The earliest feature in this excavation area was the broad, west-north-west to east-south-east aligned ditch which ran along the whole of the south side of the main area and continued into the extension area: this feature appears to correspond to the large ditch exposed during the evaluation. The ditch was exceptionally broad and deep in comparison to other features recorded in the Phase 3 works area, with one section measuring 3.46m in width and 1.14m deep: its irregular profile and the configuration of the fills within it suggest that it had been recut at least three times. The second fill above its base was chiefly a mid-grey silt with abundant pebbles but contained a lens of charcoal-rich material, probably a single dump of refuse in the partially silted ditch, from which fourteen sherds of pottery were retrieved: much of the assemblage was only broadly datable as prehistoric, but some sherds resembled middle to late Iron Age Scored Ware. Two small, very shallow circular pits were located close together, directly at the northern edge of the ditch, and seem likely to have been associated with it rather than with any of the pit alignments. Further to the west in the extension area, the ditch was reduced in size, although one cut was still a substantial feature at 1.90m wide and 0.60m deep; this section also displayed a sequence of recuts, but produced no finds.

The ditch recut sequence appears to have spread out into a loose braid across part of the excavation area, corroborating observations made during the evaluation. An additional section near the centre of the exposed area shows two separate cuts, each with the stepped, irregular profiles that suggest more than one episode of maintenance, with a third cut dividing both. The latest cut was unusually broad and shallow, exposed to a width of 2.5m without reaching the north side, but only 0.20m deep, while a layer of pebbles at the base of a sandy silt fill gave this feature an appearance closer to that of a metalled trackway than a ditch; three flint tools – a knife, a backed knife and a possible end scraper – retrieved from this deposit were of Mesolithic to earlier Neolithic and earlier Neolithic date. It is uncertain whether a narrow, V-shaped ditch cut, directly at the south-western edge of and parallel to one ditch section, was part of the ditch sequence group, as this ditch fragment was separated by the cut of a later pit from a ditch section, which recut the original ditch on the far side of one pit. Flooding in the south-east corner of the area prevented the excavation of any further ditch sections that might have further clarified the sequence.

The ditch sequence was flanked by two rows of pits: no chronological sequence can be established with the row to the north, which ran parallel to the ditch at a distance of four to five metres, but the southern row certainly post-dated the ditch, as it ran so close to the southern ditch edge that some pits cut it. 17 pits were exposed in the main excavation area as part of the north row, with a further four or five in the extension area. The pits were chiefly circular in plan form, and ranged from 1.00m to 0.50m in iameter and 0.38m to 0.21m in depth; most had single silty sand fills, although two fills were present in two pits. There was no consistency in profile form: a few were so irregular as to suggest that they had been cleaned out or recut. The only possible dating evidence retrieved from any of the pits within the north pit alignment was an earlier Neolithic flint knife from the upper fill of one pit, although another pit, which lay directly outside the alignment to the north and may have been associated either with it or with a segmented ditch, produced a substantial finds assemblage, consisting of both worked flint and 55 sherds of pottery. The five flint flakes suggested a Neolithic date, as one was identified as Mesolithic to earlier Neolithic and three others were definitely or probably earlier Neolithic, but the pottery assemblage included sherds from vessels of probable Iron Age types.

Eleven pits were excavated and recorded as components of the southern row, although at least four others were excavated but not completely recorded when flooding caused the abandonment of the south-east corner of the site. These pits were more varied in plan form than those in the northern row, some being circular or sub-circular and some oval: the largest was an oval pit measuring 1.68m x 0.96m x 0.30m, while the circular pits ranged from 1.06m to 0.52m in diameter, with the shallowest being 0.16m deep. An earlier Neolithic flint scraper, probably redeposited, was retrieved from the fill of one pit; another pit produced two sherds from a late Iron Age decorated vessel, and a single sherd of pottery identifiable only as prehistoric was retrieved from an adjacent pit. The southern pit alignment may originally have been a double row, as five or six pits at the southern site edge, most only partially exposed, with others that were plotted on the pre-excavation plan but never investigated due to flooding, could be interpreted as forming part of a second row.

The segmented ditch is the only feature of this type yet to be encountered during the Fairham Pastures project. It ran perpendicular to ditch group and the two pit alignments, with the southernmost element, an elongated pit or ditch fragment, passing between two pits of the northern row of pits: it appeared to terminate at this point, suggesting that it may have been contemporary with either that pit alignment or one of the other linear boundaries here. The exposed portion consisted of six elongated pits, with a longer fragment of ditch that continued beyond the northern site boundary and may have been encountered in the evaluation. Drift geology was very shallow or absent in this area, so the profile forms of the pits were governed by the natural breaking planes of the bedrock into which they were cut, with almost vertical but irregular sides and flat bases. The largest element, a ditch fragment, was exposed to a length of approximately 7m, and measured 1.40m wide and 0.25m deep, while the smallest complete pit measured 1.65m x 0.70m x 0.20m. A total of six sherds of pottery, some very abraded, that could for the most part only be identified as prehistoric was retrieved from three of the four most southerly pits (the other, a pit, was disturbed by a modern feature); some of the four sherds from one pit might have been middle to late Iron Age. A scatter of smaller circular pits along both sides of the segmented ditch may have been associated with it, but none produced dating evidence, nor could any associations be made for five larger undated pits within the remainder of the excavation area.

The range of long-distance linear features exposed– a multiply recut sequence of large ditches, single and double rows of pits and the segmented ditch which ran perpendicular to the other linear features – produced early Neolithic struck flint, but the identifiable elements of the pottery assemblage suggested a middle to late Iron Age date. This corroborates the findings of the archaeological works on the tramway site, which exposed a double pit alignment, and retrieved Iron Age pottery from the pits. The ditch sequence may represent a Bronze Age to Iron Age multiple ditch, similar to that identified in the Phase 1 works (Savage et al., 2021); however, the Phase 1 ditch overlay a pit alignment thought to be of Neolithic date, while the pit alignments on the Phase 3 site post-dated the ditch. The 2006 East Midlands Archaeological Research Framework notes that multiple-ditch boundaries are numerous in the East Midlands: they are normally traceable for a few hundred metres, although lengths of up to 3km have been recorded. Some were long-lived; some show re-cutting; some are certainly multi-period, and extra ditches may have been added during their lifespans. They are thought to arise in the late Bronze or early Iron Age, and some may have remained in use into the late Iron Age; they are not considered to be defensive, but seem likely to have controlled the movement of people and animals, possibly serving both as boundaries and trackways (Wills, 2006).

R. D. Savage, L. Brocklehurst & S. Palmer-Brown, 2021, Phases 3 and 3B, Fairham Pastures, West of Nottingham Road, Clifton, Rushcliffe, Nottinghamshire: Scheme of Archaeological Mitigation (Evaluation and Targeted Excavation) Combined Report (Unpublished document). SNT6051.