Project Update - March 2024

We have continued in our search for the minster church that Cnut had built in 1020 to commemorate the fallen at the Battle of Assandun:

• Though there are clear historical records of a chapel in Steventon End, our resistivity surveys have not yet brought any hidden foundations to light, and we will continue to investigate in this area.
• We were fortunate to receive funding from the Ashdon Museum to enable us to carry out a Ground Penetrating Radar survey inside All Saints Church in Ashdon. With the help of keen volunteers, the pews were moved, and an expert from Cranfield University recently carried out the survey, and we are awaiting the report of what could be underneath the current church. (see photo right)
  
• In the next month or so (depending on ground conditions and weather) we will be completing the resistivity survey in a field in Ashdon. The first part of this was carried out last year, without finding anything of significance, but we still need to finish the whole field.
• We analysed the ancient charters for St Botolph’s Church in Hadstock and these indicate there could be royal patronage dating back to 1020. This level of analysis is needed across the other churches we have as candidates for Cnut’s Minster.
• We are bidding for some funding to investigate the churches in Ashingdon and Canewdon over the coming year. This would include ground penetrating radar surveys, architectural studies, a review of the ancient charters, plus an analysis of the historical landscape of the area.

We are also planning our first archaeological investigations into a potential battlefield site, and are in discussion with a Hadstock landowner about what we will be able to do there.

Finally, we are planning to give a presentation on the battle and our project at the Battlefields Trust East Anglia Study Day in Peterborough on Saturday 19^th October 2024.