A project group of Battlefields Trust members and local Essex representatives was formed in 2021 and is undertaking a project aiming to gain greater recognition of the battle of Assandun and to identify the most likely site of the conflict. It aims to consolidate and build on the existing knowledge of the battle, carry out appropriate archaeological investigations where possible, and publicise widely any findings and information about the battle. The work to date has developed a wide network of advisors - both academic and archaeological - and has sourced documents from records offices, university libraries, and the internet.

The focus of the project so far has been to try to find the Minster church that Cnut had built to commemorate the battle. After reviewing available sources, it was decided to prioritise the effort around the Ashdon-Hadstock area, and several resistivity studies were carried out, though these have not yet found any signs of a lost building. Thanks to some funding from Ashdon Museum, it has also been possible to carry out a ground penetrating radar survey inside All Saints Church in Ashdon. The project is currently taking samples from the mortar in St. Botolph’s church in Hadstock to be sent for carbon dating in the USA.

Though the project initially focussed in the north west of Essex, it has obtained some funding from the Essex Heritage Trust with matched funding from the Battlefields Trust to commission investigations into the history of St. Andrew’s Church in Ashingdon and St. Nicholas’s church in Canewdon, along with an investigation into their early owners and charters.

As well as the two localities that have been promoted by most previous investigations into the battle (Ashdon-Hadstock and Ashingdon-Canewdon), the project team has visited Assington in Suffolk and Essendon in Hertfordshire, in order to assess their credentials as contenders for the battle site. There are other Essex sites (Asheldham and Ashen) that may be worth investigating in the future.

The project has created a website on https://www.assandun.uk/ with a blog and publications page, which includes the project's findings so far and this will be updated on a regular basis as the project develops. Downloadable PDF versions of PowerPoint presentations that have been given are available, and papers produced by project team members have started to be published there.

A summary of the group’s work was presented to the East Anglia Region Study Day on 19 October 2024 and a PDF of that PowerPoint presentation is also available from the above website.