Project Update - September 2024

Our search for Cnut's minster church continues:

• Cranfield University came back to All Saints Church, Ashdon, to fill in a few gaps on the Ground Penetrating Radar survey we had commissioned (and that was paid for by Ashdon Museum).  We are awaiting the updated report, though it still does not look like we have any outline of a lost minster church.
• Further resistivity surveys in Ashdon and Steventon End have not discovered anything of significance to the Battle.
• The project is investigating options for the carbon dating of some mortar and original windows in Saint Botolph's Church, Hadstock.
• We have submitted a funding request to the Essex Heritage Trust for two pieces of work relating to Saint Andrew's Church, Ashingdon and Saint Nicholas's Church, Canewdon.  Firstly, an investigation of each church by a historical church expert. Secondly, research into the charters of these two churches going back to the 11th Century.
• There is a new site that is being investigated as a potential candidate for Cnut's minster, and if so we will plan further work in that area.

The project team members have started to analyse potential battlefield sites and currently have 2 around Hadstock, 3 around Ashdon, 2 around Ashingdon.  We are planning our first battlefield archaeology at one of the Hadstock sites.

Visits to river estuaries around Essex are continuing in order to determine where Cnut's fleet landed while his forces raided into Mercia prior to the Battle.

One of the team is researching the logistics of early medieval armies as this will help us review our potential battlefield sites and decide which are valid contenders and which are not.

We are working on an entry for Assandun in the Battlefields Trust "Battlefields Hub": https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre/.  This may take a little while to get approved and published, but would be a good step forward in making more people aware of the battle.

One of the project team will be giving a presentation at the Battlefields Trust East Anglia Region Study Day on Saturday 19th October in Peterborough: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/thebattlefieldstrust/1267018.