A message from Dave Hayward:
There has been a serious fire at New Creation Farm, Nether Heyford today (Saturday 27th April). I am not sure of the extent and effects of the situation but I have heard that fortunately no one was hurt and the animals are safe. I have offered the thoughts of all at CLASP to those at the Farm.
CLASP is intending to rent a building there for our proposed field centre, I will update you once I have established the situation from our friends at the Farm.
CLASP has been invited by Daventry Museum to put on an exhibition of the work they having been doing around the Daventry area. This is to be held between May and the end of August.
The exhibition has been put together by Jim Aveling using information and photos collected during the work on Thrupp, Bannaventa and Borough hill. Thank you to Marcus Lewis and Fred Kay for their input.
If you get a chance go along to the museum in Daventry, at the council offices in Sheep Street.
Part of the exhibition in preparation:
You can now support CLASP by shopping on Amazon Smile. It costs you no extra!
Here’s the link:
The Trustees have decided that our building at New Creation Farm, Nether Heyford will be known as The CLASP Field Centre.
This will hopefully well describe the purpose of the site and how we intend it should operate.
We are hoping to finalise admin arrangements for the 1st May and moving the furniture in by the 10th May.
CLASP members NEWS ALERT from Dave Hayward:
Some bad news I’m afraid we have had to cancel the dig scheduled from the 3rd to 10th July at Crick, basically this decision has been down to the mild weather we have been having so far this year. The field we had hoped to investigate is permanent pasture let out by the landowner to another for grazing stock, the intention being that we would move in after the hay crop and cattle were removed. Unfortunately the warm weather has encouraged the tenant to utilize the land for grazing throughout with no hay or silage crops – the vagaries of farming!
After a full discussion in the Organising Committee on Monday (I only received the cancellation from the farmer on Sunday morning at 08.00hrs) we agreed that it was not possible to organise an alternative ‘dig’. It is essential that we still have something between these dates, we have decided therefore to offer an archaeology week, including over the weekend; the week will consist of various activities, for example training, research sessions, desk top assessments etc. What would you like to occur?
The event will be held in our new Clasp Field Centre at New Creation Farm, Nether Heyford.
There will still be other opportunities for field work later in the summer.
More information about the ‘Week’ will be publicised as soon as possible.
A message from David Hayward, Chair of CLASP Trustees:
What a success for CLASP was the CBA South Midlands meeting at Bugbrooke on the 6th April. Firstly as Chair of Trustees can I give a big thank you to Stephen and Fred for taking the podium and so ably presenting our work at Bannaventa, Borough Hill and Nether Heyford. Also a thanks to all the other CLASP members who attended to assist with the display stand and generally discussing CLASP with others.
It was also very satisfying to see the way that our colleagues at MOLA involved CLASP work in their presentations. I think it is fair to say that our stature was significantly raised in the archaeological world yesterday – again a big thank you to all for your work to allow this to happen. Some important contacts made that we must follow through on.
Weedon Historical Society have kindly made a donation of £500 toward the cost of our new home. A huge thanks to Weedon for this generous donation. Every donation we receive will help make this project a resounding success and something to be proud of.
One thing that we could do with fairly urgently is sponsorship or volunteer help to produce a CLASP sign at the farm entrance together with a building sign. All offers or suggestions gratefully received:
CLASP’s future research, whilst focussed on defining holistically, both archaeologically and historically, the landscape of west Northamptonshire between AD43 and 410, will, as appropriate seek to identify the continuity of peoples and all aspects of their presence between BC (BCE) 2000 and AD (CE) 1066
Here is the latest CLASP Newsletter – hot off the press!
Whilst CLASP is a local project to West Northamptonshire this does not mean that we do not welcome new members from anywhere on the planet!
You can then get involved, join in discussion and research, or simply feel that you are supporting a forward thinking project that is seeking to answer questions about our past, not least how we evolved as a people.
Membership is just £10 per year and can be applied for at:-
We look forward to hearing from you!
