Battle of Winceby 1643

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/

End of official list entry

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