Keep Your Powder Dry

Update: developers have finally been given the go ahead to build warehouse units on the Parkside Colliery site which covers the Parliamentarian lines on the battlefield. So go and visit before the views of the lines are lost. (On the plus side, the developers have to provide a battlefield trail and signage.) The Battle of Winwick, also known as the The Battle of Winwick Pass, and the Battle of Red Bank (I've also seen it referred to as the Battle of Warrington) was the culmination of the Battle of Preston  . The defeated Scots Royalist Army had fled from Preston pursued and harried by Parliamentarian soldiers from The New Model Army and The Northern Army. Those soldiers who hadn't deserted the Scots/Royalist Army rallied and mounted a last stand on the outskirts of Warrington at Winwick. Lobster pot helmet on display at Warrington Museum and Art gallery As the fighting was almost continuous over the course of three days, Winwick is often described as a continuation of th...

As I have almost run out of Royalists and Parliamentarians to paint, and I have a small Covenanter force it would make sense to create the Army of Montrose. Something I have been shying away from for a very long time due to tartan*, but anything is preferable to painting Napoleonic Austrians. James Graham, the Marquis of Montrose portrait on display at Broughton Castle My Covenanters, and the Scots from the Army of Montrose, could also be combined to form a Scots Royalist Army for the Preston and Worcester campaigns. We know very little about about Montrose's Army; the Scots seem to swap sides and allegiance at the drop of a hat, so much of what we know about Montrose's men dates from a short period of their existence when they fought for the Covenant. Montrose never really had a base for his army, the bigger Scottish towns and cities were firmly with the Solemn League, Montrose drawing soldiers from many much smaller settlements (where diarists and chroniclers, on th...

Those tempted to purchase from Naismith should check the status of the company on internet forums, as service can be sporadic at times. The Naismith-Roundway website has gone, and the domain is available to purchase.  Sadly, it does now look like Naismith have disappeared. However a limited stock of Naismith ECW can be found in stock at  KeepWargaming  (no limbers I'm afraid, as I've just bought the last packs). They do have the personality packs listed as in stock. In the interests of balance, here's some more Parliamentarian commanders. Like their Royalist counterparts these are also Naismith sculpts. My observations from the Royalist personality pack stands for these too - beautiful sculpts but they do lack an element in size consistency (in this case heft). These, like the Royalist Naismith commanders, have been mounted upon replacement horses. Rather than being representative of Essex, Fairfax and Cromwell these figures have been painted to represent Major Gener...

Home of the famous medieval cross*, Banbury is  located 22 miles north of Oxford. A Parliamentarian town that was held by the Royalists. Besieged twice the town suffered greatly during the Wars. The oldest pub in Banbury, Ye Olde Reine Deer Inn , is often reported as where Oliver Cromwell planned the Battle of Edgehill. Only that is very unlikely as he was pretty much a nobody in 1642, and he turned up late for the battle. So late in fact that everyone else was packing up ready to go home. You'd have to be pretty incompetent to turn up late for your own battle. What is for certain is that the Inn was used as a judicial court, and many high profile Royalist prisoners were tried here. It is therefore quite likely that Cromwell did at least visit the building during these court hearings. (Their pub food is to be heartily recommended.) Banbury Museum has an extensive collection of artefacts relating to the Battles of Edgehill and Cropredy Bridge. Located in the Castle sh...

I'm always on the lookout for some appropriately sized command figures for my armies - sadly the  ECW range is a seriously lacking in this department, and you can only go so far with conversions. So I took the plunge and bought some commanders from the Naismith ECW range - the figures below are the 'Lucas, Rupert and Charles I' pack. But first a word about Naismith figures. An extensive portfolio of ranges that were sold by Navwar, the ranges available were slowly getting dropped from production until only a few of the 15mm ranges were still available. The Naismith moulds (and also Roundway) were sold and went back in to production.  Those tempted to purchase Naismith should check the status of the company on internet forums, as service could be sporadic at best. The Naismith-Roundway website has gone, and the domain is available to purchase.  Sadly, it does now look like Naismith have disappeared. However a limited stock of Naismith ECW can be found in stock at...

The regiment fought at the Storm of Burton on Trent; the Storm of Bristol; the Siege of Gloucester; a Skirmish at Stow on the Wold; Aldbourne Chase; First Newbury; the Battle of Olney; Cheriton; possibly the Battle of Horsebridge; the Taking of Bodmin; the Taking of Respryn Bridge; Lostwithiel; a Skirmish at Caradon Down; a Skirmish at Blandford; a Skirmish at Basing House; Second Newbury; the Relief of Donnington; possibly a Skirmish at Winchcombe; a Skirmish at Islip; the Storm of Leicester; Naseby; were besieged at Leicester; the Storm of Huntingdon; Rowton Heath; a Skirmish at East Bridgeford; were besieged at Shelford House; their final action was possibly a skirmish at Marlborough. Led in the field by Henry Jermyn, 1 st Earl of St Albans, Henrietta Maria’s Master of Horse. Jermyn had accompanied the Queen to The Hague prior to the outbreak of war to raise support for the King. Jermyn was the Queen’s favourite, gossip suggesting that he was the true father of Charles II. ...

The story of the Civil Wars is a story of two men, Cromwell and King Charles, butting heads over how the three kingdoms should be governed. A rather simplistic and stylised (not to mention inaccurate) view, but a view that seems to dominate our history books, and national consciousness. But what of the lives of the others who gave and suffered so much during the turmoil? Civil War petitions give us an insight, as do household records such as Lady Fanshawe's Receipt Book. The 'lot' of women rarely taking centre stage in our view into seventeenth century Britain, but that changes with the latest film that is set in 'our' period, albeit a slightly strange cinematic offering. Fanny Lye Deliver'd has much in common with earlier films set during the period: it was beset with financial issues and nearly didn't get released (as did To Kill a King), ventures into magic mushroom use (A Field in England), and features a strange group of radical thinkers (Winstan...

A Royalist Regiment of Dragoons that fought during the First Civil War. Raised in December 1642 it was expected that the Regiment would easily recruit 1000 men; in reality, at their first muster, they numbered just 60. They mainly fought in and around Cheshire, Shropshire and into the Welsh Borders. They took part in skirmishes at Nantwich and Tarporley; the first battle of Middlewich; possibly Hopton Heath; more skirmishing  at Moss House,  Market Drayton, and Loppington; stormed Whitchurch; battle of Wem and Leigh Bridge; probably at the siege and battle  of Nantwich; believed to have stormed Market Drayton and Hopton Castle; definitely at the storming of Oswestry; possibly stormed Sir Vincent's home, Moreton Corbet, and a skirmish at Montgomery; the Battle of Montgomery Castle; relieved Beeston Castle; the siege of High Ercall; the battle of Denbigh Green; possibly at the battle of Stow on the Wold before being besieged first at Bridgnorth  then i...