Blog Archives

CLASP research at Borough Hill, Daventry

Apologies for the distorted photo first time round. Trying again:

From the CLASP Chair of Trustees, Dave Hayward:

As a follow on to the work CLASP did recording all the hill-forts in Northamptonshire, we are currently involved in a joint project with MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) researching the hill-fort on Borough Hill, Daventry. This site, ostensibly the second largest in the country, originated in the Bronze Age, was active throughout the Iron Age and, at least in part, active in the Roman. CLASP has undertaken an intensive geophysical survey on the Late Iron Age feature on the northern end of the site. Hopefully this project will result in a far better understanding of the ‘Hill.

The photograph, taken from Thrupp to the north east of Daventry, illustrates, from a distance, the northern end of Borough Hill and how it dominates the local landscape. Thanks to both commercial archaeology and work undertaken by CLASP this landscape is becoming better understood as an area full of prehistoric activity from the Neolithic period (including long barrows at Flore), significant Bronze Age occupation to the north and north west of Daventry, followed by all phases of the Iron Age across the landscape. Work undertaken by CLASP this year has revealed another Iron Age farm or settlement in the immediate area where the photograph was taken from.
If you want to get involved come and join us!

Dave Hayward




CLASP Strategic Plan, April 2014

CLASP P103 – Strategic Plan – 20 April 14




The CLASP facebook page is now open for business again!

Thanks to all who have posted, commented and liked within the CLASP fb page recently. Our aim is to broaden the appeal of this page and reinvigorate and increase core memberships.

To this end please post directly to the page any applicable information within the realm of archaeology and history. It will be great to see an increase in your posts!

These could include courses you know to be of interest, photos or videos pertinent particularly to West Northants or other like articles etc.

Please help us to maintain an engaging and informative page that will run alongside Clasp’s Web page as a means to widen our horizons. This week our new followers come from USA, NZ and nearby counties.

www.facebook.com/claspweb




CLASP Annual Report 2018

CLASP Annual Report 2018




Google Earth update

Google Earth has a new series of satellite shots from 08/2017 included, it might be worth having a look to see if you can establish anything new in your area.

If you do find anything please keep us posted via the general enquiries email on the Contact Page of this website.




Public Meeting & AGM




Change to CLASP excavation, week commencing 17th September

The excavation scheduled for the week commencing 17th September 2018 at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Nether Heyford has been changed to a further week at Thrupp, on the north side of the Daventry to Long Buckby Road. This has been caused by the farmer having to plant an earlier crop than anticipated, we do intend to return there in 2019 however.




Back To Our Roots

Archaeology – Back To Our Roots

This article was published in the spring 2018 edition of Gridline, a publication for National Grid’s grantors and landowners.




New report published




CLASP Excavations for 2018 – including our first weekend dig!

The Organising Committee has now been able to finalize the dates for our programme of excavations for this summer.

As with all of these events we are very dependent on the farmer’s harvesting and ploughing activities to be able to fix precise dates for some of our work, we are therefore providing windows for two sites and a fixed date for the third. These are as follows:-

All dates are inclusive!


August 16th until August 22nd – this includes the weekend:

The dig will be sited at Thrupp on the B4036, about two miles from Daventry.


September 3rd until September 14th

This is a ‘window’: the dig will be for a five day week during this period but not including the weekend – again this will at Thrupp, potentially on a Romano-British site.


September 17th until September 28th

Again a window for a five day excavation, not including the weekend. The excavation originally scheduled for this week – at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Nether Heyford – has been changed to a further week at Thrupp, on the north side of the Daventry to Long Buckby Road. This has been caused by the farmer having to plant an earlier crop than anticipated, we do intend to return there in 2019 however.


Please put these dates in your diaries now, get your annual leave booked and trowels polished!

CLASP excavations are available only to our members. The membership fee is £10 per annum. We charge a contribution to dig expenses of £5 for each dig attended, or part thereof.  Please look at Membership page for a membership application form.

An invitation to register your interest to ‘dig’ will be issued in the next couple of weeks –  keep your eyes out for it.




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]