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Summary

Site of the First Battle of Newbury, 1643 - listed in Historic England's Battlefields Register, but of larger extent than just the registered area

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Registered Battlefield 1000026: Battle of Newbury 1643
• Conservation Area: Kennet and Avon Canal West
• Conservation Area: Newbury Town Centre
• Scheduled Monument 1012811: ROUND BARROW CEMETERY ON WASH COMMON
• Scheduled Monument 1013245: TWO BOWL BARROWS: PART OF A BARROW CEMETERY ON WASH COMMON.

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• National Monuments Record No.: SU 46 NE 48
  SU 450 650

Monument Type(s):

• BATTLEFIELD (17th century - 1643 AD to 1643 AD)

Full Description

This battlefield marks the site of the First Battle of Newbury, fought on 20th September 1643, and ending without a victory on either side. Parliament's main field army under the Earl of Essex was returning to London from Gloucester, but the Royalists, including Prince Rupert and Charles I himself, blocked their way. Had the Royalists realised the full potential of their initial positioning on the high ground south of the town, they might have won the battle.

There are four main primary sources of information on the battle <1>; two by Royalists <2><3> and two by Parliamentarian soldiers <4><5>, although there are many other contemporary documents (eg<6><7><8>).

The battlefield was registered <9><10> following extensive consultation in 1994-95. Although some attention was paid to both this battlefield and that of the Second Battle of Newbury during the mid 19th century <11><12>, detailed local study of the battles really started with historian Walter Money <13><14><15>; Money was the first to attempt mapping the site of the conflicts, and carried out some rudimentary field observations of possible earthworks. He was also instrumental in the erection of the Falkland Memorial at Wash Common.

A military historian's perspective on the battle has been provided in several publications <16><17><18>, and there are several general gazetteers and atlases in which the First Battle of Newbury figures <19><20><21><22>. The battles at Newbury and siege at Donnington Castle have been put into a county-wide Civil War context <23>, and an undergraduate thesis has looked at the effect the war had on the area of Newbury <24>. Several booklets and pamphlets gathered together information about the battle around the time of its 350th anniversary <25><26><27>, some in connection with reenactments. However, there has been little evidence of the battle recorded during developer-funded archaeological fieldwork in the area <many reports, eg 54-79>, and only a few records made of Civil War artefacts recovered from the site <34>. There are only a few reports of human remains being found which might relate to the conflict (see MWB15853, MWB16153 as well as the supposed link with the Wash Common barrows MWB1550). It may have been the case that all fatalities were interred in churchyards; Money refers to churchwarden's accounts which suggest that a number of bodies were buried at St Nicolas after the First Battle <13 - p46>.

The GIS polygon for the battlefield has been drawn approximately, but includes a wider area than the Registered Battlefield. The battlefield lay between the two rivers of the Kennet and Enborne, and the two sides were drawn up in north-south lines with the Parliamentarians on the west and Royalists on the east. Much of the area of Royalist deployment on Wash Common is now built over. It has been suggested by the Battlefields Trust <28> that there is still uncertainty about the exact placing of the action within the landscape.

A book on the battle and the preceding events by Day <37> is the first to comprehensively examine contemporary sources and historic maps <48><49><50><51><52>. It presents a new interpretation of the location of the fighting.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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