A large ditch, aligned WSW-ENE, was revealed in the northern extremity of the plot. Recorded over a distance of around 4.1m, it extended from the eastern limit of excavation to a terminal located within the trench. Two segments were excavated, one investigating the terminal, the other located against the eastern edge of the trench. They revealed generally steep sides breaking to a broad, slightly concave base. Within the latter segment, the ditch was around 1.6m wide by 0.8m deep (increasing to 0.83m at its terminal to the west). The primary fill of the ditch, recorded as mid yellowish brown silty sandy clay, in the latter segment, and mid greyish brown sandy silty clay becoming siltier at the lower levels in the former segment, was sharply distinct from the overlying deposits, with a more ‘leached’, less ‘humic’ character. A small assemblage of pottery recovered from the two fills comprised native (potentially late Iron Age) shell and grog tempered wares. This material was closely associated with the jaw of a horse, which appears to have been deliberately placed in the ditch terminal, in the slightly siltier deposits at the base. It seems highly likely that the remainder of the skull lies in the unexcavated part of the terminal. A small assemblage of bone from included cattle, horse (1 fragment) and sheep/goat was recovered. (1)

In the full section across the ditch, the primary fill was overlain by mid to dark brownish grey sandy silt which included a lens of light coloured clay similar to a fill in the terminal. The fill contained frequent charcoal flecks and fragments suggestive of nearby domestic activity, together with a small quantity of pottery identified as Roman, late 1st to mid 2nd century AD. The deposit can be correlated with a mid greyish and reddish brown sandy silt, which occurred at around the same level in the terminal between two shallow charcoal-rich horizons. The small quantity of pottery fromthree fills is not closely dateable, and has therefore been identified only as ‘Roman’. The assemblage of animal bone from the three contexts included remains of cattle and sheep/goat. Charred wheat and oat grains, with a little chaff, charred tubers, small legume and fumitory seeds and other weed seeds were retrieved from a sample taken from one context. Soft/sticky mid and reddish brown clay in the terminal and soft mid yellowish brown clayey silt in the other segmet may be correlated as the succeeding phase of deposition, sealed in the terminal by a shallow depth of mid reddish and yellowish brown clay mixed with mudstone frags to 20mm across a fill. The upper levels of the ditch were filled with by yellowish brown sandy silty clay in the terminal and yellowish brown sandy clayey silt in the other segment. Based upon a relatively large assemblage of pottery from this final infilling of the ditch.can be dated to the period AD120 – AD180, and most likely to the period before AD150. (1)

Previously thought to be a series of pits during a trial trench evaluation, the evaluation recovered 11 horse, 1 sheep and 2 sheep/goat remains. 3 sherds of pottery was also recovered while cleaning up one of the suspected pits. (2)

<1> R. Trimble, 2017, Land off Top Pasture Lane, North Wheatley, Nottinghamshire: Strip, Map and Sample Investigation, Page 3-4 (Unpublished document). SNT5611.

<2> R. Trimble, 2017, Land off Top Pasture Lane, North Wheatley, Nottinghamshire: Trial Trench Evaluation (Unpublished document). SNT5612.