lack of iron slag or hammerscale from the site however indicates that the latter is not the main function of the structure, but an unknown industrial process is still the most likely. The above-ground superstructure appears to have been partly built in stone, evidenced by a stone rubble fill, and the fuel used within the structure was coal.

Adjacent to the structure, and likely to be contemporary were two ditches with the former containing material likely to have originated from the furnace. These linears appeared to terminate adjacent to the furnace, although this was not certain due to site conditions. The furnace therefore could have been partially contained within an enclosing superstructure, and if so the ditches may be bounding a rectilinear structure, although no clear evidence for this was forthcoming from the investigations.

Two pits, may also be associated, although the former cut of one of the two ditches and the latter may have been slightly truncated by the furnace.

This slag and fired clay assemblage consists of vitrified and fired earth from two features, the key-hole shaped oven (three contexts) and a ditch which was partially cut by the oven. All the material is fired
natural, there is no evidence for any oven lining or superstructure that was from made from clay or a clay based mixture, such as daub. Most structures are lined for practical purposes, it defined their shape and made them more robust and easier to clean or sweep out, in the case of an oven after a fire had been burnt within them. The fact that the geology comprises bedrock deposits of Branscombe Mudstone Formation may have meant this was of less concern at this site.

C. Clay and E. Oakley, 2014, Archaeological Watching Brief Report: The Cottage, Church Street, Orston, Nottinghamshire (Unpublished document). SNT5031.