Battle of Hatfield Investigation Society

Hello,

Some fabulous news – we now have formal written permission (for 1 year starting 15th January 2015) from the Diocese of Southwell & Nottingham for Phase 1 (Non Invasive) Investigations at St. Mary’s Church, Norton Cuckney (see evidence below).

We also had a very constructive meeting with the Heritage Lottery fund (H.L.F.) on the 23rd of January and will be submitting a new higher grant application (which now comes under, “Our Heritage” )by mid. March 2015. This category is for grant requests between £10k - £100k. We would now expect ours to be in the region of £20k.

We would therefore probably be in receipt of an H.L.F. grant decision by the end of May.

The Battle of Hatfield Investigation Society (“BOHIS” )are also widening the Community involvement brief mainly via Mercian’s Education Officer, Sue Rodgers. It will now include other local groups and schools (for example, Norton & Cuckney Parish Council and the Community Bonfire Group) who may have an interest in the Battle of Hatfield and possibly some additional related subjects (like the investigation of the village landscape and old maps of the area). We hope that this will provide compelling evidence to the H.L.F. of a true Community based project.

We may have a decision today regarding funding from the local council which was initially mentioned via the 5th January blog. If this is in the affirmative, the award will range from £500 to £5,000 (we will do another post just as soon as we know).

On an historical note, we are investigating a supposed happening called, “The Battle of Orange Hill” but are extremely short of information. This is said to have taken place in the Hatfield area around Cuckney and we would like to know if this is related to the Battle of Hatfield (probably unlikely) but more with a view to understanding if this could provide an alternative explanation for the skeletons discovered at St. Mary’s in 1950 / 51.

Hence, if anyone has any information this would be gratefully received.

Please send any information to me at [email protected] and / or to Joseph Waterfall [email protected]

Thanks for your continued interest – any advice or funding is welcome !