Our search for Cnut's minster church has continued:
- Thanks to funding from Ashdon Museum Trust, we were able to commission Cranfield University to conduct a ground penetrating radar survey inside All Saints Church, Ashdon. Early results indicate previously unknown burials under the floor as well as wall structures, long since buried, though we cannot yet see any coherent plan of a lost minster church on a different footprint to the existing nave. We are continuing to review the results with the Cranfield University expert.
- Geophysical surveying around Ashdon is continuing, with a view to locate other potential sites for Cnut's Minster church that could have since been lost. Resistivity surveys of some of the most likely fields have been carried out, with no sign of any buried foundations so far, and more are being planned.
- We met with a church expert to plan further investigation into the history of St. Botolph's church in Hadstock.
- Our bid for funding from Rochford District Council was not successful, though our work on that has not been wasted. We now have a series of activities that we would like to carry out investigating the churches at Ashingdon and Canewdon, as well as the local environment as a whole, and we will look for alternative means of funding this work, probably in smaller units.
Our search for the battlefield is also progressing. Around our candidates for the minster church, we have highlighted various fields, that through location, topography, proximity to Roman and other ancient roads and water, are potential sites for the battlefield itself. We will start to explore these further, with a view to eventually carrying out archaeological investigations there if we are able.
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