A brief report and photos of the conference on

 

The English Civil War in the south west with a focus on the Battle of Roundway Down 1643 and its consequences - April 30th, 2011.

 

Above: Alan Carter, Chairman of Devizes Heritage addressing the Conference in the elegant ballroom in Devizes Town Hall.

 

Sixty two delegates registered for this very successful Conference. The five speakers provided a broad and interesting programme and the audience participated spiritedly in the questions and answers session after each speaker.

 

Devizes Heritage, the Battlefields Trust and Gary Walling of the Sealed Knot provided interesting exhibitions which included the cannon ball and bullet finds made in 1975 on Roundway Down and the Old Chalk Pit as one potential burial ground for some of the 600 dead in the battle. Armour, clothing, pikes and muskets were shown by Alan Turton and Gary Walling.

 

The speakers

 

Professor Malcom Wanklyn (right) offered a critique of the reasons that have been propounded over time for the causes of our Civil War. He detailed the King's strategy in the West of England from 1642 to the fall of Bristol in 1643 and pointed to weaknesses in his strategy that led ultimately to his losing the war. Waller's success in skirmishes and smaller Sieges were contrasted with his failures in the larger strategic battles such as Roundway Down. Ultimately the defeat of Waller was put down to the personalities and leadership abilities of two Commanders, Lord Wilmot and Sir William Waller and the greater battle experience of the Royalist Horse.

 

Right: Christopher Scott 

Chris gave a very interesting power point show on the armies, the commanders and the personalities of the leaders at the Battle of Roundway Down. He argued that the traditional location of the warning gun and initial battle field site was correct and postulated that Haselrige may have been driven down into Roundway village. It was probably Waller who was seen on the skyline of Roundway Down traditional interpretation of how and where the battle was fought.

 

Right: Alan Turton gave an illustrated presentation on the common soldier at the beginning of the English Civil War. This included an overview of the recruitment and military life of the soldier. He gave detailed descriptions of billeting, clothing, food and military equipment. Alan also included the treatment of the wounded soldier and their lives after the war. His slides of paintings and drawings were from contemporary sources, which, he explained, had to be drawn mostly from Continental sources due to the paucity of British illustrations of the time. Alan Turton is is Curator Basing House, Hampshire and an author of may English Civil War books, including Battle of Edgehill written with Chris Scott.

 

Right:  Dr. Glenn Foard, Research Fellow in Battllefield Archaeology, University of

Huddersfield. Glenn outlined his research work on the Battle of Edgehill site with lucid details of maps - landscape, historical and finds. He showed how historical sources alone cannot exactly define the battle site. He illustrated how one needs to integrate historical research, carry out historical landscape analysis, include artifacts already found to determine a metal detecting programme to look at the density of different type of bullet and cannon ball finds. In these ways one can pin down where particular actions between different kinds of troops actually took place. He discussed briefly what needed to be done on Roundway Down

 

Below the five speakers during the final question and answer session.

 

 

The battlefield tour on May 1st, 2011.

 

Alan Carter and Dr. Glenn Foard (right) went up to Roundway Down at  8 am before the Tour started. They walked the English Heritage site for the initial conflict on the high point of Roundway Down (242 m). The actual site down to the plain towards Morgan's Hill is relatively small and Dr. Foard feels that in one season of metal detecting it should be possible to verify where this initial cavalry - cavalry battle exactly took place. Either one of the two options discussed at the conference could be sorted relatively straightforwardly.

 

At 10.30 am 21 delegates and 3 Devizes Heritage volunteers gathered in the Devizes Millennium White Horse car park. The first part of the walk was circular going up to the high point, down towards Morgan Hill (right) and back to the car park. This took an hour giving plenty of discussion of the King's Army approach along  the old coaching road and the options for the start of the battle and Waller's deployment.

 

Below left the Interpretation sign near Oliver's Castle car park

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below left coming down the steep slopes of Beacon Hill and Right - Lunch on the edge of Bloody Ditch at the bottom of Beacon Hill - looking towards Oliver's castle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If anyone or agroup is interested in doing this tour in the future then please contact Alan Carter - ac1859@hotmail.com

 

The final programme for the conference has now been published

 

 

A day conference for the public, civil war enthusiasts, academics and government agencies. 

 

Organised by: Devizes Heritage and the Battlefield Trust  

 

Date: April 30th 2011 from 10.30 am until 4.30 pm at Devizes Town Hall, Devizes, Wiltshire

 

 

 

Speakers: Five speakers, include nationally important civil war historians and a battlefield archaeologist. ·

  • Professor Malcolm Wanklyn author “Military History of the English Civil War” (2005), “Decisive Battles of the English Civil War” (2006), “Warrior Generals - winning the British Civil War” (2010). He will talk about the military strategies in the West during 1642 to 1644.
  • Chris Scott military historian and author of the Battle of Edgehill (2005) and the Battles of Newbury (2008). He will talk about the armies and their leaders at the Battle and the traditional interpretation of how and where the battle was fought.
  • Dr. Glenn Foard leading UK battlefield archaeologist as seen on March 16th 2011, "Time Team" about his Battle of Bosworth work. He will talk about what battle field finds can tell us about the course of a battle and will chart the way forward with archaeological metal detection on Roundway Down.
  • Alan Turton, civil war researcher, artist and co-author of "Edgehill, the battle reinterpreted"(2005). He will talk about soldiers and their weapons,  the way they fought and their social history.
  • Alan Carter, Devizes Heritage, will talk about the primary sources of information on the Battle, known archaeology of the site and will offer a detailed reinterpretation of the battle. All speakers will join in a debate about where the battle was fought                                                                                                                  

Tickets, Registration and reserve a place on Sunday's Battlefield Tour

 

Tickets:£15 , Concession £10 (Pensioners, Battlefield Trust members, students)

 

Please send a cheque payable to Devizes Heritage at the following address:

Devizes Heritage, 14 Kempsfield, Devizes , SN10 5AX

 

We ask that you reserve a ticket even if you don't not wish to pay in advance, so that we can cater for seats, drinks and biscuits.

 

Reserve a ticket by e-mail ac1859@hotmail.com or to answer queries

 

Sunday Battlefield Tour on Sunday

 

Also please reserve a place for the Battlefield Tour on Sunday May 1st. There will be a charge for the Tour, profits to go towards Archaeological Research on the Down in 2012. Limited number of places are available so please register for this too.

e-mail ac1859@hotmail.com  Payment at Devizes Town Hall at the conference where details will be given. Any Queries: phone 01380 723519