Keep Your Powder Dry

Bromesberrow Church is famous for being the home of the Yate cornets. (A cornet is the name given to the small, 60cm square cavalry flags used in the Civil Wars.) Two Civil War cavalry cornets, one believed to be Royalist, the other Parliamentarian were given to the church by the Yate family, they had been in the possession of Rice Yate (d.1690). Rice had been a Royalist cavalry officer - one cornet belonging to his squadron, the Parliamentarian cornet having been captured. Both cornets are believed to have been present at the Battle of Edgehill. The white cornet is attributed to Captain-Lieutenant Rice Yate and bears the motto “religio Protestantism leges Angliae libertates parlamentorum”, which translates as “Protestant religion, laws of England, freedom of Parliament”. On first reading this would seem a strange motto for a Royalist standard, however, those are the words of Charles I from "Declaration in Defence of the True Protestant Religion". The red corn...

The ECW Travelogue visited Oliver Cromwell's House ; bold claims from the nearby Cromwell Museum that they had the best collection of Cromwelliana, left me wondering whose coat I'd hold in the inevitable museum staff gang fight behind the shops after school. I needn't have feared becoming involved in a museum rumble - the two museums are very, very different.  Cromwell's House is located in Ely, a beautiful medieval cathedral city. It also doubles as the local tourist information office, and triples as the local 'Escape Room'. What's there to see? Most of the museum is laid out as it would have looked when Oliver and his family lived in the house. There are a number of items of Cromwelliana, including this statue. One of the rooms upstairs is devoted to the Civil Wars, and has a number of display panels and replica items on display. The museum also has a free walking guide to Huntingdon available "In Pursuit of Cromwell" ...

A trip down to 'that there London', inevitably led to a slight detour via Cambridgeshire for the ECW Travelogue. First stop The Cromwell Museum  which claims to be the "home to the best collection of items relating to the life and times of Oliver Cromwell on public display anywhere in the world". Sounds like fighting talk to me. Best to check that claim out... The museum is located in the former Huntingdon Grammar School building, a school attended by Oliver himself. The building itself has a fascinating history, starting it's life as a medieval hospital. So what's there to see, and can it back up it's claim? If you are looking for interactive displays, a coffee shop, and acres of space then perhaps this isn't the museum for you. The building itself is quite small, the collection it houses could quite comfortably fill a museum two or three times it's size. There are a number of items of arms and armour on permanent display. ...

The next, gripping* installment of the Sir William Waller Southern Association adventures... Basing House was strategically important, on the road from the King's capital in Oxford, to the important stronghold of Winchester. Replica saker positioned on one of the rampiers Views across the remaining earthworks Basing House was a Norman Castle, a Tudor palace and the home of the Earl of Winchester. The House came under it's first siege in 1643 by Sir William Waller. Waller had 7000 men but couldn't breach the considerable earthwork defences over the nine days of the siege, the defenders lost just two men.  The Great Barn, which saw fierce fighting, and is one of the few buildings to still stand  The second siege started in Spring 1644, this time Parliament's men decided to starve the defenders out. The siege was relieved in September of the same year when Gage marched from Oxford with a relief column. Gage was able to march ...