Keep Your Powder Dry

When one thinks of Coventry, one thinks it is part of the general industrial sprawl that is the West Midlands; and a city that got flattened by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz. This does Coventry a massive disservice. Medieval Coventry was one of England's great cities; founded by the Romans, it expanded into a religious centre in the 700s. A market was established and by the twelfth century a castle was erected. By the fourteenth century Coventry was an important market, boasting guildhalls and a great civic wealth based upon the cloth trade. Between 1350 and 1400 the city erected stone walls, fully encompassing the city. Coventry was described as having 12 gateways and 32 towers; although this would appear to have been 20 individual towers and 12 gateways (with towers). This is backed up by Speed's 1610 map of the city. The city had a strong affiliation with the crown, but when Charles I requested the tax known as "ship money" in 1635, protests broke out. By the time...

A bonus post. Crivens! On a Thursday too! In my quest for the easy-life, I have come across a number of bits of stuff, that, well, just make everything easier. Regular readers (hello both of you) will be aware of my almost evangelical zeal for the joy of blu-tack. Those of you who are new a quick precis: blu-tack is a really good way of holding figures/sticking them to the cutting mat when doing stuff that will almost certainly result in loss of blood when you get it wrong. Drilling out hands, drilling heads, major conversions that involve sharp stabby, pointy things basically. For an example see here . Tongue depressors/waxing sticks are cheaply and easily available on fleabay, and make the painting of large numbers of figures a lot easier to manage, less messy, and a heck of a lot quicker. But what of those figures that are really awkward, or need extra bling?  Enter the painting handle. There are some really fancy wooden ones, with celtic designs etched on to them. Blingtastic, ...

And so, dear readers (hello both of you), our attention returns to the London Trained Bands; rather than regale you with discussion about their uniforms (or lack of them) I will, instead, direct you  here . The Blue Regiment was the fourth in seniority within the London Trained Bands system. It was recruited from the wards of Bridge, Walbrook, Bread Street, Candlewick, Dowgate, Vintry, Cheap and Queenhithe. Although the London Trained Bands were used primarily to defend London, regiments marched out from the City with the Earl of Essex’s army on a number of occasions.   The Blue Regiment were at Turnham Green; went to the relief of Gloucester; fought at First Newbury; took part in a skirmishes at Aldermaston and Padworth; and returned to Newbury for the Second Battle. After Second Newbury they returned to London (the other LTB regiments returned to London not long after) as the New Model Army became Parliament's field army of choice. After 1645 nothing really of note happened ...

This incarnation of Rossiter's Regiment of Horse is their New Model Army guise: the earlier form of the Regiment carried cornets with a black field, upon joining the NMA they were given new cornets with a white field. I've given them Captain Owen Cambridge's troop's cornet - we know the designs of six cornets belonging to different troops. Rossiter would hand over command of the regiment to Colonel Philip Twistleton in 1647 after he was dismissed from the army for his support of Parliament in its disagreement with the Army about the King's captivity at Holdenby House*. Rossiter's Horse had escorted the King to Holdenby House and were part of the guard once he was at Holdenby. Twistleton would lose command to Colonel John Clobery late 1659, early 1660 when Monck reorganised the Regiment. Present at Naseby and the siege of Leicester; Rowton Heath; skirmishing at Belvoir Bridge and Walton; Preston; Winwick Pass; they invaded Scotland with Cromwell, fighting at Dunb...

For more Yorkshire 'related stuff' you can find West Yorkshire here ,  North Yorkshire  here , and  East Riding  here . The former People's Republic of South Yorkshire saw a little less action than its cousins West, North and East Yorkshire. The largest 'incident' being the Siege of Sheffield . The town fluctuated between Parliamentarian and Royalist control, leading to a 10-day siege of Sheffield Castle by Parliamentarian forces in August 1644. Eventually, the siege resulted in the Royalist surrender of the town and ultimate destruction of the Castle. The Sheffield Castle site has long disappeared underneath the modern city, it was located in the space boundaried by Castlegate, Waingate and Exchange Street. Despite the modern appearance of the city, there are a handful of buildings that survive from the time of the wars. Old Queen’s Head Pub on Pond Street is a fifteenth century timber framed building and the oldest surviving domestic building in Sheffield. Broo...