Blog Archives

CBA Meeting at Bugbrooke

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.




A very generous donation

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:

chair_trustees@claspweb.org.uk




CLASP Archaeological Strategy – February 2019

The Trustees have agreed that CLASP required a clear definition of its future archaeological strategy, taken in conjunction with external strategies and objectives, both regional and national, to provide the justification for our future archaeological work thereby giving us a clear but long term goal and not just an open ended path. It is:

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




Spring 2019 CLASP Newsletter

Here is the latest CLASP Newsletter – hot off the press!

NEWSLETTER SPRING 2019




New members welcome!

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:-

CLASP Membership Form

We look forward to hearing from you!




South Midlands CBA Spring Conference

Details and application form here:

SMCBA Spring Conference 2019

The Conference is being held in Bugbrooke Community Centre this year.

  • CLASP will be a major player with presentations by Stephen Young and Fred Kay
  • accompanied by other speakers on major Northamptonshire topics.
  • Booking is essential.
  • Offers to help with a CLASP display stand please to:- chair_trustees@claspweb.org.uk



CLASP’s new home!!

A message from Dave Hayward, Chair of the CLASP Trustees

I am pleased to announce that at last CLASP has its own home, or at
least will do, as from the 1st April 2019. The building is situated at
New Creation Farm, Furnace Lane, Nether Heyford NN7 3LB consists of a
single building of solid wooden construction, 4.45 x 11.8m (52.51 sq m).
In addition there is an area at the rear where we will be able to stand
our shipping container, currently at Whitehall Farm.

The intention is that we have the Charity registered at the building,
the building itself has sufficient size to hold our archive together
with space for an office/ classroom/ IT area. The container can be used
as a tool store and a future archive expansion area.

We now turn to the question of money! The annual rental is £2000, we
have to raise it from additional income which will look to you all for
support in raising. We will be looking at donations both individual and
from organisations, running external training classes, a 100 Club (more
in separate email), Amazon Smile (again more in a few days), possibly a
Friends of CLASP – will _you_ volunteer to help?

The move and setting up of the home will be labour intensive, again we
will be looking for help!

An exciting time for CLASP – please get behind us.




Upcoming excavations and field work

From the Organising Committee minutes of Feb 4th 2019:

CLASP is intending to have three major excavations in 2019 subject to agreeing the scope and dates with the respective farmers.

  1. Romano-British site at Crick: This to be early July and to be the opportunity to attract new members, with training arranged and the dig continuing over a weekend.
    THIS HAS BEEN CANCELLED – see the post July dig cancelled for alternative plans
  2. Roman site at Manshead: Test pitting proposed. Dates to be confirmed.
  3. Anglo Saxon cemetery: Dates to be confirmed.

A number of possible other smaller projects (at Barby, Everdon, Towcester, Woughton on the Green) would be considered once proposals were received. A proposal for a possible geophysics project at Guilsborough would also be fleshed out.

Further details will be published as andwhen possible.




New Geophys Report: Bannaventa

  • CLASP Geophysical Report No. 2/19
    Geophysical survey of hinterland fields adjacent to Watling Street to the North West of the Posting Station of Bannaventa, Norton, Northamptonshire, OS SP460560 264930, Stephen Young and Fred Kay, January 2019.



Watching Brief Report: Everdon Wood

For the Woodland Trust: New Entrance Everdon Wood and Everdon Stubbs
by D.F. Hayward & N. Garnet, October 2018




Additional Volunteers

We need to expand our team of enthusiastic and committed volunteers to fulfil a variety of roles and maintain the charity’s development whether you are able to give a few hours a week or more:
Volunteer help needed for:
  • Field work (field walking, excavation, geophysics etc.
  • Post excavation (processing and recording finds and archiving)
  • Computer and digital work
  • Fund raising
  • Publicity
[more information]