South of the main outer walls of the mill was an area traditionally referred to as the ‘mill pond’ which was still surviving to some extent until the 1950’s when it was backfilled as part of the landscaping undertaken in this area at this time. A large pond was noted on maps as being in this area from at least 1847. The 1847 Tithe map also shows this mill being fed by a high banked leat coming in from the north west. The leat is still visible as an earthwork. Generally, water would flow through a mill and out through a tail race taking the water back out to the river. This millpond is on the wrong end of the mill for this which may suggest the pond is a relic of a secondary (or earlier) mill that it once fed. A system may have been in place whereby the water that passed through the first mill ran into a second mill pond that fed the second mill, then running off down the leat to the river. Toton is recorded as having two mills during the medieval period and this set out may relate to this period.

The top fill of the pond contained a lot of mid 20th century landfill material evidencing its infilling in the 1950’s. It was also evident that in areas closest to the mill wall the pond had undergone an earlier infill event as indicated by a large spread of 19th century material appearing to fill the pond right up to the 18th century outer wall. It was decided to hand excavate a trench leading from the mill wall out into the former pond area to obtain a stratigraphic sequence which to inform us on the size of the pond as well as giving a date for the construction of the outer wall and a date for the digging of the pond.

Within the pond were a number of successive distinctive layers of material, largely deposited during the 19th century. At a depth of 0.6m a firm clean light brown clay was observed abutting the mill wall, this gently sloped south from the wall to the pond area and was noted continuing 1.5m from the mill wall where it met the edge of the pond. At this boundary large rocks were observed concentrated in a 0.5m area running parallel with the wall and edge of the pond, becoming more apparent as the area was excavated. An iron pipe orientated in a north east – south west direction was also noted at this depth. This is thought to be a continuation of a pipe which was recorded within brick trough.

At approximately 1m in depth the fill became more alluvial with a large quantity of branches present as well as slip wares dating to the mid 18th century.

Further excavation revealed two large upright oak stake piles, also noted was a horizontal timber with a mortise. Excavation of these timbers revealed them to be very substantial with one measuring 2m in length. Samples of the timbers were sent for dendrochronological dating. The dating revealed that the timbers had been cut between 1210 and 1231 AD. The alignment of this structure suggests a possible medieval timber revetment for the pond related to a series of stones. Excavation continued to the south of these stakes until the base of the pond was found at approximately 1.2m below ground level. Samples of the primary fill which represents the silting up of the pond, were sent for Environmental Remains Analysis. The date of these deposits is unclear. CBM and glass were recovered from the primary fill but this may represent later material being introduced to this soft deposit when it has been disturbed. The samples of the primary fill were found to contain a range of plant remains from plants typically found in scrub woodland and wetland. Remains of trees and bushes from mixed scrub woodland were also recorded in significant numbers as were a number of well preserved small branches which appeared to have been worked, some cut at one end and others at both ends. Arnold and Howard suggest that this may represent debitage from wattling, associated with the two large Medieval stakes, used to support the pond edges. Nine fig seeds (Ficus carica) were also recovered from this sample, these may have been introduced through human faeces while a hemp (Cannabis sativa) seed may have been introduced during retting (rotting) of stems for fibre. These seeds and environmental remains may all have been washed into the pond from further up stream. The alignment of this structure suggests a possible timber revetment for the 18th century mill related to stones however they may also relate to an earlier medieval mill

A prominent feature in this area was the presence of a brick box drain on a north to south alignment, this was constructed using late 19th bricks and may have served as a replacement after the former channel had become blocked.

Alison Arnold & Robert Howard, 2015, Toton Unearthed - Toton Mill, Toton Manor Farm Recreation Ground, Nottinghamshire: Tree-ring Analysis of Excavated Timbers (Unpublished document). SNT5919.

R. Parker and J. Winfer, 2015, Toton Unearthed, Toton, Nottinghamshire: Report on an archaeological evaluation on the site of Toton Mill, Manor Farm Recreation Ground, August to September 2014, Page 16-17 (Unpublished document). SNT5918.