Great News - Exploring the Origins of Cusop Grant Success

We are delighted to announce that our bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund 'Exploring the origins of Cusop' has been successful.

The approved project consists of further geophysical surveys of the Cusop Castle site; a first ever geophysical survey of the churchyard; followed by a series of small-scale excavations at the Castle site. This will be the first formal archaeological excavation of the site.

On March 25 2025 we received Scheduled Monument Consent, necessary for the physical excavations to take place, from the DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport), via Historic England, which strongly supported the application.

A grant application for the bulk of the funding required was made to the Lottery Heritage Fund on 29 March, and passed all the application checks. Today we received the news that our application has been chosen for funding, which is very exciting! We have received a further grant from Hay Community Enterprise CIC of £250, following their support of Phase 1 of the project.

Timing

The surveys are planned for August/September 2025, and the excavations in early summer 2026. These will be in partnership with Hereford Archaeology.

Findings from Phase 1 raised important questions regarding the origins and development of Cusop Castle.

See our video for more information Cusop History Group - Starting To Reveal The Secrets Of Cusop Castle - March 28th 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1F_ogqrrC0

The aims of Phase 2 of the project are:

 Extend local/regional knowledge of this heritage site

 Provide opportunities for direct participation.

 Further geophysical surveys to inform the approach of small-scale archaeological excavations.

 Test hypothesis of prehistoric origins, and a multi-period site.

 Conduct non-intrusive geophysical surveys of the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Cusop, to establish the presence/absence of any former boundary or boundaries

Get involved

If you would like to be part of the excavation team in 2026 then please let us know - we are looking for volunteers.

A big thank you to Jane Powell who has been instrumental in pulling the bid together with assistance from the Cusop History Group Castle Research Team and Tim Hoverd, Hereford Archaeological Projects Manager.