Category: 2025 Grants

Clavering Castle Excavation: Day Five Update

Excavation director Simon Coxall gives an update of what happened on Friday 6 June.

In Trench 1 the trackway limits were established and exploration of its junction with the structural foundations to the west has been a little problematic at first. The foundations appear to consist of a dense concretion of sand gravels and small sub-angular flint cobbles rather than the larger flint cobbles that were anticipated. Such larger cobbles as survive are redeposited remnants of the former walls perhaps not though worthy to recover from the demolition.

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There is nearby corroboration of this foundation method from records of when Saffron Walden castle was explored.

‘…Archaeological excavation and monitoring was carried out prior to and during repair work to the retaining wall between the north side of Saffron Walden Castle and the rear of 30 Castle Street. A 1m-wide trench, stepped for safety, was excavated through the deposits to the south of the wall. Natural chalk was exposed in the base of the trench at a depth of c. 2m below the ground surface. This was sealed by buried medieval topsoil upon which were a series of compacted sand, flint and chalk deposits interpreted as the foundations of the mid-14th century inner bailey curtain wall. The foundations were found to extend along the length of the retaining wall during monitoring. ‘

The depth of these foundations has still to be established. Both the foundation and trackway are to be sampled for evidence of construction methods and perhaps phased construction.

Discovery of the ditch on Wednesday at first thought to be a beam slot, courtesy of Jacky Cooper

In Trench 2 the beam slot found on Wednesday has morphed into a ditch with dark humic fill. At its uppermost levels this contained two sherds of medieval pottery Sandy ware probably for the same vessel estimated as being 14th century. This is being cleaned/defined prior to full excavation of its fill. The ditch encountered at the southern extent of Trench 2 has been excavated and found to contain in the main demolition materials in its upper levels with a medieval jug handle (?) present in the lower fills as presented in the trench’s eastern balk.

The trench has shown the propensity for features hitherto not recorded by geophysics and will be explored further.

A sketch with approximate trench locations is the featured image and courtesy of Simon. The trenches are being georeferenced in with Oxford Archaeology East assistance on Monday. There’s a decision to be made today (Saturday) regarding extension of either trench to achieve the current excavation limit of 2 x c.2m trenches.

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Clavering Excavation Dig Diary Middle of Week One

On Monday 2 June volunteer excavators led by Simon Coxall, along with his Warboys Archaeology Group (WAG) and Oxford Archaeology East got underway with the opening of two trenches at Clavering Castle focussed on the eastern side of the castle.

On the first couple of days the excavators predominantly demolition rubble such as roof tiles, but other finds too some worked flint and some medieval nails, a musket ball and most interestingly a fourteenth or fifteenth century French jetton. According to one of the WAG team, Andrew Noakes, the jetton is quite a rare item because it features a Moor’s head. The inscription in French translates as ‘For the queen and her almonry’.

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French jetton with Moors head copyright Jacky Cooper

The Clav25 dig at Clavering Castle was sadly hit by rain on the third and fourth days but nevertheless there was good progress in both trenches. In Trench 1 a sandy grit surface was reached which proceeds 2m north to south across the centre of the trench. This is interpreted as the central trackway of the Castle’s entrance court. Some sherds of late medieval/ early modern pottery were recovered from the demolition layers immediately overlaying the trackway.  The trackway appears to extend across the area between the evidence for flint structures to the east and west. Meanwhile, at the southern limits of Trench 2, a ditch has been exposed which appears full of demolition material. Material coming out of the trenches includes a lot of roof tile and oyster shell, but very little pottery so far. 

Hard at work in trench two on Wednesday, copyright Jacky Cooper

With the trenches starting to show promise more we will have an update at the end of the week, weather permitting. If it isn’t being kind then early next week.

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Setting the Scene for the Clavering Castle Excavation 2025

Excavation Director, and lead archaeologist for the past two decades in the investigation of Clavering Castle sets the scene for what they hope to find over the the next three weeks.

Norman knights fleeing the forces of Earl Godwin of Wessex coupled with miraculous encounters between King Edward the Confessor and St John the Evangelist form just part of the shady historical drama hidden behind the leafy tranquillity of Clavering Castle in north-west Essex.

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The scheduled site of Clavering castle is recognised as a rare example of a castle established in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest. The castle has been subject of a twenty year programme of detailed historical and archaeological research by the Clavering Landscape History Group. This summer, archaeologists led by Simon Coxall of Warboys Archaeology Group, under a consent granted by Historic England and supported by the Castle Studies Trust, have a unique opportunity to explore by excavation this mysterious and previously unexcavated site.

Clavering LiDAR base

The castle platform which is entirely man-made is surrounded on all sides by imposing moated defences c4m deep and sits in the valley of the river Stort which evidence suggests witnessed significant diversion and management  of its river system to accommodate the estate.

Resistivity Survey of Clavering Castle Platform, copyright Warboys Archaeology

Geophysical survey suggests structures occupying twin courtyards once existed spanning across the sub-rectangular platform which measures c100m x 60m. The Castle platform abuts the parish churchyard to its south. Here further geophysical survey suggests the location of the now ‘lost’ chapel of St John the Evangelist which bore witness to Edward the Confessor’s aforementioned ‘Miracle of the Ring’. The twin courtyards appear connected to one another by an entrance court which issued out onto a bridged crossing of the moat connecting the castle with the family chapel where the alleged miracle occurred. It is suspected the geophysical evidence primarily relates to the powerful Neville family’s reconstruction of the castle site in the later 14th century, although some more ephemeral readings hint at the presence of earlier structures.

The Nevilles were arguably the most powerful baronial family in England during the 15th century and were through their marriage alliances with the Plantagenet royal family at the forefront of the dynastic conflicts now known as the Wars of the Roses. Clavering was selected by the Nevilles as their southern caput, these notorious northern lords presiding over their lordship and hundred of Clavering lying just a day’s ride from London. Clavering castle was successively held by the Neville Earls of Westmorland, Richard Earl of Salisbury, Richard Earl of Warwick and, through his Neville wife, George Duke of Clarence, the executed brother of the Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III. With the fall of the house of Neville the castle was seized by the Crown and stayed a crown possession until it was granted back to effectively the last Neville lord of Clavering – Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1473-1541) Though she refurbished elements of the castle and chapel in the 1520’s, as a devout Catholic and one of the last surviving scions of the Plantagenet royal family she too was executed on the orders of Henry VIII in 1541.

Beneath the levels denoting the Neville tenure of the lordship, archaeologists are hopeful of encountering earlier evidence of the de Clavering and FitzWymarc occupation of the castle. The de Claverings were, like the Nevilles, powerful lords of the north who feature extensively as Magna Carta sureties and later campaigning knights under Edward I and Edward II. With Robert FitzWymarc (c1030-1075) we return to the pre-conquest evidence that promises to push the history of the site back a thousand years to the dying days of Anglo-Saxon England.

Clavering Castle Platform looking east, copyright Simon Coxall

This summer’s excavations will initially focus upon the key area around the entrance court connecting the castle platform with the adjacent churchyard. Such will seek to explore the entrance court and bridged crossing, the various phases involved in their construction, the materials used and its status, whilst testing the geophysical responses.

Digging deeper still, in the same key area archaeologists are hopeful of exploring the earliest evidence for the construction of the castle platform as revealed by the layers underlying the later medieval structures on site. In doing so fresh light will be shone upon the earliest days of castle construction in medieval England.

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Kicking Off ‘Visualising Canterbury Castle’

Canterbury Christ Church University was thrilled to receive funding from the Castle Studies Trust for a nine-month project that will produce a new digital reconstruction of Canterbury Castle’s Norman keep in the first century of its construction. The project’s ambition is to then use this new digital asset to create a pop-up exhibition and develop a curriculum resource for schools. 

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Screenshot of initial ‘whitebox’ of Canterbury Castle’s Norman keep and surrounding structures (courtesy of Mike Farrant)

Canterbury Castle is one of 104 national examples of a tower keep castles (Scheduled Monument Number 1005194 (link)), and one of 20 Norman Castles built in Kent. It is part of a series of royal castles on the route from Dover to London and identified as being one of the earlier examples of the period, usually dated to between 1085-1125, with archaeological evidence suggesting a date c.1100-1125. It has been comparatively overlooked in the research of royal castles of the area, and the role that the castle has played in shaping the city has been overshadowed by other historic monuments, namely Canterbury Cathedral.

Screenshot of whitebox interior of Norman keep (courtesy of Mike Farrant)

The digital model is being made in Unreal Engine 5, a games engine that enables the development of detailed and immersive digital environments, and draws on existing excavation data. Using a games engine to create the reconstruction facilitates an enhanced user experience; people will be able to walk around the keep’s grounds, and up through the floors of the castle giving them an enhanced sense of place and scale. Additionally, environmental conditions can be included to simulate seasons, weather patterns and even the night time constellations that would have been visible on a given date in the 12th century.

Visualising Canterbury Castle aims to interrogate the potential of multidisciplinary expertise in developing digital heritage projects. To support this, the project’s methodology includes an iterative design process where subject-specialists* will take part in a series of four co-design sessions.

The first co-design session was held on May 22nd, and participants were able to explore a ‘whitebox’ version of the Norman keep and surroundings. ‘Whitebox’ refers to an early stage of a digital reconstruction where a structure’s overall form is created without surface textures, furnishings, or other fixtures. Participants explored the model using large touchscreens and were able to evaluate how the excavation information had been interpreted to date, provide feedback on the current user experience, and make suggestions for how the experience could be developed. The session demonstrated to both the project team and participants the benefits of simultaneously considering the historical data and the audience experience. As Dr Jeremy Ashbee, Head Properties Curator, English Heritage, explained:

I am very interested in how digital media combined with scholarship can be used to improve public access and comprehension of these sites, which even to people like me who have become obsessive about them for decades, still are beguilingly mysterious.

Screenshot demonstrating the development of the underlying user experience functionality including the camera rail system for climbing the staircases and the green travel nodes for touchscreen navigation. (Courtesy of Mike Farrant)

The next milestone for the project will be a public engagement event at this year’s Medieval Pageant and Trail (link) on July 5th where visitors of all ages will be able to explore the reconstruction on screens and provide feedback. Following that, the second co-design session will take place on July 16th.

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  • The project team comprises Dr Katie McGown (Principal Investigator), Mike Farrant (Lead 3D artist), and co-investigators Dr Catriona Cooper, Prof Leonie Hicks, Sam Holdstock, and Prof Alan Meades whose combined expertise range from Norman History, Education, Digital Heritage, Exhibitions, to Games Design. To date, the project has recruited participants from organisations including English Heritage, Canterbury Museums, Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury Council and Canterbury Business Improvement District.

A Dutch survey of English Castles and Fortification in the seventeenth century

The Castle Studies Trust has awarded a research grant to Dr Esther van Raamsdonk (University of Utrecht, Netherlands) and Paul Pattison (English Heritage) to work on an early 17th-century manuscript from the National Archives, concerning fortifications and castles on the south coast of England.

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The manuscript was discovered over 40 years ago by Charles Trollope, following which, the late John Kenyon published a preliminary assessment (Fort vol 11, 1983, pp 35-56), showing that it related to a survey of several coastal fortifications along the south coast of England, mainly those that originated in Henry VIII’s castle building programme in the 1540s. However, the manuscript is in Dutch, so as Kenyon rightly says: ‘translation of the Dutch is required to assess the document’s full significance and to possibly produce a more exact date than I am able to postulate at this moment’ (p. 37). His article examines some of the plans in the document, but there is no engagement with the Dutch text, which is more than 50% of the document. No transcriptions or translations have therefore been made before.

Sketch of Walmer Castle by the Dutch Engineer, courtesy of the the National Archive

The manuscript seems to be a surveyor’s on-site notebook, comprising fairly accurate and proportioned sketch plans. These beautiful drawings show a highly-skilled engineer at work, and one with a talent for exact survey drawings. These are supported by keyed notes and more detailed explanatory text. It covers most of the main fortifications and castles along the south coast, from Sandown Castle near Deal in Kent to Pendennis Castle at Falmouth in Cornwall.

Walmer Castle today copyright English Heritage

Paul came across the manuscript several years ago and recently, prior to writing a new guidebook for Yarmouth Castle, Isle of Wight, looked for a palaeographer to transcribe and translate the pages for Yarmouth – enter Esther. Paul is a historic fortifications specialist, and his job is to help to make sense of the translation, as the conversion to English is not always obvious: there are many military and technical terms and sometimes the meaning is not immediately apparent. However, the sketched plans are annotated and keyed, which should help in understanding specific parts of each fortification. Esther is an expert palaeographer, having taught early modern English palaeography courses for some years, and scholar of 17th-century Anglo-Dutch relations. The grant is towards her costs of transcribing and translating the text and notes. It is not an easy task. The hand is a difficult one and several pages are faded. The Dutch engineer spent some time in England and the result is a hybrid language, a phonetic (for Dutch readers) spelling of English words. The document also functioned as a shorthand for the author, using non-standard abbreviations, idioms, and little drawings. The exercise is therefore not of a straight-forward transcription but requires quite a bit of puzzling.

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As mentioned, we used the Yarmouth example to see what information we could gather from the manuscript. From this test case we know that the surveyor was commenting on condition and making recommendations for repairs and changes. Because of the detailed map and key, we could pinpoint the function of some rooms that were hitherto unknown. We look forward to see what further secrets the document will reveal about the other buildings.

The funding will enable us to examine a sample of the manuscript covering several sites in the Cinque Ports area of jurisdiction – Sandown, Deal, Walmer, Dover, Sandgate and possibly Camber. All of these are well known to Paul, and it is hoped that significant details about the condition of each castle or fortification will be forthcoming, for comparison with other contemporary accounts in English, to see and understand where this survey fits and whether or not it resulted in any repairs or additions on each site. John Kenyon thought it might date to the 1620s: we would like to try and confirm that, or otherwise, by comparison with earlier and later surveys, and to establish the political context for its commissioning. This will lead to at least one provenance article. The transcriptions (some of which will be published) will also provide a very valuable snapshot of the south coast fortifications 80 years or so after their creation, and form a test for the usefulness of going further and transcribing the whole manuscript. There is an exciting journey ahead.

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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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A large and varied crop of fascinating applications asking for over £84,000 for the Castle Studies Trust to consider

The deadline for grant applications passed on 29 November. We’re going through the various projects now. Altogether the 13 projects, coming from all over Britain, are asking for over £84,000. They cover not only a wide period of history but also a broad range of topics.

We will not be able to fund as many of these projects as we would like. To help us fund as many of these projects as possible please donate here:

https://donate.kindlink.com/castle-studies-trust/2245.

In a little more detail here are the applications we’ve received:

Cainhoe, Bedfordshire: Through various forms of media such as reconstruction drawings, models and generative AI video and prints, the Greensand Trust aims to provide visitors and educational groups with a better understanding of what this motte and bailey castle looked like, the lived experience there and why it is significant.

Canterbury, Kent: To recreate 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 not accessible to visitors due to instability the digital reconstruction will use the findings of previous archaeological research to create an interactive model.

Castle Sinclair Girnigoe, Caithness: The castle was the principal seat of the Sinclair Earls of Caithness and was built between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The application is to help publish the results of the archaeological research carried out during the emergency stabilisation of the site between 2002-2011. The grant will be to fund both ceramic and clay pipe analysis as well as some illustrations.

Chester, Cheshire: To create reconstructions of the inner and outer wards of Chester Castle as it may have looked in its heyday to add to the one currently being prepared on the Agricola Tower. Chester was one of the major castles of the Welsh Marches and was the base for Edward I’s campaigns in Wales.

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 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.

Cockermouth, Cumbria: Dating from the mid twelfth century this large northern baronial fortress has seen many periods of development but its evolutionary history has never been subject to systematic or formal assessment. The project will focus upon developing a detailed understanding of the physical fabric of the castle’s superstructure.

Cooling, Kent: Co-funding the creation of a model of Cooling Castle gatehouse. The castle gatehouse is scheduled at Grade 1 by Historic England underlining its importance. The Gatehouse was constructed by Thomas Crump on behalf of Sir John de Cobham in the fourteenth century. The design is interesting in that the towers are horseshoe shaped with no apparent back to them and were one of the first places to incorporate gun loops.

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 hill fort.

Dundonald, Ayrshire: To fund a building survey of what is thought to be primarily the late fourteenth century remains of this baronial castle and perhaps reveal any evidence of the early thirteenth century castle. In addition the grant will help fund community outreach to explain the results.

Ellesmere, Shropshire: Geophysical survey of the large motte and bailey castle in Shropshire which prior to June 2024 had never been surveyed before when the large motte was surveyed by GPR which revealed possible buildings. The resistivity and magnetometry surveys would confirm that, as well as survey the rest of the site which played an active part in the Marcher disputes in the reign of Henry III.

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.

Picton, Pembrokshire: To create a detailed reconstruction of the castle as it was first built in the early fourteenth century. This will be largely based on the detailed survey work the Trust funded  in 2023.

Translation of C17 Dutch Engineer’s Survey of English castles and fortifications: A joint project between Dutch academic Dr Esther Raamsdonk and English Heritage to do a sample translation of  five of the 22 castles and fortifications  surveyed in a document called SP 9/99,  an early seventeenth-century manuscript of a Dutch surveyor’s examination of the sites, 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.

We will not be able to fund as many of these projects as we would like. To help us fund as many of these projects as possible please donate here: https://donate.kindlink.com/castle-studies-trust/2245

The applications have been sent to our assessors who will review them. You can see how the assessment process works from our blog back in January 2016: https://castlestudiestrust.org/blog/2016/01/17/how-the-castle-studies-trust-selects-its-projects/