A trial trench was located to investigate several cropmark features, which appeared to relate to a series of overlapping square enclosures and boundary ditches. Opening of the trench identified several ditches, the most notable being two sets of complex intercutting ditches, the latter of which appeared to be the re-defined western corner of the formerly identified square enclosure represented by the cropmark plot.

The earliest of the first group of ditches had a shallow U-shaped profile, just 0.2m deep, and was filled with a brown silt sand. The feature was truncated by a later ditchwhich had a similar profile, but was deeper. This was filled with two markedly sterile deposits of silt sand. The latest ditch in this sequence was curvi-linear in plan, with a shallow V-shaped profile, only 0.17m deep. This was filled with a grey-brown silt sand from which were recovered three sherds of pre-Roman Iron Age pottery.

The earliest of the second group of intercutting ditches had a U-shaped profile, with three fills of silty sand. A number of fragments of daub or fired clay were recovered from the middle fill. This ditch was truncated on its western edge by a shallow ditch and on its eastern edge by another ditch. The two fills of the latter ditch both contained abraded and small fragments of pottery characteristic of the pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 500 BC to AD 50). Environmental sampling of one of these fills recovered a few carbonised wheat grains. The last ditch was the latest in this particular sequence; it did not contain any artefacts.

The various features in this trench (both excavated and unexcavated) clearly relate to the previously identified cropmark features across this part of the Site. Whilst the majority of ditch sections failed to recover dateable artefacts, enough pottery sherds were found to show that the activity dated to the pre-Roman Iron Age period.

It is suggested that the evidence relates to the establishment, and then re-definition of a series of agricultural enclosures, no doubt with low-level settlement in the vicinity. The re-definition of the enclosure ditches would seem to indicate the continuous use of the features over several generations.

G. Coates & A. Richmond, 2015, Land at Flash Farm, Averham, Nottinghamshire: Archaeological Evaluation, Trial Trenching, Page 26 (Unpublished document). SNT5680.