Battle of Hatfield Investigation Society

Dear All,

Our 4th meeting (12th December) was attended by about 30 people and lasted about 2.5 hours. We were able to confirm that we have virtually all non invasive permissions (bar Diocesan paperwork) and additionally have invasive permissions regarding Welbeck Estates land. Put simply, this means that only the lack of funding is now preventing Phase 1 (Non Invasive Church & surrounding land) (£10,000 is required).

If we had the funding today then we could probably start in March !

Whilst we aren't dangerously relying on 1 source of income, the Heritage Lottery fund (H.L.F.) is still a major potential provider, hence we are meeting with them (again) on the 23rd January at 2:30pm to discuss how best to re-submit our Phase 1 bid (originally turned down in late October 2014).

This will mean H.L.F. re-submission by the end of February and knowlege of the outcome by the end of April.

Since we cannot feasibly reduce our already tight archaeological cost base (G.P.R. , Magnetometer survey etc..) then it is probable that we need to increase the overall cost base via the inclusion of extra DEFINED community related costs to eliminate the current skew.

We have asked our Archaeological company's (Mercian) Education Officer to accompany us to that meeting.

Over the last week or so, we've also spoken to a local council and £5,000 has been mentioned but it may be that this is Partnership (ie. with the H.L.F.) funding. We need to tread carefully because the H.L.F. will not fund projects that have already (operationally) started.

We will also be sending out a few more well chosen speculative letters to local / possibly sympathetic organisations this month. This is something we tried about a year ago and we did come close to persuading a major food retailer to participate.

Therefore, truly alternative backer(s) are those who are willing to cover the WHOLE likely project cost (ie. Phase1 £10,000 + Phase 2 (Invasive) c. £25,000 + (possibly) Battlefield costs (another £30,000 ?)).

If anyone has any other funding ideas please drop a mail to [email protected]

We really think that it would be a shame if the project was allowed to stall and for momentum to be lost, due to lack of funding - so now is the time !

Thanks for your continued interest.