Castle Studies Group 37th Annual Conference

Thursday April 18  – Sunday April 21, 2024

            

CSG Conference 2024 - April 18-21 - Castles of Nottingham

We are pleased to announce that the Castle Studies Group Conference for 2024 will be based in Nottingham and tour the East Midlands. The conference organiser is James Wright, who has been kindly advised by Gillian Scott, Peter Purton, and Jeremy Cunnington.

At present, the itinerary is anticipated to visit the following sites:

Thursday 18 April: Nottingham Castle (to include a tour of the mediaeval caves and hopefully the remains of Richard’s Tower)

Evening session: Recent Excavations at Nottingham Castle, Dr Gareth Davies (York Archaeology)

Friday 19 April: Nottinghamshire

Holme Pierrepont Hall; Pancake Hill, East Bridgford; Southwell Archbishop’s Palace; Castle Hill, Bothamsall; Strelley Hall

Evening session: Castles of the East Midlands, Prof Philip Dixon

Saturday 20 April: The Peak District and Surrounds

Greasley Castle; Peveril Castle, Castleton; Tissington Siegework; Alton Castle; Castle Knob, Castle Gresley

Evening session: Castle Studies Group AGM

Sunday 21 April: Leicestershire

Leicester Castle and Newarke (to include tours of St Mary de Castro, the great hall, and the Magazine Gateway); Kirby Muxloe Castle; Ashby Castle

Please note that, subject to property diaries and access, the fine detail of the site visits may be altered prior to the commencement of the conference.

The conference is intended to offer a vibrant cross-section of modern castle studies in the East Midlands. Several sites have received recent research and we will be able to hear the results of those projects from the specialists who were involved. The itinerary is broad in terms of both social scale and chronology. It will take in multi-phased urban sites such as Nottingham and Leicester; the proposed Anglo-Scandinavian period site at Bothamsall; Norman motte and baileys at East Bridgford and Castle Gresley; the masonry castles of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries at Castleton and Alton; the fourteenth century courtyard castles at Strelley and Greasley; late mediaeval great houses at Southwell and Holme Pierrepont; fifteenth century castles at Ashby and Kirby Muxloe; and a suspected British Civil Wars siegework at Tissington. Most of these sites have never featured during prior CSG conferences and we hope that there will be plenty of properties which are not usually open to the public to whet the appetite of our members!

The conference accommodation will be located at the Mercure Nottingham Sherwood Hotel, 296 Mansfield Road, Nottingham, NG5 2BT. The nearest rail station is Nottingham (2 miles) and the nearest airport is East Midlands Airport (15 miles). On the Sunday we will arrange for the coach to drop off at Nottingham rail station and the hotel. The cost of attendance will be £520.00 for a single occupancy room or £385.00 for a double / twin occupancy room. Bookings are on a first come, first served basis, and are provisionally limited to 53 places. A conference application form will be sent out to members and will also be available on the CSG website.

Those who are currently non-members of the society are welcome to apply to join the conference, subject to joining the Castle Studies Group for an annual membership of £35.00.

Please contact James Wright for bookings and further information: csgconferenceorganiser@castlestudiesgroup.org.uk

The conference application form is available here