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SKIRMISH
... by Graham Palmer
"I have delivered my conscience and I pray God you do take those courses that are best for the good of the kingdom and your own salvation" CharlesI
1642 saw a bitter civil war erupt, a long drawn out affair that resulted in the execution of a king and England coming under the rule of Parliament and Oliver Cromwell.
Wiltshire was very much a county where the two opposing armies passed through on their way to fight though our county did see some major conflicts but despite the fact that Aldbourne parish was then literally in the middle of nowhere war visited even here.
The summer of 1643 had seen a number of Royalist victories and locally the King's armies had captured several towns like Marlborough, Malmesbury and Cirencester and Newbury after which there was extensive pillage of surrounding villages reported and with our community being one of the larger this parish must surely have been visited during this time
Fighting in Marlborough High Street - as it may have looked
July 13th had witnessed the battle of Roundway Down near Devizes where Prince Maurice, a younger brother of Prince Rupert, more or less completely destroyed the Parliamentary army under Sir William Waller.
Littlecote House
Our neighbourhood was predominantly on the side of Parliament and Littlecote House, only some 4 miles away and a Puritan stronghold, was until recently the home of the finest collection of civil war armour in the country.
A little of the Littlecote armoury since removed by
the Royal Armouries
Little is known of going's on in Aldbourne during this time but life would have revolved very much around the church. Richard Pugh was our vicar from 1639 to 1660, the period not only covering the war but that of Cromwell as well, but evidence for the general unsettlement in the village is to be found in a note made by a later curate in the church registers - 'no records kept during the time of civil disorder'.
The siege of Gloucester by the Royalist army began on the 10th of August 1643. The Earl of Essex was sent from his camp near Reading to relieve the city and although his army had been much incapacitated with sickness it rallied into action. Strengthened by a brigade of the 'London Trayned Bandes' Essex succeeded in routing the Royal armies and by September 4th the King was forced to withdraw.
Parliamentary troops on the move
Essex chose to cross the Royalist front for his return journey to Reading and endeavouring to steer clear of any encounters with any of the Kings men attempted to conceal his troops by using remote paths and valleys. Prince Rupert had sent out patrols from Faringdon in an attempt to locate Essex and one led by Colonel Sir John Hurry, a Scot who had started the war as a Parliamentarian but who later sided with the King and who was executed in Edinburgh in 1650, came across Essex and his men in a steep sided valley in an area of the parish known as Aldbourne Chase. The valley road leads down from the now vanished settlement of Snap to Aldbourne some two miles or more away.
Snap was a quiet sleepy place with no more than a handful of villagers so imagine the shock when some 14,000 men and all the paraphernalia that war brings suddenly traipsed down their high street! Did they too suffer any persecution from the passing soldiers? Probably but as there is no record of any pilfering we cannot be sure but it would at least have been a frightening time for the people. Snap deserves an account of it's own and we will be looking at this fascinating place some time in the future.
One of the 4,000 horse soldiers was an individual named Sergeant Henry Foster who fortunately for us recorded a 'true and exact relation of the marchings of the two regiments of the trayned bands of the City of London '……….
'on the Sabbath day we marched from Cricklet (Cricklade) to a market town called Swindown (Swindon)…… this morning news was brought that the cavaliers were come to Cister (Cirencester) and had taken and killed many of our men…… this night our London brigade was quartered at a poore little village called Chiselton (Chiseldon) where we could get no meat or drink but what we brought in our knapsacks; most of us quartered in the open field it being a very cold frosty night '.
Snap valley looking towards Aldbourne - Dudmore Lodge
stands upper right
With the dawn came wet weather and so the bedraggled army moved off initially taking the road towards Marlborough and then rerouting via Lower Upham and up onto the escarpment that now follows the Ridgeway path and then down through Snap and into Aldbourne Chase. Foster relates that Essex marched his army consisting of 10,000 foot, 4,000 horse and 15-20 field guns along the valley track that runs east from Snap to Aldbourne.
Essex had attempted to avoid action on his return journey and this secret little valley exactly suited this purpose but never the less they were attacked by Rupert's 5,000 horsemen and a running engagement ensued pausing somewhere below Dudmore Lodge where Essex made a stand somewhere around the lower lodge barn area though the exact site of this action has never been identified.
the battle as it may have looked
Rupert had no cannon but Foster tells how ….. ' we fired some Drakes at their horses' which had 'gathered round Duddon Lodge' and years later Lord Clarendon recorded in his history of the Rebellion and Civil Wards in England (1816) that Rupert 'routed them with good execution' in 'a conflict which was very sharp for an hour or two'
canon smoke filled the air
A charge was also made to no avail by Colonel Harvey against the Royalists despite the killing of several noblemen including the Marquis de St VieuVille whose body was eventually removed to Hungerford.
Incidentally Drakes were small field guns firing a three pound shot over a range of 600 to 1300 yards and Richard Jefferies in his ' Marlborough Forest' essay tells 'to this day a rusty old cannon ball may sometimes be found under the dead brown leaves of Aldbourne Chase'. Some sixty years ago several cannon balls were found by some young boys but sadly they were given to the war effort.
the path that leads up to Snap as it is today
it is difficult to believe that once a torrent of 20,000 men, horses & cannon passed this way
The running battle passed through the village and it has been said that wagons carrying munitions overturned and were exploded in the village to prevent them from falling into the hands of the enemy. The battle raged on past Preston and into the parish of Ramsbury with Hurry's men giving continuous fire at the retreating soldiers.
It is not known exactly how many men were killed that day on either side but early in the 19th century men working on the road to Hungerford came across a mass grave of some 60 souls near to Preston. An argument broke out between Ramsbury and Aldbourne as to who should pay to have the remains buried and although the bones were found in the parish of Ramsbury the obligation was given to Aldbourne and the men were finally given a last resting place on the North side of the church.
We will never know for sure which side the men were from but I think it likely that they were from the Royalist camp for it would seem that Essex would have had little time to stop and deal with any dead until they reached a place of safety. Some years ago the men's remains were again uncovered when villager Gerald Jerram was digging a grave confirming the site of the men's last resting place for their bones lay only a few inches below the surface of the ground.
Essex continued on through the valley past Littlecote House and into Chilton Foliat where he spent the night. Alas he hampered just too long giving the Kings army time to force him into action in what was to be the first battle of Newbury on September 20th.
Local folk must have been very frightened indeed infact at least two persons hid what was most likely their entire life savings and for whatever reasons never returned to retrieve their property. A few years ago a builder digging footings for a new porch on a house in Chilton Foliat came across one of the long hidden stashes of silver coins.
One would have thought that the chances of a remote place such as Aldbourne ever seeing another soldier let alone an army as very small indeed but the very next year on the 10th of April 1644 an army 9,000 or 10,000 strong and led by the king himself mustered again in Aldbourne chase! What must have passed through the minds of the locals? This time all was peaceful and the soldiers were soon on their way for like it has already been said Wiltshire was very much a place that armies often just passed through. Aldbourne Chase had been settled on the young Charles by his father King James 1 when he was the Prince of Wales in 1624.
Incredibly, but for the last time, Aldbourne suffered under the weight of a military presence. In 1645 a small Royalist force set about a Parliamentary unit some 300 strong that had been quartered in the church but it would appear that this time a peaceful meeting was had and that prisoners were exchanged for horses. This was a common occurrence and both sides would have benefited from this treaty.
The war ended in 1649
I would like to refer you to 'The village in the valley' by Barbara Croucher, 'Snap' by Kenneth Watts and either of the two village books by Gandy and Crane for further reading .
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