Edwin Alfred Walford

“ The Tower or Round House is an inn, which, with a modern-antique ruin, makes as it were a landscape gardening adjunct to Radway Grange lying in the park below. From its upper room is obtained a fine view of the country. It is an octagonal tower, and was erected with artificial ruins in 1750 to mark the spot where the King’s Standard was displayed before the Royalist army descended into the plain to give battle. The village of Radway rests amongst the elms near the foot of the hill, the church spire being one of the prominent objects of the foreground. ”

“ Each regiment of Lord Essex’s army carried a standard inscribed on the one side with the watchword of the Parliament, “God with us,” and on the other side the motto of the regimental commander; Lord Saye and Sele’s were the blue coats, the Commander’s were orange and Lord Broke’s purple; Colonel Ballard’s troops were clad in grey, Colonel Holles’ in red, and Lord Mandeville’s in blue. Across his breastplate each officer of the Parliamentary army wore an orange scarf, the commander’s colour. ”

“ The infantry under Roberts and Constable having moved forward to aid in the attack upon Carnarvon, now wheeled upon the King’s centre, which soon became the focus of a fierce and bloody fight, for the elated Roundhead horse, after crushing in the Royalist left wing, hurled themselves also upon the flanks of the nearest troops of the King’s centre, and the blue-coated Broughton horsemen had a busy time of it amongst the royalist gunners as they rode through the battery. Earl Lindsay’s Lincolnshire regiment, which he had led pike in hand, received the brunt of the attack ”

“ Each side claims that only the night prevented a completely victorious issue for its cause, but when we consider that the right wing and centre of the King’s army were disorganised, and in part driven up the hill, and that the Parliamentarians were in possession of the battle ground, the Royalists retaining possession only of the low ground from Radway to Bullet Hill, it seems that the advantage rested on the Puritan side. ”

“ Towards mid-day the royalist army had occupied the whole length of the brow of the hill between the Sun Rising and Arlescot; the left wing at the Sun Rising, the centre at about the point where the Round House now stands [2] and the right wing at Knowle End, where the road to Kineton descends the hill. Well had it been for the King had the advice of so able a soldier as Earl Lindsay prevailed at the council of war over the more impetuous policy of Rupert. ”

“ The long room of the upper storey is large enough for the “the stowering of a troop”—if time allowed the quartering of King Charles or Oliver Cromwell in a new place a legend might be found—it must suffice to know that it was probably the home of the famous Puritan soldier Nathaniel Fiennes. The hall, well lighted and with good panelling, is at the north-east of the building, the further extent of the house on the west side of the court yard is shown by the old foundation. ”

“ Field ways from Banbury run from the end of West Bar, and by a less direct but pretty route across the farm field on the Oxford Road. The buildings of All Saint’s School, founded about half a century since, are at the entrance of the village. The school has earned good place by the excellence of its tuition. The brook cutting through the town from west to east and the many side streets and jetways add a pleasant appearance to the many good homesteads and gardens.
Bloxham Church (St. Mary’s) is one of the most perfect specimens of Gothic architecture in the county of Oxford. ”

“ Yet as they came back on our left hand, Sir Philip Stapleton, with his Troop, went out to charge some 4 or 5 Troops of them which went away from him as fast as they could upon the spur to the rest of their Company, and their foot that stood by their Ordnance, most of the enemie’s horse being gathered to their foot, most of our horse also gathered to our foot, and so we stood horse and foot one against the other till it was night. Our Army being thus possessed of the ground that the enemy chose to fight upon, stood there all night ”

“ The hill slopes are in the main formed of the clays and shales of the Middle Lias, the Zone of Ammonites margaritatus with certain characteristic fossils, Cypricardia cucullata, &c., appearing in the old brickyard at Arlescot. There is no other exposure of the seleniferous shales of the zone; their course [Pg 60] is masked by a rich belt of woodland. The natural terraces somewhat characteristic of this horizon in the midlands are roughly developed towards the Sun Rising, and are more perfectly shown at Hadsham hollow in the Hornton vale. ”

“ The King’s forces seem to have been quartered about the country between Wormleighton and Cropredy, Prince Rupert with his cavalry near Wormleighton, the King himself staying at Edgcot House, whilst the main body of the army occupied the slopes and high lands on the Northamptonshire side of the Cherwell vale near by. Thus the three roads North of Banbury were dominated by the Royalist troops, and the fourth, the old London road, was within striking distance. ”

“ On the right Wing of our Army, was Sir James Ramsey, with some 24 Troops, for many of our Troops were not in the Field that day. The Armies being thus placed one against another with no great oddes of the winde or ground (but what their was of winde the enemies had it, the ground being reasonable indifferent on both sides) after many shot of Cannon which did very little hurt amongst us, and very much amongst them, their foot advancing for the most part against our right Wing, and their horse against the left Wing of our Army. ”

“ Essex and Chomley and Lords Wharton and Mandeville, with Sir Wm. Fairfax in reserve, occupied the ground between the cavalry and the main body. A few guns were placed in the rear of the horse.
Imposing indeed must the sight have been in bright sunlight of that early Sunday afternoon as the Royalist troops, began to descend the hill side! The slopes do not appear to have been so thickly wooded as they are now, and the unenclosed country, without the many obstacles of fence and hedgerow, [B388] offered all that a cavalry officer could desire for the exercise of his art and arm. ”

“ Nothing remains of the Cross once standing on the green, and of Sir Thos. Cobb’s [Pg 79] famous house there remain but the gateways and kitchen. The village during the time of the Great Rebellion was held as a Royalist outpost in the Banbury area. Mr. Wilmot, afterwards Lord Rochester, with his local troops of horse fought on the left wing of the Royalists’ Army at Edge Hill. A cavalry fight took place during the war near Bodicot, on the Banbury road, when Fiennes had some success. ”

“ Lord Essex’s artillery were the first to break the peace of the day, a challenge immediately replied to by the Royalist guns near Radway. Wilmot, of Adderbury, made the first aggressive movement in a charge upon the Parliamentarian right, and though some success seems to have attended it, yet it can scarcely have been of so much importance as Clarendon the Royalist historian [B] makes out, for he writes: “The left wing, commanded by Wilmot, had a great success, though they had to charge in worse ground, amongst hedges and through gaps and ditches which were lined with musketeers. ”

“ Hanwell Castle during its tenure as a farm house lost much of its old work in successive alterations. Two massive octagonal turrets and the facing of the west front remain of the old building. The right-handed stairway, a flight of eighty steps in the north turret, is of very thorough Hornton stone work, but the turrets and front are of the good flat red brick in use in Tudor time, with stone quoins. It would appear that the right hand stairway lent itself better to defensive uses; the upper rooms are entered from the turret stair. ”

“ There were on the side of the Parliament eleven regiments of foot, forty-two troops of horse, and 700 dragoons, numbering according to Nugent about 13,000, though the officers in their account [PH] place their strength as low as 10,000, which may have meant prior to the arrival of Hampden with the artillery and rear troops. The Royalist army is stated to have possessed 1,000 horse and 4,000 foot more; [G256] in all 14,000 foot and 4,000 horse and dragoons—but as very few troops were of full compliment the numbers were no doubt over estimated. ”

“ Nevertheless, two of the royal regiments refused to be beaten; falling back upon their guns, they made a stand, probably along the line from Radway to Bullet Hill, and there, reinforced by Rupert’s returning troops, they held their ground, repulsing the Parliamentarian attacks, and so says Fiennes, [PB] “horse and foot stood together against horse and foot [Pg 30] until night, when the Royalists retired up hill.” It is probably from this stage of the fight that Bullet Hill got its name. ”

“ Much delay would be occasioned in getting the [Pg 15] troops across the river Cherwell, not so easy to be forded at that time of the year. The narrow bridge [1] would allow but slow passage for 10,000 or 12,000 men, with all the impedimenta of war material. Another pamphleteer [PA] says “the King’s horse were at the rendezvous between ten and eleven; the van of the foot an hour later, and the rear and artillery, including the Lord Lt. General’s own regiment, not until two hours after.” ”

“ The handsome chancel screen removed from the hall, though large for its place, is of skilled later workmanship; especially rich are the spandrils and ornament on the inner side of the screen. On the west chancel wall is a mural tablet to Robert E. Spencer, of date 1610, and an empty tomb is in an inlet in the north wall of the aisle. Arms of the Spencer family are on the wall above the belfry arch. A south doorway in the tower and the carved heads of the tower moulding are worth notice. ”

“ Then followed a brilliant personal fight for the royal standard, but the Puritan horseman Copley cut down Sir Edmund Verney, knight marshal of the King’s horse, and standard bearer, and secured the prize. The success of this attack was largely brought about by the ruse alluded to, where, “pretending to be friends,” they broke [Pg 27] in upon the King’s regiments. If it is true that they got so near as to shake hands, the business must have been very simple. ”

“ Tysoe Hill, four miles S.W. of the Round House, and the hills which fringe the borderland of Warwickshire and Oxon, are nearly all capped with sands or limestones of the Inferior Oolite, and occasionally with the marly limestones of the Great Oolite also. ”

“ The day after the Battell all our Forces, horse and foote were marched up, and other forces from remote parts, to the number of 5000, horse and foote more than were at the Battell, now at my writing, my Lord Generall is at Warwick, upon our next marching we doe expect another Battell, we here thinke that the King cannot strengthen himself, for the souldiers did still runne daily from him, and I believe if we come to fight a great part of them will never come up to the charge. ”

“ Wilmot’s (afterwards Lord Rochester, of Adderbury,) position and work during the day, nothing other than the mere statement is made of a far greater leader, Spencer Compton, Earl of Northampton, than that he was at Edge Hill, with some of the best disciplined men. [MW] It would seem that the extended movement of the Royalist forces along the hill ridge in the early part of the day was to give support to Compton Wynyate, or get aid therefrom. ”

“ These faced the Battledon Farm, about one mile North-West of Radway, and on some rising ground to the right the artillery was posted.
The right wing moved towards the Sun Rising. It was composed of four brigades of horse, under Sir John Meldrum, Col. Stapleton, and Sir William Balfore (the divisional general) , with Col. Fielding’s brigade and some guns in the rear. Capt. Fiennes’ regiment was with this wing, which was covered on the right by some musketeers. Captain Oliver Cromwell fought there also. ”

“ The celebrated old Cross is believed to have stood near the site of the present one, and was destroyed about the year 1602, at which time it went ill with the other Crosses which formerly adorned the town, owing to excesses of religious zeal. ”

“ Infantry, including the Oxfordshire Militia under Sir William Constable and Lord Roberts, took up the intervening space between the centre and the right wing. The cavalry of the left wing, covering the Kineton road, was [Pg 20] made up of twenty-four troops, under Sir James Ramsay: the infantry in five regiments, officered by Cols. ”

“ It is true, there were Colours and Canon taken on both [Pg 51] sides, without any great difference in the numbers, but for the number and quality of men slaine and hurt, it is verily believed, they left foure times as many at the least as we did, and in saying foure times as many, I am confident I speake much below the truth. There were slaine on their side the Earl of Lindsey Generall of their Army, the Lord Aubigney, brother to the Duke of Richmond, Sir Edward Verny Colonell, John Monroe and divers other gentlemen and Commanders, and very many hurt. Of our side were slaine the Lord St. ”

“ I did indeed.” Neither can Dugdale’s [C] account of Cromwell’s hurried descent from a church steeple by means of the bell rope, when he saw the Parliamentarian disaster, be received in the face of the letter written by Captain Nathaniel Fiennes, [PB] which ends thus: “These persons underwritten were all of the Right wing and never stirred from their Troops, but they and their Troops fought till the last minute. The Lord Generall’s Regiment—Sir Philip Stapleton, Captain Draper, Serjeant [Pg 35] Major Gunter, Lord Brookes, Captain Sheffield, Captain Temple, Captain Cromwell ”