Month: June 2025

Castle Studies Trust Grants Go Beyond the Site

Your donations make our research grants possible. But the grants go beyond the initial research, into the continuing and lasting impact which carries beyond far beyond the excavation season or the granting year. Research from two Castle Studies Trust grants can be seen at the upcoming Leeds International Medieval Congress in July 2025.

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Every year, over three thousand medievalists from around the globe meet at the University of Leeds to present research, share new knowledge, make connections with others, and grow and foster the global community of medievalists. This major international conference also provides CST grantees a further platform to inform scholars about their research into castles. In 2025, under the special theme of ‘Worlds of Education,’ the Castle Studies Trust is proud to highlight papers and projects which have received CST support, financially or otherwise:

Initial images of Canterbury keep from the Visualising Canterbury Castle project, copyright Christchurch Canterbury

Prof. Leonie Hicks of Canterbury Christ Church University will be presenting initial research from Canterbury Castle in a paper titled ‘Digital Interludes: Methods of Teaching Castles.’ This work looks at her department’s digital castle work of which the project ‘Visualising Canterbury Castle,’ which was awarded £9631 from CST in 2025 is part of. This dynamic, multi-discipline project intends to create a detailed digital plan of the keep to understand the site, largely now in ruin but scheduled to reopen in correlation with the 1000th anniversary of William the Conqueror’s birth.

Excavating Newhouse Castle, copyright Ryan Prescott

Dr Ryan Prescott (University of Leeds) will be presenting further research on Newhouse Castle, Lincolnshire, in a paper titled ‘Reframing Newhouse Castle: Lincolnshire and the “Anarchy.”’. In 2024, this project was awarded £9867 from the Castle Studies Trust. Dr Prescott and team are seeking to understand and determine the nature of the castle at Newhouse and the lower gentry’s places within the sphere of the Anglo-Norman Civil War (1138-1154.) As seen with this paper, the impact of this award is continuing beyond the excavation which the CST funded.

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Your support and donations make these projects possible, including the lasting impact we see from them in the academic sphere as well as the wider world.

Further research and outreach fostered by the Castle Studies Trust will also be seen at Leeds. For example, two papers stem from initial presentations at our 2023 CST anniversary symposium.

One of our assessors, Dr Erik Matthews with the Hornby Castle Project, Northallerton, will be presenting continuing research on ‘The Religious Experiences of an Elite Household in Medieval Wensleydale, 1000-1550.’ Dr Matthews initially presented this research on ‘Hornby Castle, Wensleydale, North Yorkshire: An Elite Holiday Home of the Later Middle Ages’ at our 2023 anniversary symposium. Dr Matthews also acts as one of the CST’s expert assessors for grant applications. You can read more about his work at Hornby at our blog.

Similarly, Dr Lorna-Jane Richardson, University of East Anglia, will be speaking at Leeds about ‘Modern Myth and ‘Medieval’ Identity: The Case of Bungay Castle.’ Dr Richardson likewise first presented this research at our 2023 anniversary symposium. You can read more about her work from her blog post here.

Possible image of Eleanor of Castile at Overton Church, copyright Rachel Swallow

More of our Trustees and Assessors are also presenting work at Leeds: Dr Rachel Swallow of Swallowtail Archaeology will present her ongoing work on Queen Eleanor of Castile and the contexts of her castles with a paper ‘Leisure, Literature and Legend: Reconstructing Edward I and Queen Eleanor of Castile’s Castles and Boroughs through Innovative Landscape Contexts.’ You can read more about Dr Swallow’s ongoing research on the topic in her blog post with CST. Dr Swallow is one of our team of expert assessors for grant applications.

Dr Katherine Weikert, University of Winchester, will present new research into castles, pedagogy and the ideas-informed society with co-researcher Ruth Luzmore (University of Southampton) in their paper, ‘Timeless Terrains: Medieval and Modern Mental Landscapes Today.’ Dr Weikert has been a Trustee of the Castle Studies Trust since 2020.

From grantees to trustees, the Castle Studies Trust is at the forefront of new, exciting research into castles. Your support makes this all possible, and donations, however small, are put to good use. Thank you for your support.

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You can continue to help fund our work by going here: Kindlink Donation Form App

Recording, final excavation, reinstatement

Simon Coxall, Dig Director of our Clavering Castle excavation looks at the end of the excavation and what happens next.

The excavation phase at Clavering castle neared completion in time for a community open day on Saturday 21st June 2025.

As well as welcoming around two hundred members of the public on a guided tour of the excavation trenches, the project has been blessed with visits from Historic England and Professor Robert Liddiard of the University of East Anglia.

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Trenches 1 and 2 at Clavering Castle from the Air copyright Simon Coxall

Trench 1 and 2 have now been thoroughly excavated, with just a little more to do in Trench 2 of which more below. Across much of the trench the layers representing the top of the original castle platform have been reached. The castle platform approximately 100m W- E by 60m N-S and approximately 4m deep was constructed by placing a large ‘brick’ of made-up ground in the valley of the River Stort and using the course of the river as the northern arm of the moat.  The remaining three arms of the moat were then cut, their contents in part being used to build up the platform. Accordingly, there is no natural on site within reach of the excavation trenches, which have a maximum depth of c 1.25m. Nevertheless the uppermost surface of the platform at the time of its original construction is identifiable across both trenches. This layer is uniform orange-brown compacted clay with flint rubble in appearance and bears no evidence for occupation.

Chalk floor of possible gatehouse porter’s lodge in trench one, copyright Jeremy Cunnington

In Trench 1 cleaning and recording casts into sharper focus the features of the gatehouse entrance to the castle estate first exposed by geophysics in 2020. This consisted of a metalled trackway approximately 4-5m in width on a broadly N-S trajectory and bordered to its east by a flint walled building (??porters lodge) with chalk rendered internal walls and surviving chalk floor. At the time of the demolition, c1540’s, the tiles of its roof cascaded onto the adjacent trackway. The external faces of this structure directly abutted the trackway but had been completely removed down to their sandy gravel base by the demolition crew. On the western side of the trackway a further structure had been even more comprehensively demolished, the evidence being limited to a scattering of flint nodules just below the topsoil and a large pit full of substantial daub with their rod impressions still intact. There appears no later disturbance of the site suggesting, following its concerted demolition, neglect sealed the site as a capsule of life on site between c1050 and 1550.

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Some of the finds from 18 June from trackway of trench 1 from the earliest context excavated, copyright Jeremy Cunnington

The trackway has presented the potential for exploring a time slice of activity in this routeway area spanning the lifetime of occupation on the castle. As one descends here below the Tudor trackway, pottery recovered here stretches back from the glazed Tudor period wares through the earlier sandy wares to the shell-tempered wares dating back to the origins of the castle estate which is estimated as the mid-11th century. Small finds have also appeared: a 2cm gilded fastening or item of jewellery at some of the lowest levels in the sequence, together with a fragment of robust blue ‘vessel’ glass.

All is accompanied by hundreds of oysters within the demolition levels and hundreds of animal bones distributed through almost all contexts. Post-excavation analysis promises to define dating with greater precision.

Trench 2 from earlier in the dig, copyright Simon Coxall

Trench 2, while beyond the main evidence for structures, still betrays evidence for a concerted refashioning of the site roughly dated to the later 14th century. This coincides with historical evidence for the Neville family’s refashioning of the estate. An earlier surface cut into by ditches and pits associated with early phases of occupation, was across Trench 2 capped by a consistent capping layer of compacted sands and gravels, thus sealing the animal bone-rich contexts in such features. Approximately 1500 animal bones have been recovered across all contexts. It is intended this assemblage will be sent to a university as subject matter for a student’s zooarchaeological analysis.

The last of these ditches at the northern limits of the trench continues to descend deep into a ditch penetrating the sites’ original platform material. This continues to produce pottery including a large fragment of medieval mortarium and more animal bone some, of which will find themselves submitted for C14 analysis. These sealed dark humic contexts also lend themselves as key areas of environmental sampling which is being done by Oxford Archaeology East.

As with all sites, as trenches begin to be filled in, the work has only just begun.

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Clavering Castle Excavation Dig Diary: End of Week 2

As we head in to the last week of digging here’s what the team has found so far at the end of week two.

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Annotated aerial view of trench one, copyright Simon Coxall

Trench 1

As previously mentioned, trench 1 was sited to explore the suspected ‘gatehouse’ entrance to the site as indicated by earlier resistivity survey. This reveals evidence throughout for the concerted demolition of the site; activity which with the almost total absence of artefacts dating beyond the 16th century appears to have been undertaken shortly after its seizure by the Crown with the demise of Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury in 1541.

Ephemeral evidence for residual structural foundations (flint, brick, roof tile, clunch, daub etc) have been found to frame a surviving entrance routeway of beaten chalk sand/mortar which is approximately 6m in width and is associated with ceramic dating evidence.

Sampling of this routeway context reveals it as the last of a number of trackways using it appears the same entrance point to the estate and excavation continues to explore these earlier routeway surfaces and ‘associated’ ditches. All such evidence is consistent with the geophysical findings.

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Annotated aerial shot of trench two, copyright Simon Coxall

Trench 2

The historical evidence suggests in the mid-14th century the castle site went through a major refurbishment and between 1350 and 1550 it is likely to have been refurbished again and again so we wanted to put a trench where it wasn’t disturbed by those later efforts and this has proven its value in terms of that there is no evidence of any structures. The ditch at far end is probably 15th/16th century and full of Tudor demolition material. At south end is full of sand brought here as has a lot of material to level this part of the site. The part with the darker dirt is a huge ditch which just keeps going. It is 14th century material coming out of this ditch, although not a huge amount and it is mainly stacks of animal bones but some interesting bits of pot. Like the other ditch it is likely to be amongst the earliest features this far on this site.

Imagine a landscape which doesn’t have this gatehouse, and these ditches may well have been there before that. The object here is to find the oldest bone at the lowest level because one of the dating opportunities is to date the animal bone through carbon dating, but pottery is less precise for dating.

With only one week to go of the excavation the key focus is to continue to get down to the lowest possible level allowed of 1.2 metres with the aim of finding suitable material to use to try and date the earliest period of use of the site.

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Clavering Castle Dig Diary Day Nine – Going Deeper

Since the last update, the excavators continue to make progress although the finds have not been numerous.

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Drone image of trench one with annotations by Simon Coxall, copyright Simon Coxall

The first fragmentary cobble walls have appeared in trench one associated with the gatehouse structures on the east side. The emphasis there is on going down through the trackway to get to the lower levels / early period. The top layers are producing 15th/16th century pottery and underlying levels coarser sandy wares going back to the 14th / 15th century. Plenty of depth still to go. Widespread faunal remains in trench one.

Drone image of trench two with annotations by Simon Coxall, copyright Simon Coxall

Trench two is now extended to 6x2m shows below demolition levels two sizeable ditches and perhaps a pit cutting same. One holds demolition period material, the pot and other ditch are larger features and in terms of alignment appear to have no relation to the structures suggested by the geophysics. These appear deeply cut and hold almost exclusively faunal remains in a dark humic fill. The lower levels of these features may offer environmental and carbon-dating opportunities. The same area suggests some evidence for smithing slag.

The emphasis in both trenches now is going deeper into identified contexts to our 1.2m maximum.

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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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