East of the River Trent and south of the modern A617 road, the foundations of a former gateway were uncovered. The identification of the structure as a gateway is on the basis of the shape in plan and because of two pivot stones with chiselled holes which appear to be designed to hold a gate. The gateway forms an entrance way fronting on to the road, presumably associated with some unidentified nearby property.

Foundations were seen for the walls lining the 4 m-wide passageway and extending perpendicularly from the southern end of the passageway. No further evidence for walls was discovered, suggesting that the structure represents a simple gateway structure without any enclosed rooms. However, the presence of possible earth floors and a possible hearth base or chimney base suggests that the structure may have been enclosed to form a gatehouse. If this is the case, the northern and extreme west and east walls of the gatehouse were not supplied with deep stone foundations and may have been constructed from some material less durable than stone.

Dating of the gateway has been problematic. No artefacts associated with the gateway were recovered, and neither the structure nor any associated landscape features have been identified from historic maps. No high-status property is known to the south of the gateway. A search of documentary sources has failed to add any clarity to the picture.

It has been suggested that the gateway may be associated with a dwelling contemporary with the Civil War, in particular around the time of the third siege of Newark between 26th November 1645 and 8th May 1646. The Scheme is located on an island formed by two branches of the River Trent which was seized by the Parliamentarian Scottish Army soon after their arrival in the area. They quickly established a large encampment which is labelled on Campe’s map of the siegeworks as ‘Edinburgh’ located to the north of where the gatehouse was uncovered. Parts of the island had already been fortified by the defending Royalists with earthen ramparts and sconce forts. More defences are shown on Campe’s map to the south-east of the walls as Stoke Lodge Redoubt but are also noted on the ‘Platform of all the Redoubts…’ as ‘works of the scots’. A road, or trackway, is visible running to the ‘works of the scots’. However, even allowing for the inaccuracy of the maps in comparison to today’s surveying techniques and the methods used to geolocate historic maps, the distance between the mapped features and the gateway is too great for correlation.

Ashley Tuck, Andrew Reid, Martina Tenzer and Martyn Cooper, 2017, River Trent Crossing Nottinghamshire. Archaeological Watching Brief Report (Unpublished document). SNT5671.