The principal feature lying east of the enclosures was a ditch, which ran diagonally through the excavated area for c.80m, extending beyond the limit of excavation to both south-west and north-east. The ditch, which was hand-excavated at four locations along its length, varied considerably in width, from 1.7m to 3.5m, and was between 0.4m and 0.7m in depth. The feature was filled by a yellowish or greyish brown material, which contained several distinct concentrations of charcoal, and a flint blade of late Mesolithic to Neolithic date was recovered from a context. Only three fragments of pottery were recovered from the ditch, but these indicate a date in the late 3rd or 4th century for abandonment of the feature. A sample of the fill of one excavated segment produced a large quantity of oak charcoal, with smaller quantities of willow or poplar, and some heather. The ditch had cut through the edge of an earlier, smaller ditch, up to 1.4m wide and 0.25m deep, which could be traced along the south-western part of the ditch. It seems likely that the ditch represents a recutting of this feature, on a considerably larger scale.

A second, much smaller linear feature lay to the south of the ditch, on a slightly different alignment. This gully, which was also hand-excavated at four locations along its length, was 0.9-1.1m wide and up to 0.25m deep. It was filled with a brown gritty sand material, which contained no datable finds while a sample of one of the excavated segments revealed only a small quantity of oak charcoal. The gully continued beyond the southern limit of excavation, but terminated close to the north-east corner of the excavation. A group of stakeholes had been driven into the gully at the gully’s terminus, but the purpose of these (they did not appear to form part of a fence or other larger feature) remains unclear. A short (2.8m) side gully, flanked by two pits or postholes, was also noted beside this gully. The purpose of these features is again unclear, but the short side gully butted against the main gully, suggesting they were contemporary features.

The remaining archaeological features east of the enclosures comprised ten pits and postholes. With the exception of two small pits which lay beside each other, north of a ditch, the pits and postholes all lay in relative isolation to each other. They varied considerably in size and shape, and from their distribution, no convincing building plan could be discerned.

Of the eight features lying south-east of the main gully, three appeared to be postholes, each between 0.5m and 0.7m in diameter, and between 0.15m and 0.25m deep. A sample from one posthole produced only oak charcoal and a single fragment of burnt clay. The remaining features were all elongated pits. They ranged in size from 1.2x0.35m and 0.15m deep, up to 4.1x2.6m in size and 0.65m deep. The fill of one pit contained a single fragment of conifer charcoal, together three cereal grains, two of which were emmer wheat. The only stratigraphic relationship in this area was in another pit, which was cut by the undated gully. None of these features contained datable finds and it is uncertain whether they too are Roman in date.

No further Roman-period features were revealed in two trenches, excavated through subsoil to the west of the controlled excavation. A single ditch was seen in one trench, running north-south. This feature, approximately 1m wide and 0.4m deep, was aligned at right-angles to the adjacent canal, and the fill of this feature contained a single shard of bottle glass and a fragment of bone-china pottery (both discarded). It is therefore considered to be a post-medieval land division, possibly post-dating construction of the canal. Subsoil in the area west of the controlled excavation was found to be between 0.15 and 0.3m in depth.

Philip N Wood, 2014, Worksop STW, Nottinghamshire: Archaeological Excavation and Monitoring Report (Unpublished document). SNT5706.