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HER Number	MWB16537
Record Type	Monument
Name	Escarpment on Newbury-Enborne parish boundary

Grid Reference	SU 456 653
Map Sheet	SU46NE
Parish	Enborne, West Berkshire
	Newbury, West Berkshire
Map:	Show location on Streetmap

Summary

Parish boundary ditch or former hollow way possibly used for shelter during the First Battle of Newbury

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

Registered Battlefield 1000026: Battle of Newbury 1643

Monument Type(s):

(Alternate Type) BOUNDARY DITCH? (Unknown date)
(Alternate Type) HOLLOW WAY? (Unknown date)
PARISH BOUNDARY (Unknown date)

Full Description

A marked change of slope is still visible in the 21st century between the open fields of Enborne and residential area of Newbury west of Elizabeth Avenue. This earthwork feature runs along the parish boundary, as it did in the late 19th century <1>, and is likely to have originated as a boundary ditch. Several authors on the First Battle of Newbury have noted it as an 'escarpment'; Money drew it on his plan as east of the track of Dark Lane <2>. Burne and Young, however, have it as a bank adjacent to Dark Lane, and suggest that the Royalist infantry took shelter in it <3>, but think it would have proved an obstacle to the Royalist cavalary. Roberts also draws the escarpment as a strategic natural feature on the battlefield <4>.

English Heritage have used this line (and the parish boundary either side of it) as the eastern edge of the Registered Battlefield <5><6>.

Sources and further reading

<01>	Landmark. 1872-85. Digital Ordnance Survey Mapping Epoch 1, 1:2500 (25 inch). Digital. 1:2500. [Map / SWB14341]
<2a>	Money, W. 1881. The First and Second Battles of Newbury (1st ed). [Monograph / SWB11644] https://archive.org/details/firstsecondbattl00monerich (Accessed on 02/08/2022)
<2b>	Money, W. 1884. The First and Second Battles of Newbury (2nd ed). Plan. [Monograph / SWB12745] http://openlibrary.org/books/OL14008014M/The_first_and_second_battles_of_Newbury_and_the_siege_of_Donnington_Castle_during_the_Civil_War_1643 (Accessed 23/09/2013)
<03>	Burne, Lt Col A H and Young, Lt Col P. 1959. The Great Civil War - A Military History of the First Civil War 1642-1646. p103, Map p100. [Monograph / SWB146726]
<04>	Roberts, K. 2003. First Newbury 1643 - The turning point. Plans. [Monograph / SWB14321]
<05>	English Heritage. 1995. Battlefield Report: I Newbury 1643. [Unpublished document / SWB12743]
<06>	The Battlefields Trust. 2001-06. UK Battlefields Resource Centre. http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre. Accessed 14/03/2008. [Website / SWB12387] http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/resource-centre (Accessed 02/04/2012)

Related Monuments

MWB15762

Newbury I Battlefield, 1643 (Landscape)

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

None recorded

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