Abstract

Scholars suggest the scheduled site of Clavering Castle in NW Essex features in the Anglo-Saxon chronicle as a refuge for Norman knights fleeing the conflicts surrounding Edward the Confessor’s court in c1052AD. The seat of the powerful Fitzwymarch family, the monks of Waltham claim it as the scene of the ‘Miracle of the Ring’ that greeted Edward the Confessor’s foundation of its chapel. Inherited by the De Clavering and Neville families, Clavering provided these powerful northern lords with an important residential foothold in the south. Ultimately it was held and refurbished by Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, herself a Neville and niece to kings Edward IV and Richard III , until in 1541 aged 67 years she was executed in the Tower by Henry VIII .

New historical research combined with recent extensive non-invasive geophysical and landscape surveying, has revealed many of Clavering Castle’s surviving features still hidden below ground, its medieval water management systems, together with facets of its spiritual relevance to the lords and ladies that held this ancestral seat of old England. In my talk I shall be introducing both the findings of this preparatory work, and presenting the evidence recovered from the first ever excavation of this enigmatic site that took place in June 2025.