Questions & Answers

[dereklester]

Oxoniensia December 2015 published, 'The Military and political Importance of the Battle of Chalgrove (1643)' Derek & Gill Lester. The article can be viewed and read at https://johnhampdensregiment.org.uk/oxoniensia

Victory County History Vol 18 https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol18 cites our research on the battle of Chalgrove under 'Social History' on page 143.( Footnotes fn 364 and 366 refer)

Warpsgrove House a key feature to locate





Your questions are invited to [email protected]
English Heritage published the Battlefield Report : Chalgrove 1643 in 1995. The attachment 'E H Register Revised' itemises the errors in the original report. The attachment 'English Heritage Report' is the suggested report to update English Heritage's website.

Please read our seminal work provided in the link. Our interpretation counters the accepted view that the Battle of Chalgrove was a minor encounter. We have shown that the Earl of Essex's 'Two Letters', The one unto the SPEAKER printed June 23 1643 BL., Thomasons Tracts, E55 19 was heavily redacted by the Commons House in Parliament.
There is a reward of £100.00 to the person who finds the original document that was written by the Earl of Essex 19 June 1643 and forwards a copy, with the source, to the writer.
The Earl of Clarendon's account of the Battle of Chalgrove describes and confuses an encounter that took place a week after the Battle of Chalgrove.
Lord Nugent wrote, 'Some Memorials of John Hampden his Party and his Times' Pub. 1832. Its contents referring to to the Battle of Chalgrove is shown to be total fiction.
Biographers of the Battle of Chalgrove have used the above flawed sources to write their own account and to locate the Battlefield on which John Hampden was mortally wounded.
Lord Nugent raised by subscription John Hampden's Monument at Chalgrove for the 200th anniversary of Hampden's mortal wounding. Within a few paces of this spot he received the wounds of which he died' is engraved on the Monument.
Nugent wrote that the Battle took place in a cornfield beyond a boundary hedge at the bottom of Golder Hill. This cornfield, easily identified, is a mile away from the Monument. Our article shows that the Battle took place 1,000 yards westward from this cornfield near Warpsgrove House. Victoria County History (VCH) Sept 2016 Vol. 18 has published our research (page 425) regarding the location of Warpsgrove House. VCH sponsored a geophysical survey based on findings from William Webb's 1612 map and have positively located Warpsgrove House.
Ordnance Survey came to Chalgrove in 1880 read the engraving, 'within a few paces of this spot he received the wounds of which he died', on the Monument and placed their crossed swords in the nearest cornfield opposite. In 1995 English Heritage surveyed the area to include the Battle of Chalgrove in their Battlefield Register. With military expediency they moved the battlefield's location 400 yards northwards over the hedges that line the Old Watlington to Oxford Road. The Battlefields Trust's 'Resource Centre' for the Battle of Chalgrove reflects the entry in English Heritage's Battlefield Register. They are both shown to be misguided.
The Chalgrove Battle Group has uncovered that Chalgrove was a major encounter which had profound military and political consequences. Queen Henrietta Maria, on learning of Essex's disaster at Chalgrove made haste with a vast convoy of arm and supplies from Newark castle to Oxford. The Earl of Newcastle rode north and Adwalton Moor 30 June 1643 destroyed Fairfax's army. The towns of Bradford, Halifax and Leeds were taken for King.