A trial trench was located to investigate enclosure ditches and boundary features, evident both in the geophysical survey and the cropmark plot. The trench was separated into two parts to accommodate a fence line and buried water pipe. Opening of the trench identified eight ditches of which five were investigated.

One ditch appeared to relate to the corner of a former enclosure on a NE-SW alignment. The ditch, however, was very shallow, and clearly plough truncated. Its fills contained no finds. Close-by was a second ditch, which was far more substantial. Excavation of it identified two silty sand fills, neither which contained finds.

Further east were a series of ditches, some of which were intercutting. One ditch was aligned NE-SW with concave sides and a flat base, filled with a single deposit of grey/brown silt sand. It was truncated by another ditch, which had a similar profile. Neither feature contained any finds.

Two intercutting ditches were at the eastern end of the trench. One ditch appeared to be a re-cut of the other and had a U-shaped profile up to 0.5m deep. Excavation showed it to contain two deposits of silt sand, of which the lower fill contained three sherds of pottery from a handmade jar dated to the late pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 100 BC to AD 50). The feature appears to correspond well with a cropmark enclosure.

The various ditches identified in this trench relate to a series of cropmark enclosures plotted across this part of the site. The few finds recovered from the excavations suggest that the enclosures were in use during the late pre-Roman Iron Age. 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.

G. Coates & A. Richmond, 2015, Land at Flash Farm, Averham, Nottinghamshire: Archaeological Evaluation, Trial Trenching, Page 28-29 (Unpublished document). SNT5680.