The ditch ran north-east to south-west across the west-north-west end of the evaluation trench. It was 2.20m wide and 1.00m deep, with a shallow concave base and steep, stepped sides, and contained six interleaving fills. The stepped profile of the east-north-east side of the ditch and the positions of some of the fills suggested that the ditch had been recut at least once. The fills were chiefly yellowish-brown and greyish-brown silts, with few inclusions and no finds, suggesting that they had been laid down
naturally by slow-moving water. The second fill contained lenses of reed peat, and an environmental sample was taken: this produced waterlogged remains of common species of weed, scrub and marginal plants with moss and insect remains, suggesting that the ditch was wet-based, possibly with standing or slowly flowing water at intervals, bordering grassland and close to transitional scrubland, possibly with disturbed, broken or derelict land nearby, as a number of ruderal plants were present.
No remains of cereals or other plants cultivated as crops were found. The only finds retrieved were a fragment of ceramic building material (CBM) and a single bone from a horse, both found in most recent fill. The CBM fragment was heavily abraded: it may have been a piece of a Roman tegula roof tile, but it was so worn that it could not be confidently identified as either Roman or post-medieval, although it is unlikely to be modern. Traces of mortar on its surface appeared to extend over a broken and abraded edge, suggesting that the fragment had been re-used as rubble after breakage, although its condition was so poor that breakage edges could not be identified with complete certainty. The bone is thought most likely to have come from a carriage horse, and its condition suggests a late post-medieval date.

The ditch is likely to be a water management feature, probably joining the Potwell Dyke at an oblique angle to the south-west of the present site: its dating may be ambiguous, as the Platts Orchard ‘channel’ appeared to have had a very long lifespan, beginning as a natural feature, being adapted into a managed watercourse during the Roman period, reopened during the Middle Ages after a period of disuse, and possibly remaining at least partly functional until the 17th century. The interpretation of the single bone found in the final fill of the ditch as post-medieval may suggest that this ditch was also filled in relatively recently, although the site recording noted that it was possible that both finds were intrusive from the overlying layer; its identification as being from a carriage horse – a relatively small and slight horse, probably of graceful appearance, but used for traction – reflects the high social status of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood in the later post-medieval period. The fragment of CBM, suggestive of although not confidently identifiable as a piece of re-used Roman tile, can only be taken as a broad indication of Roman activity in the vicinity of the site, possibly over a sufficiently long period for a building to be constructed, used and demolished and its rubble to be re-used. The environmental sample from a ditch fill is indicative of a marginal aquatic and transitional grassland and scrub environment, with no indication that it bordered cultivated land. Apart from the evidence of the ditch for water management and land drainage in the area, however, there is no indication that the site was
occupied at any period.

Overlaying the GIS trench mapping onto the late 19th-century 1st edition Ordnance Survey map shows no field boundaries corresponding with the ditch.

R.D.Savage, 2021, Harvey's Field, Potwell Dyke Flood Alleviation Scheme, Southwell, Newark and Sherwood, Nottinghamshire: Archaeological Evaluation Report, Page 10-11 (Unpublished document). SNT5515.