Battle of Winceby 1643

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Battlefield
List Entry Number:: 1000041
Date first listed:: 06-Jun-1995

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Battlefield
List Entry Number:: 1000041
Date first listed:: 06-Jun-1995
Location Description:: WINCEBY

This list entry identifies a battlefield which is registered because of its special historic interest.

Understanding registered battlefields

Corrections and minor amendments

This list entry identifies a battlefield which is registered because of its special historic interest.

Understanding registered battlefields

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Lincolnshire
District:: East Lindsey (District Authority)
Parish:: Greetham with Somersby
County:: Lincolnshire
District:: East Lindsey (District Authority)
Parish:: Hameringham
County:: Lincolnshire
District:: East Lindsey (District Authority)
Parish:: Lusby with Winceby
County:: Lincolnshire
District:: East Lindsey (District Authority)
Parish:: Mareham on the Hill
National Grid Reference:: TF 31360 68764

Details

BATTLE OF WINCEBY 1643

The Civil Wars of the mid seventeenth century were a reflection of profound political, constitutional, religious and social conflict which was expresses in a struggle for control between King and Parliament.

In October 1643, a Parliamentarian army was besieging the Royalist stronghold of Bolingbroke Castle. The Royalists gathered a force of some 2,500-3,000 cavalry and dragoons at Lincoln to raise the siege. Midway between Horncastle and Bolingbroke Castle, however, at the hamlet of Winceby, the Royalists were intercepted by an equal number of Parliamentarian cavalry and dragoons.

The battle lasted no more than half an hour. Cromwell's first charge did most of the damage, and Fairfax followed up to complete the Parliamentarian victory. The defeated Royalists fled, so tradition had it, south-westwards, but many became trapped in Slash Hollow where they lost their lives to the pursuing Parliamentarian cavalrymen.

In 1643 the landscape was one of open sheep pasture with few enclosures. The hawthorn hedges belonging to enclosure and improvement in the nineteenth century have largely gone, but the tree plantations survive from this period of landscape change.

AMENITY FEATURES Public access by footpath and road is plentiful, and good views of the battlefield exist. An old ditch line in Slash Hollow marks the area where the Royalists were trapped. The Snipes Dale car park is convenient and offers the opportunity for a combined nature conservation and historical visit.

OTHER DESIGNATIONS The battlefield lies within an Area of Great Landscape Value in the emerging Local Plan. Trees at Round Hill Holt are under a Tree Preservation Order. The Lincolnshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty abuts the northern edge of the battlefield. Two areas of nature conservation value lie to the east.

KEY SOURCES 'A true and exact relation of the Great Victory obtained by the Earl of Manchester and the Lord Fairfax', dated 19 October 1643, Thomason Tract E 71, Journals of the House of Lords, vi, 255.

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment to the Selected Sources on 10/04/2019

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 42
Legacy System:: Battlefields

Sources

Websites
English Heritage Battlefield Report: Battle of Winceby 1643 (Published 1995), accessed 10th April 2019 from https://historicengland.org.uk/content/docs/listing/battlefields/winceby/