Report on the excavation of four trial trenches, dug to inform proposed residential development on land off Sunnydale Close, Surfleet. The trenches were targeted to investigate a number of geophysical anomalies recorded by a prior magnetometry survey (see ELI12887). The trenching confirmed the presence of a former watercourse running across much of the site, and resolved a strong magnetic anomaly, previously thought to represent a recent boundary or ditch, as the route of an electric cable. An amorphous magnetic anomaly recorded in the north-eastern corner of the site was revealed to be a spread of dumped medieval saltmaking waste, with other likely associated pit features in close proximity also being identified.