Month: February 2025

Castle Studies Trust Awards a Record Amount in Grants

The Castle Studies Trust is delighted to announce the award of five grants, totalling a record amount of £42,000, to a wide range of projects with different types of research. The amount means that since our foundation we will have given over £300,000 to castle research projects – a landmark to celebrate.

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The five projects we will be funding are:

Canterbury Castle Keep copyright geograph.co.uk

Canterbury, Kent: To create an interactive digital model of the castle’s keep. The keep is one of the largest surviving from early Norman England dating to the late eleventh / early twelfth century. Now much ruined and inaccessible to visitors due to instability, the project will use the findings of previous archaeological research to create an interactive model. Work will start in March and be completed within ten months.

Clavering Castle platform copyright Simon Coxall

Clavering, Essex: To fund an excavation to help understand the development of the site which was occupied for over 600 years and which could be one of the very few pre-conquest castles in the UK. The excavation will build on the extensive survey work carried out by the local group of the site. They are planning to do the excavations in June.

Crookston Castle copyright Friends of Crookston

Crookston, Glasgow: A community-led geophysical survey, using multiple techniques, through which the Friends of Crookston Castle in conjunction with HES hope to learn more about Glasgow’s only castle. While the standing remains are believed to date from the early fifteenth century, it is believed that the castle dates back to the twelfth century. The group hopes to discover evidence of that earlier history and whether it was based on an earlier Iron Age hillfort. They plan to do the survey in early August.

Knepp Castle copyright Richard Nevell

Knepp, West Sussex: An excavation building on a geophysical survey to better understand the site’s development and its relationship to the local area of this important baronial centre thought to be built by the de Braose family. The first documentary evidence is from 1210 when it was under royal control, documenting repairs, while the geophysical survey shows activity that pre-dates the extant stone tower. Excavations are planned for late July/ early August 2025.

Image of Transcript copyright Esther van Raamsdonk

Transcription and translation of C17  Dutch Engineer’s Survey of English castles and fortifications: A joint project between Dutch academic Dr Esther van Raamsdonk and English Heritage to transcribe and translate part of an early seventeenth-century manuscript of a Dutch surveyor’s examination of castles and forts in England. The sample covers five of the 22 castles and fortifications in the document, which is called SP 9/99,   held by the National Archives in Kew.  The sample will include Dover, Walmer and Deal. The document is filled with detailed drawings and maps of these fortifications with often lengthy descriptions of their condition. Esther has already started work on it.

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Newhouse Castle: Post-Excavation Findings

Dr Ryan Prescott, project lead, looks at what the excavations at Newhouse have uncovered, now the final report is in.

In June 2024, a team from Humber Field Archaeology completed a trial excavation at the presumed site of Newhouse Castle in Brocklesby, North Lincolnshire, generously funded by the Castle Studies Trust. The fieldwork, which followed a geophysical survey conducted in 2023, aimed to uncover evidence of the castle which was soon replaced by a monastery during the period known as ‘The Anarchy’. The results of the excavation, now available in the post-excavation report, have provided fascinating insights into the site’s more complex history.

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What We Found

Two trenches were carefully excavated, revealing a narrative that spans many more centuries than what had previously been understood about the site:

  • Prehistoric Activity: Flint tools and pottery fragments hinted at Neolithic and Bronze Age activity, suggesting the site has held importance for millennia.
  • Anglo-Saxon Origins: A potted cremation burial, complete with grave goods like a knife and a decorated glass bead, was unearthed in Trench 1. This burial, dating back to the mid-6th century, suggests the site was already significant long before the construction of the castle and abbey at Newhouse. Nearby, leather and woven textile fragments were recovered, providing a rare glimpse into the craftsmanship of the era.
  • Medieval Ditches: Sections of a moat-like ditch encircling the earthwork were excavated. Their sharp cuts and rapid infilling  suggest limited use. Although devoid of finds evidence (very frustrating!), a post hole was recovered near to the ditch within the interior of the earthwork, possibly tied to the short-lived history of Newhouse Castle.

Post-Medieval Activity: Traces of later use included 17th-century brick deposits, potentially linked to landscaping efforts attributed to Capability Brown when it would appear that material was moved across the site in this new phase of occupancy.

Pottery fragments and flint tools show how the site was occupied long before the mid-twelfth century.
Early Modern brick assemblages underline the continued use of the site following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Summary

The findings from Newhouse underline the site’s long-term occupation and its ongoing significance in the landscape of North Lincolnshire. Although no definitive structural remains of the castle were identified (this was always going to be tricky!), the excavation enhances our understanding of how the site evolved—from its prehistoric roots, to its medieval prominence, and beyond.

The full post-excavation report is now available, offering a detailed account of the discoveries and their importance. Perhaps inevitably, we have sparked potentially more questions than answers. However, we have nonetheless helped to advance the debate and our understanding of this intriguing site. We extend our gratitude to the Castle Studies Trust for their support.

The final report is on the project page of our website.

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