Naseby Battlefield
Viewpoints and Suggested Tour
The named viewpoints can be visited in whatever order suits the traveller. The features of interest to be seen from each are described here, and the order in which they are shown correlates to a large extent with the timing of events on 14 June 1645. Visiting them in this order may be more satisfactory as the story of the battle unfolds. At the time of writing the facilities mentioned below are being built and visitors may find them incomplete until summer 2007.
The facts are not easy to find as they are gathered from letters, diaries and memoirs some of which were written years after the event. Some of the most interesting and conjectural parts of this interpretation can be explored further in the Questions and Puzzles section of this site.
A .PDF version of this tour including a map is available for download from here.
Rupert's Viewpoint
South of East Farndon, west of the road to Clipston. Car parking, coach turning and parking space, viewing platform with wheelchair access and interpretation board. Trees and shrubs appropriate to the area have been planted.
On the morning of 14 June 1645 King Charles and Prince Rupert brought the royal army up from Market Harborough to this position on the ridge between East Farndon and Little Oxendon by about 8.00am. The position was secured to the east by a thick hedge at Little Oxendon, and by steep drops to the west and north, down to the Welland valley. It was strong for static defence (a position of very great advantage) but poor for tactical movement.
The view to the south differs today with the building of the A14 road, the communications mast next to it and the addition of a spire to Naseby church tower. More importantly, trees, woods and enclosure hedges have been planted. The landscape of 1645 had a few parish boundary hedges and very few trees. Rupert was unable to see Fairfaxs army at Naseby windmill (now the Obelisk) because it is beyond the higher ground of the ridge on the horizon. Francis Ruce carried out a scouting reconnaissance to locate the enemy, but reported (With a lie in his mouth?) that he had found nothing. When Fairfax ordered the move westwards his army marched over the ridge into view. Rupert saw them and immediately hurried his troops south-west to meet them across Broadmoor, between Naseby and Sibbertoft.
Fairfax's Viewpoint
North of the bridge over the A14 on the road from Naseby to Clipston. Car parking, coach turning and parking space, viewing platform with wheelchair access and interpretation board. Trees and shrubs appropriate to the area have been planted.
Early on Saturday 14 June Captain-General Sir Thomas Fairfax marched the New Model Army north from Guilsborough towards Naseby to meet at Naseby windmill (now the Obelisk). By 8.00am King Charles and Rupert had moved the royal army to the position on the ridge between East Farndon and Little Oxendon. The view north from the windmill was limited by the rising ground, so that Fairfax and his commander of horse, Lieutenant General Oliver Cromwell, rode to the edge of the steep hill overlooking Clipston to look for their enemies.
The countryside was mainly of large, open fields without the hedges and woods as is shown on the interpretation board so that the visitor can imagine the view they had in 1645. The parliamentarian generals, who were close to this viewing platform, could see the royalist army on the distant ridge to the north and wanted to draw them into a fight. Realising their own hill was too difficult for Rupert to attack, they ordered the New Model Army westward, to their left, onto more high ground south of the open, shallow Broadmoor valley. Prince Rupert saw them on the march as they came over this ridge and ordered his army to Dust Hill, north of Broadmoor, to offer battle.
The Obelisk Monument
Between Naseby village and the bridge over the A14, east of the road. Lay-by to the west of the road. Wheelchair access at road level only. Interpretation board.
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Royalist and Parliamentarian patrols clashed on the evening of 13 June in Naseby village, giving the alarm to both sides. Early on Saturday 14 June Fairfax brought the New Model Army by various different routes north from Guilsborough towards Naseby to meet here, at Naseby windmill. In a treeless landscape on its earthen mound, it was a prominent landmark The wheeled transport, the baggage and artillery trains, had to stay on the primitive roads to avoid getting stuck in mud. The foot (infantry) and horse (cavalry) would have chosen their own routes. The regiments were then ordered into battalia, their fighting formation. No one knew if they were about to fight or if they were to continue their pursuit of the royalist army through Market Harborough and beyond. Would King Charles stand and fight?
From here the view to the north is limited by the ridge through which the modern A14 runs in a cutting. The parliamentarian commanders rode north on the road to Kelmarsh (now the Clipston road) to see if they could spot the enemy their spies had reported. They had to go no further than what is now Fairfaxs Viewpoint.
The Cromwell Monument
West of the Naseby to Sibbertoft road, north of the A14, as shown by brown signs. Lay-by. No purpose-built wheelchair access, but ground negotiable in good, dry weather. Interpretation board and board with reproduction of engraving of Streeters 1647 picture diagram of the battle.
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The Royalists were deployed on Dust Hill, across the valley to the north, while the Parliamentarian troops were drawn up south of the monument just south of the top of the hill and out of the sight of a person standing at this place.
This area was mostly open ground, but contained by an ancient parish boundary hedge around Sulby to the west (hard to see from here) and a rabbit warren (on todays Lodge Hill, two fields beyond the road) and boggy ground to the east. Lieutenant General of Horse Oliver Cromwell put dragoons behind Sulby Hedges. Their musket fire caused the royalist cavalry on the western flank to charge, forcing many of parliaments horse to flee. To the west of the monument the ground rises and then falls away for a stretch, making a little valley in the face of the slope occupied by parliament forces. The royal foot attacked and were concentrated into an arrow formation by the little valley so that it almost broke through Fairfaxs line. Reserves thrown in stubbornly resisted. Cromwells troopers routed the horse opposing them and then fell on the left flank of the royal foot, cantering through the site of the monument to do so. The royalists began to retreat and to surrender. Despite Ruperts Bluecoat Regiment standing like a wall of brass on the slope just west of the road to the north, Fairfaxs counter-attacks succeeded in driving the royalists back. Part of the royal army went on fighting, all the way they had come that morning, in a battle reaching a climax on Wadborough Hill.
The Route of the Retreat
Not yet, at the time of writing, provided with interpretation boards or viewpoint sites. Visitors can drive north on the single-track road and turn left for Sibbertoft village. On the outskirts of the village turn right and take the next turn right for Clipston. At the Reservoir, opposite a large house, Lowe Farm, on the south (right) side of the road, it is possible to park and walk back to the bridleway sign. The road continues towards Clipston to a junction where it is possible to turn left for Marston Trussell. Where the verge on the left narrows at the top of the hill it is possible, with car, to park on the grass and walk on to find a stile on the left giving access to the brick-built Royal Observer Corps look-out post.
The royalist army did not, as popular accounts used to state, break and run from Broadmoor. Considerable numbers probably surrendered there, but many continued to fight as they retreated along the road to Sibbertoft and along the route of the footpath that runs on northwards from its junction with the Kelmarsh to Sibbertoft road. The northern end of this is marked by the bridleway signpost on the Sibbertoft to Clipston road. Looking north, down the hill towards the woods, is to see part of the line of flight. Turning a little to the east there is a circular copse and the skyline formed by the top of Moot Hill. For a while a stand was made there by the Royalists.
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From the Reservoir parking place Moot Hill is to the north with woods on the side running down to the valley beyond. The next hill to the east (right) is Wadborough, where the final stand was made by royalist soldiers.
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From the Royal Observer Corps lookout the full sweep of the days battle can be appreciated. To the north-east Ruperts Viewpoint can be seen near East Farndon. Turning clockwise, the communications mast next to the A14 stands on the skyline and further right Fairfaxs Viewpoint. The spire of Naseby Church projects from behind a clump of trees and then the white bulk Mill Hill Farm appears. Woods obscure a view of Broadmoor, but then Lowe Farm, opposite the Reservoir parking, shows and to the right of that a lone tree stands on Moot Hill with the woods to the right of the open field. The stand on that hill continued until their comrades had established themselves on the nearer hill, Wadborough. Then the defenders of Moot Hill turned and ran for their lives, down the slope into the valley and up to their new position to continue the fight. How long they held out on Wadborough is impossible to say, but eventually they could stand no more and they fled down the slope to the right, still turning and resisting from time to time. The lucky ones, mostly horse, made it to Leicester.
Bloodymans Ford, Welland Park, Market Harborough
In the park, near the junction of the A4303 and the road to East Farndon. Wheelchair access and interpretation board.
In the early hours of 14 June 1645 royalist forces marched towards East Farndon to meet at the church, which stood out clearly on the treeless hill. From there they were directed to their positions across the hillside south of the village. Many of them passed along this road, crossing the river here by a ford.
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At the close of the battle, from the heights of the hills south of the Welland valley, Royalist troops fled, pursued by Parliamentarian horse. Some rode east or west of Market Harborough and others made direct for the town, as did King Charles and his personal staff. As they got back here, to Bloodymans Ford, a troop of Parliamentarian horse threatened to cut them off. A contemporary account says:
The King himself in person being necessitated, with his own troop only, to charge through the body for his escape and it is said that his flight was aided by a gentleman of the Bedchamber, that stood next the King, and cryed, Hold your hands! The King will yield his person! Which while they did, he got away and so escaped.
