ENGLAND Avon and Berkshire Right: Bath Abbey, Avon
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XI\ 1:--ITRC)l)UCTJON r.R Ne\\ m.. n Atlas of the l:ngltsh Civil War (London, 1985) is a useful guide to military events 1ncJud1ng .; co~c 1 se statement of Newman's reinterpretation of. the ~a~tle of M~rston Moor. Royai ((>m111iss1on 011 H1stor1cal A101111me11ts, Newark on Trent; 1'he C1v1/ War S1egeworks (London J964) 1s J supt"rh account, g1v1ng a wealth of detail impossible ro reproduce here, and remain~ cssentJ I reaJ1ng for dedicated explorers. De pHe the research Jnd preparation,~ volu!11e of t~i s kind is b_o~~d to conta!n errors and to omit muc:h "'h1 ·h, on ref1ect1on, 1s "'orthy of 1nclus1on. With the poss1b1ltry of a revised edition in mind \Vt' "·ould be \CCV grateful for having errors and omissions pointed our in as much detail as possible' fh~e should be addrc ed co the publishers at 30, Brunswick Road, Gloucester GLl lJJ. ENGLAND Avon and Berkshire Right: Bath Abbey, Avon. Epiphanius Evesham's fine monument to Sir William Waller's first w1fe,janc (d1633}, was desecrated by Royalist troops during the Civil War and the features of Waller and his wife badly damaged. Below: Donn1ngton Casde, Berks. The huge gatehouse stands before the shattered A\TON rema'1ns of the medieval stronghold. To the lefr 1s part of the earthwork fort thrown up by Sir John Boys's Royalist garrison. b 1 r u1ar Avon passed under Royalist control during the Secured 'or Parliament at the o~t rea: ... od, ... •h; Ki1Zg's hands for two years. The siege and capture '' f 1643 ana rerna1ne· ,,. i , . C II sun11ner and autu1n11 . e•:ded the Royalist cause tn Avon. romwe was present ° .4 ~ . 1 of Bristol in S~ptembe~ lb ke ~[t'::c~rdeJ .or:casion on which he was involved in military action thro11ghout this operation, t e Ot Y d , ty withl1t the area covere d bY the mo ern coun. · Bath (517564) Initially held by . Parliament, 1,800 troops. Rupert bombarded the defences Bath served as a base for Waller in late June for two days and then stormed the town in the 1643 and it was in its defence that he marched early hours of the 26th. Although attacks on the • out to meet Hopton at Lansdown on 5 July. north wall and Redcliffe were repulsed, Col. Following his dismal showing there, Waller Wentworth eventually broke through around evacuated the town and Bath fell under Royalist Brandon Hill and Fiennes surrendered as the control. Thus it remained for two years until, on Royalists were preparing to storm the inner city. 30 July 1645, Col. Okey launched an e~rly For this action he was subsequently sentenced to morning raid on Bath, surprising and expelling death but reprieved. the small garnson. Two years later, in summer 1645, the main In the south transept of Bath Abbey is a Parliamentary army under Fairfax retook Bris monument to Waller's first wife (d1633) with tol, besieging and bombarding the place for a reclining figures of Waller and his late wife. The fortnight and then storming the outer defences Parliamentary General was not buried here, but on 10 September. Prince Rupert surrendered hes 1n an unmarked grave in London. once the outer circuit had been breached, earn ing the King's extreme displeasure. Cromwell B~stol (ST5872) Jn the seventeenth century was present throughout the siege, lodging first at Bns~ol was the second city of England, a rich Keynsham to the south-east and later at Fair trading centre and the main west coast port. In fax's HQ in a farmhouse at Stapleton. On 10 consequence, control of the town became one of September he supervised the action around the chief o~jectives of both armies. The large Priors Hill fort, north-west of the town centre. and sprawling town was defended by two lines of fort1ficat1ons. A long circuit of dry ditches Cromwell stayed in Bristol for several days after stone walls or earth banks with five intervai its fall; he returned in 1649 on his way to forts and numerous gates surrounded the sub Ireland, lodging at Joseph Jackson's house for a urbs north of the Avon and Redcliffe in the fortnight from 14 July while he awaited the S?uth-east. The inner city was protected by the arrival of money for the campaign. He passed nvers Frome and Avon on all sides except the through the town again in May 1650 on his ndonhh-eah st,dwl here a huge medieval castle block- return from Ireland. e t e ea and between th d · · Despite its large and eventful role in the Civil The f .fi . e mean ermg rivers. th . ortt cal tions appeared very strong but War, there is little to be seen in Bristol today. e1r great engrh the . ' th ·1 I - outer circuit was over The seventeenth-century defences have been ree m1 es ong - meant that h b overrun and obliterated in the later expansion of troops were needed to hold h uge num ers of of two t em. It was the fate t~e city and even the mighty castle has gon.e, defend B~s~~~ors to have insufficient men to slighted in the 1650s and now surviving only in fall. and to be severely criticised for its the name of a green and several streets on the north bank of the Avon (around ST593732). Bristol was held b p 1• 1 There is a modern plaque by Christmas Steps to of war, but on 23YJu~~ ;~~~t ~t the outb~eak before the town with upert arrived Col. Henry Lunsford, a Royalist officer shot defend the town N hup . to ~0,000 men; to dead here on 26 July 1643 as he led an assault ' at an1e 1 F1ennes had just on the Frome Gate. William Penn, one of Cromwell's Admirals Avon Bed{ordshire 4 L.ANSDO\X'N were in tatters, Sir Bevil Grenvilie and many WOBURN 5 f Bl k r1 s buried near a other officers were dead and on the following Bedford (n0549) Sir Lewis Dyve's Royalist and a colleague ~ Sta ~~~ry; Reddiffe. quickly taken by Parliamentary forces at the mural monument in ' 5 day Hopton was badly injured and many more raiding party briefly occupied the town in Octo ber 16~3 , skirmishing ~ith a small Parliamen outb.reak of the ~ar. The late Tudor brick hall killed when a cartload of powder exploded on survives as a private residence. Lansdo\\·n (ST7268 ) Lansdown ~as the only Tog Hill. tary unit around the bridge. Before moving on ficant battle of the C1\'il War in Avon, and Lansdown Hill is still open ground above the Ro.yali.sts made a futile effort to refortify th~ :il;;:~ugh inconclusive, it contributed to the ero- Bath crossed by a minor road. The northern very d1lap1dated Norman castle, which survives C~ifton (1L165393 Cromwell's cousin Thomas of the Parliamentary hold on the area slop;s, where the fighting was fiercest, are more as a lo.w motte to the west of Newnham Road. A third son of Sir Philip Cromwell, lived at Clif~ s10~ J6·i3 Hopton's army was in ton the 1650s. Whtie his brothers Oliver during summer ., · h heavily wooded now than they were during the Royalist force passed through the town again in du~ing and P~tltp had both fought and died for Parlia Bradford on Avon by 2July and then spen~J ref seventeenth century. By the road at the crest of August 1645, once more clashing with Par da ·s tr}1ng to march around the. east s1 e,. o liamentary soldiers around the bridge. ment ~n the previous decade, Thomas had served the hill is a monument to Sir Bevil Grenville, an the King~ become Major of a Horse Regiment Ba~h and sever Waller's commun1cat1ons w1t_h obelisk erected by his son John, 1st Earl of Bath. Cromwell was certainly here on 11June1645 Wiltshire. By the 5th Hopt?~ had pus~ed his and in July 1647 .and he probably passed ~nd s u~1ve.d unscathed. He died in 1658 and "·ay up the Avon valley, driving in Parliamen through the town.quite ~requently on his way to hes buried tn an unmarked grave in All Saints Thornbury Castle (ST633907) The castle, Church. tary outposts from Claverton, Batheasto~ and and from Cambr1dgesh1re and Lincolnshire. In Monkton Farleigh (Wilts), and was preparing to reaily a grand domestic residence with slight March 1644 he directed that any letters and military pretensions, was begun by the 3rd Duke attack Lansdown Hill. messages for him be addressed to the Swan in Dunsta~le (Tl0121) A Royalist party raided Lansdown is a large hill with steep sides and a of Buckingham in 1511. Garrisoned by both Bedford, where he would collect them. The t~e to~n 1n June 1644, plundering and looting, long flat top which runs north-west from Bath. sides during the war to cover the road from present Swan Inn in the High Street dates from d1srupt11~g .a ch~rch service and taking pot-shots Waller had occupied the hill on 4 July an~ by the Bristol to Gloucester, it survived intact and was the late eighteenth century, but probably stands at the m1n1ster tn the pulpit - they missed. The morning of the 5th had drawn up his men remodelled in the eighteenth and nineteenth on the site of the earlier Swan known to Crom landlord of the Red Lion, High Street North, behind hastily dug earthworks near the northern centuries.