Exhibition Graphics

NEWPORT PAGNELL
CROMWELL’S
GARRISON TOWN
© National Trust Collection/Ian Blantern
© National Trust Collection/Bryan Evans
Oliver Cromwell, 1599-1658
King Charles I, 1600-1649
A country gentleman and MP for Huntingdon, he became a soldier,
statesman and finally Lord Protector of Great Britain. Cromwell visited
the Newport Garrison on several occasions during the First War.
Crowned in 1625, he believed he ruled by the Divine Right of Kings
which drew him into conflict with Parliament that led to his eventual
downfall. Charles I was executed (beheaded) in 1649.
The Civil War 1642 – 1651
The First War 1642 – 1646
The Civil War was a series of three separate wars,
armed conflicts between the Parliamentarians
(Roundheads) led by Oliver Cromwell and the
Royalist army of King Charles I (Cavaliers), a war that
divided families, Protestants and Catholics and the
whole nation.
Following the Battle of Edgehill in 1642, the First
War was a significant episode in Newport Pagnell’s
history. The town’s location at the confluence of
two rivers and the bridging and fording points that
crossed them became strategically vital to both
sides. Having taken Bedford the Royalists led by
Prince Rupert marched on to Newport Pagnell
capturing the town in 1643 and put Sir Lewis Dyve
in charge of building entrenchments.
It led to the trial and execution of King Charles I and
the replacement of the monarchy with the First
Commonwealth of England (1649-1653) and then
with the Protectorate (1653 – 1659)
under Oliver
Cromwell’s rule.
The war established
the concept that an
English Monarch
cannot govern
without Parliament’s
consent.
Pamphlet announcing
Parliamentarian
military successes
tudies
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NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
NEWPORT PAGNELL
A GARRISON TOWN
“We heare from Newport Pagnell in
Buckinghamshire, that the cavaliers make creat
fortifications to keep awle her cood cattles and
Welsh runts and other provisions from coming to
London and by keeping out the fat beasts, was
make her have a verie leane citie…”
Welch Mercury, 1643
The Parliamentarians struck back three weeks later, a
poor military decision by the Royalists left the town
unguarded and troops led by the Earl of Essex
moved in and never lost control again.
The Bodleian Libraries, The University of Oxford, MS. Top. Bucks. b.6
The Garrison fortifications
by Van den Boome, 1644
showing the ramparts
designed by Cornelius Van
den Boom. Probably the
earliest map of the town
it shows many of the
town’s features of the
period.
Courtesy of Janet Lane
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
EARTHWORKS ARE
QUICKER THAN STONE
Bury Field earthwork section is all that remains of the original
ramparts, 2012.
The ‘Battery’ in the church cemetery overlooks the point where the Rivers Lovat and Ouse meet, 2012.
With the Royal Court at Oxford, the military strategy
of the King and his nephew, Prince Rupert, was to
operate out of pockets from country houses and the
estates of loyal supporters. In comparison the
Roundheads took the approach of creating a series
of fortified garrisons along a ‘front line’.
Such was the importance of Newport Pagnell that in
1643 Parliament ordered the building of a garrison
to be strongly fortified, manned by 1200 foot
soldiers and 300 horse, costs kept within a budget
of £4000 per month (approx £6m in today’s terms),
and the Governor given powers to force ‘the richer
sort of inhabitants’ to buy weapons for the poorer in
times of need.
Designed by Cornelius Van den Boom, a Dutch
engineer, a series of earthworks of 3metre deep
ditches and 3metre high embankments with
bulwarks were constructed around the town and
completed in 1644. Earthwork barriers were quicker
to erect than stone or flint walls, but were labour
intensive, more than 3000 men and hundreds of
horse-drawn carts and wagons were used in the
construction and its continuing repairs. Naturally
protected by the converging Rivers Ouse and Lovat,
a series of river sluice gates were installed that once
opened would flood the land and surround the
town entirely by water in the event of an attack.
Despite the substantial nature of the defences little
survives today – an earthwork ditch in a now
protected scheduled ancient monument site at Bury
Field and a bulwark mound in the cemetery of St
Peter and St Paul Church, known as ‘The Battery’,
believed to have been a gun emplacement.
Courtesy of Newport Pagnell Historical Society
18th century illustration of the High Street depicting the Governor’s military and civilian
headquarters at the Saracen’s Head next to the Swan Inn (now known as the Swan
Revived).
Courtesy of Living Archive
©Bedfordshire County Council, location Moot Hall, Elstow
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
THE GARRISON
Sir Samuel Luke, 1603-1670
MP for Bedford and Governor of the Garrison, an administrator and military
commander who employed his own Troop of Horse and Regiment of Foot at the
Garrison where he served until June 1644.
The town population (around 2000) increased
dramatically with the arrival of 1500 troops, officers
and their camp followers. Existing within the
ramparts were homes, shops, market stalls, the
shambles (a ‘tented’ covered shopping area), a
hydraulic water pump and reservoir (built by Dutch
engineers), a hospital, church, stables, stocks, a gaol
and a prodigious number of taverns.
A major attack was never launched upon the
Garrison; its vital role was as part of the
Parliamentarian defences, supplying troops and
armaments to regional attacks and battles. It was
also regarded as an important intelligence gathering
centre under the Governor, Sir Samuel Luke.
Soldiers were billeted in the town and in a hastily
built barracks in the High Street that soon collapsed.
Many were encamped outside the ramparts at
Castle Meadow below the Church. Outposts were
established at local villages; a large body of troops
and a prisoner stockade was sited at Lathbury. Oliver
Troops marching through the town, part of the Sealed Knot re-enactment festivities
held in the town in 1980.
Cromwell’s second son, Oliver Jnr. a young officer of
20, was billeted at the Sherington encampment
where, reportedly, he later died of ‘camp fever’
(probably small pox or typhus).
Engaged in the capture of the town, Sir Samuel
Luke, Governor of the Garrison for 18months from
1644, established his headquarters in the best
hostelry ‘The Saracen’s Head’. He had both military
and civilian responsibilities including collecting taxes
to maintain the garrison.
“I understand you have billeted some foot soldiers
on me and my tenants at Linford, and am informed
by letters that I have 22 of them in my own house. It
is not unknown to you that myself and our country
have paid our contributions constantly to your
garrison. …. Do me the favour to remove your
soldiers from my town.”
Letter from Sir Richard Napier (Royalist sympathiser),
to Sir Samuel Luke, April 1645
© Cowper and Newton Museum
©National Trust Images/John Hammond
The east side of the pre 1894 old ‘Duchy’ bridge at Olney.
Courtesy of Living Archive
Prince Rupert, 1619 -1682
Appointed Commander of the Cavalry at 23; Rupert's achievements early in the war
earned him a fearsome reputation amongst opposing Roundheads, many believing he
had supernatural powers.
The Sealed Knot, English Civil War re-enactors at Riverside Meadow, Newport Pagnell,
1980.
Battle of Olney Bridge, 1643
The Siege at Grafton Regis, 1643
Prince Rupert marched on Olney, intending to
continue on to recapture Newport Pagnell. The
Royalist troops took the Olney forces by surprise and
the Parliamentarians retreated to the bridge where
they made a stand. The Royalists could have won
decisively, had it not been for a rumour that
Cromwell's reinforcements were seen coming from
Newport, but they retreated and the battle was over.
Grafton Regis, one of the largest and best fortified
Royalist houses in the area, had royal connections
dating back to Elizabeth Woodville’s marriage in
1464 to King Edward IV, and as a former hunting
estate for Tudor royalty. In addition, the son of Sir
Everard Digby of Gayhurst (one of the convicted
Gunpowder plotters who attempted to blow up
Parliament), Sir John Digby was in-charge at Grafton
with a force of 200 musketeers and 80 troopers.
Conflicting reports from both sides gave different
casualty figures but 40 Cavalier prisoners were
imprisoned at Lathbury.
Major-General Philip
Skippon, 1600 -1660
Led the siege on Grafton Regis, he
was also responsible for capturing
Newport Pagnell with his troop of
orange and green uniformed
Roundheads marching up from
London along Watling Street.
In 1651, Skippon bought several
estates in Bletchley and Milton
Keynes that had been sequestered
from Royalists, becoming a wealthy
man when he later sold them on.
Courtesy of Buckinghamshire Archaeology Society
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
OLNEY AND GRAFTON
Major-General Philip Skippon in-charge of the
Newport garrison led the attack with a large
contingent of cavalry, 1000 troop soldiers, four siege
guns and supporting troops sent from
Northampton. The Crane family and troops at the
Manor held out for two days until a cache of
munitions was hit, exploding in the house killing one
man and seriously wounding nine others. Digby
surrendered on the third day (Christmas Eve) of the
Siege. Prisoners were taken to the gaol at Lathbury,
Digby was sent on to the Tower of London. The
house was looted and burnt to the ground.
Courtesy of Cheryl Butler
All Saints Church, (The Cathedral in
the Fields) Hillesden which still bears
musket shot holes in the main door
from the attack on the House and
Church during the Civil War.
The Sealed Knot re-enactors at
the Stony Stratford 350 year
anniversary Civil War celebrations,
featured in the Sunday Express,
24th April, 1994.
Roundhead Dragoon
The ‘frontline’ defences stretching from London to the South Midlands dividing the
strongholds of the Parliamentarians in the east from the Royalists in the west.
Chris Tilt, White Room Press
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
HILLESDEN
AND STONY
The Sacking of Hillesden House, 1644
Stony Stratford, the last conflict, 1644
The fortified mansion and church on the estate of
Sir Alexander Denton, a staunch royalist, at Hillesden
near Buckingham, first came under attack from
Aylesbury troops in February but to no avail.
Stony Stratford had been a Royalist enclave since
1642 and of strategic importance located on
Watling Street and the River Ouse crossing.
Occupied by Prince Rupert‘s troop of some 400
men, they experienced a series of minor skirmishes
in and around the town, but a strong attack was
launched in May from the Newport garrison. Thirty
raiders crept into town, cut the sentries’ throats,
caused mayhem in hand-to-hand fighting in the
town’s streets and alleyways. This final skirmish
routed the Royalists, securing the ‘Front Line’
between East Anglia and Oxfordshire for the
Parliamentarians.
Oliver Cromwell and Sir Samuel Luke led a
combined attack in March of troops from the
Newport garrison in a second more successful
assault. Despite the Royalists surrendering some
men were put to death after capitulating, but the
rest were taken prisoner amongst them Denton who
was later sent to the Tower of London. The house
was pillaged and burnt to the ground.
Chris Tilt, White Room Press
Culverin and Demi Culverin cannons were capable of firing a 15lb and 9lb shot respectively 1½ miles and would have been
sited on the garrison’s bulwarks. The Cannon pub is reportedly named because a cannon was found at the rear of the site.
A Musketeer
Pikeman on Parade, Sealed Knot at Riverside Meadows, August 1980.
©Slaup, The Sealed Knot
Courtesy of Living Archive
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
WEAPONS, MANPOWER
AND TACTICS
Camp Followers accompanied soldiers to the garrison and
battlefield, their ‘trayne’ was often larger than that of the army.
The Garrison army was made up of Regiments of
Foot (pikeman and musketeers), Troops of Horse
(cavalry), Dragoons (mounted musketeers), a ‘trayne’
of artillery and an accompanying baggage of camp
followers catering to soldiers needs. Cannon were
sited on bulwarks along the ramparts, as well as
being used alongside mortars as field artillery.
Governor, Sir Samuel Luke led many attacks himself,
but he was also a brilliant Scoutmaster gathering
intelligence through a network of agents. The town
was a cauldron of spies and informers from both
sides, but such was the accuracy of Luke’s reports
Cromwell gave a high priority to information he
received from Newport Pagnell.
The Musketeer’s main weapon was a matchlock
musket, it had a heavy barrel 1220mm long and
required a supporting wooden rest; these were soon
replaced by guns with shorter barrels. The loading
and priming of muskets required 30 separate
movements so groups of armoured pikemen (pikes
were up to 4.8m long) were used to fend off
attacks, especially from cavalry. Soldiers were
recruited from volunteers or by coercion (force was
common place) and required little training for
combat with a pike.
“This noble commander watches the enemy so
industriously that they eat sleep, drink not, whisper
not but that he can give us an account of their
darkest proceedings”
Mercurius Britannicus
The legacy continued well after Luke’s retirement
with the appointment by Cromwell of John Thurloe
as his commander-in-chief of intelligence in 1653,
who at one-time lived locally in Astwood.
©Austrian Lancer, The Sealed Knot Re-enactors
Once a thriving market town, Newport Pagnell and the whole
area soon saw shortages of crops, livestock, provisions and
horses once the troops and camp followers arrived. Many
families uprooted and trailed the army when their men
enlisted, living in temporary tented homes.
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A Parliamentari
an
Soldier’s Daily W
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Colonel
Captain
Surgeon
Lieutenant
Ensign
Gunner
Corporal
Soldier
45 shillings
15 shillings
8 shillings
4 shillings
3 shillings
2 shillings
1 shilling
8 pence
(£2.25)
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Commanders wh
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in Service were re
warded with hon
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often voted lands
and estates.
Called to ‘muster and maneuver’ (drill) every day
from 6 a.m. to noon, except Sunday, it was a hard
life followed by many idle hours waiting for action.
There was a constant shortage of military supplies
and food. Soldiers were paid little and rarely and
had no faith in the IOUs issued by Parliament, which
could be bought for eight pence in the pound. On
his retirement in 1645, Sir Samuel Luke himself was
owed back-pay of £4,500 that Parliament took two
years to finally settle. Desertion was a hanging
offence, consequently the plundering of property
and supplies, the ‘relieving’ of Prisoners of War and
the dead of their money and clothes was deemed
acceptable, a ‘lawful reward’ that Officers turned a
blind-eye to.
“There were two in my company who had but one
pair of breeches between them so that when one
was up the other must of necessity be in bed.”
Sir Samuel Luke
Women on both sides dressed as men to enlist and
fight in order to be with their husbands. Troops
were supported by hoards of camp followers often
larger than the army itself - made up of families,
dependents, widows, sulters (sellers of victuals and
supplies) none of whom were allocated garrison
provisions. To survive they foraged from the land
and undertook menial tasks for the army such as
laundry, sewing, cooking, basic medical-care and
prostitution to earn a meagre living.
With the prospect of even more men on route to
the town Sir Samuel Luke wrote to the Earl of
Manchester
“How their common soldiers will do for beds I know
not. All mine that belongs in the garrison lie 3 and 3
in a bed and although I have huddled my officers
together, which being gentlemen all bear it…, yet I
shall not discontent my soldiers”
Christian Tilt, White Room Press
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
A SOLDIER’S LIFE
Jac Collins, Courtesy of Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon
Early 17th century Apothecary’s Cabinet belonging to a wealthy man, this cabinet
includes surgical equipment as well as containers for pills, tonics and potions.
©masimage’s photostream, English Civil War Society
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
A SOLDIER’S HEALTH
AND WELL-BEING
Soldiers were often idle spending time in the many taverns or hanging
around the camp.
Overcrowded living conditions, poor hygiene (most
soldiers were louse-ridden) and streets with open
sewers were a recipe for diseases many of which
affected both men and horses inside the garrison - a
huge military concern. Armies in the field were also
badly affected with men often being taken ‘more by
disease than by the sword or bullet’.
Newport Pagnell’s hospitals mainly served the poor,
St Margaret’s (assumed to have been near to St
Margaret’s Close) and St John’s hospital near
Tickford Bridge (rededicated in 1615 by King James I
under the patronage of his wife Queen Anne).
There was also a leper hospital near North Bridge.
Cromwell appointed a surgeon for each regiment
and a barber-surgeon for each company, the latter
took on grooming and wig-making to supplement
The inscription on the wooden beam at the front of the building by
Tickford Bridge is dated 1615 and dedicates the hospital that once stood
on this site to the people of the town from Queen Anne, (wife of James I
and mother of Charles I).
their living. Surgery was dangerous and survival
rates low, battlefield injuries generally consisted of
knife and sword cuts, broken bones, open wounds
from artillery and amputation was often the only
treatment. Surgeons extracted teeth, and assisted in
childbirth to boost their income.
Gaming, gambling and women were popular forms
of garrison entertainment. Painted draught, chess
and backgammon boards were split and carried in
soldiers’ knap sacks; simple wooden-pieces were
carried in drawstring cloth bags. Cheaply printed
packs of cards made of rag paper did not have
numbers but were 52 to a pack - printed political
packs (those lampooning either side) were very
popular during the War. Dice also provided many
opportunities for gambling.
The Parish Church of St Peter and St Pau, circa 1800s.
John Bunyan, 1628-1688, then a young enlisted man was, like most soldiers, familiar
with the inns and brothels of the garrison.
A Reflection of the Times
Believing the established Church of England to be
strongly influenced by Catholicism many Puritans
attacked churches throughout the wars, destroying
altars and ritual icons inside.
“several people in ye town call’d Puritans; these
were greatly favoured by the Souldiers, and Religion
by that means, got footing here”
Sir Samuel Luke
The large numbers of troops drawn from the Eastern
Counties influenced the non conformist spiritual life
of the town; it was a hot-bed of religious
discontent, a reflection of the times. Rev John Gibbs
took stand-in duties at the Parish Church of St Peter
and St Paul and in 1646 replaced Rev Samuel Austin
who had been Vicar since 1631. Gibbs went on to
establish the United Reformed Church in the town
after the Civil War.
John Bunyan, a friend of Gibbs, served in Colonel
O’Hara’s troop at the Garrison for 2½ years. The
author of Pilgrim’s Progress later used his
connections with Matthias Cowley, from a family of
booksellers and publishers in the town to publish his
first works.
Muster Roll of Captain O’Hara’s
company, Newport Pagnell on
17th June, 1647. Amongst the
seventy-nine privates is the name
of John Bunnion, (future author
of Pilgrim’s Progress).
George Fox, an English
Dissenter and a founder
of the Religious Society
of Friends, (the Quakers) Memorial to John Gibbs, URC
also resided in Newport Pagnell for a while. Rev
Thomas Ford, a Presbyterian minister, was Governor
Luke’s cousin and Garrison Chaplain.
“…there were seven able divines in the town, two
sermons every Sabbath, one every Thursday, and a
chapter read and prayers every morning before
placing of the guards. No one was allowed out of
their house after 9 o’clock at night. ”
Sir Samuel Luke’s letter of October 1644 to Mr Whittaker,
Courtesy of Stowe Manuscripts
Like many towns the local parish records only list a
handful of names on the births, deaths and
marriage registers for the period, despite the
doubling of the town’s population.
Courtesy of United Reformed Church, Newport Pagnell
Courtesy of Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies
© Bedford Borough Council, Moot Hall, Elstow
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
RELIGIOUS
DISCONTENT
Courtesy of Living Archive
Sealed Knot re-enactors at Riverside Meadows, 1980
Courtesy of Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society
Courtesy of Bucks Archaeological Society
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
WAR REPORTS
Sir Lewis Dyve, 1599-1669
Having served with Prince Rupert, Dyve the self-appointed Royalist Governor pressganged the locals into building the first entrenchments in the town, earthworks in Bury
Field and a stone wall in Marsh End to draw water round the town. He had an estate at
Bromham.
Sir George Booth
Tales of Daring Deeds
Tales of Daring Deeds
After the capture of the town by the Roundheads,
Sir Samuel Luke scoured the area for his arch rival Sir
Lewis Dyve, the local royalist leader who had a
reputation as a dashing, daredevil soldier and who
first governed the town. Following a raid on his
home, Dyve was forced to dive into the River Ouse
near Bedford swimming to safety to evade capture
by Luke’s forces. A method he later repeated in the
Thames whilst escaping from the Tower of London.
A tale of poaching on the Hillesden estate, written
in a letter dated 1642 to his former employer, a
London merchant, by Sergeant Nehemiah Wharton
an officer in the Parliamentarian army.
Another escape recorded by a Civil Servant of the
time was that of Sir George Booth, who led a
Royalist uprising in 1659. Defeated, he fled Chester
dressed as a woman and accompanied by a few
loyal companions they stopped at the Red Lion in
Newport Pagnell. A maid became suspicious of ‘Mrs
Dorothy’s’ abnormally large feet and later another
maid observed ‘her shaving’ through a crack in the
door. The landlord raised the alarm and 20 locals,
including the vicar, burst in upon Mrs Dorothy’s
room at 1 a.m. arresting the fugitives at gun-point.
The ‘good people of Newport’ bought Booth a hat,
men’s clothes and new boots before sending him
under guard to the Tower of London. Booth was
later released from gaol by Charles II, awarded
£10,000 and elevated to the title of Lord Delamer.
Booth supported Parliament at the outset of
the First War but swapped allegiance becoming
a Royalist as the Civil War progressed.
“Marched to Sir Alexander Denton’s park, who is a
malignant fellow, and killed a fat buck, fastened his
head upon my halberd and commanded two of my
pikes to bring the body out to me at Buckingham…
with part of it I feasted my captain (and other
officers) and had much thanks for my pains.”
The National Archives
©Tony CC Gray, English Civil War Society
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN
THE GARRISON’S
FINAL DAYS
Newport Pagnell played a vital role in the weeks
leading up to the final campaign of the First Civil
War. Thousands of soldiers from London, the Home
Counties and East Anglia rendezvoused in the area.
Cromwell with his cavalry of 600 men rallied the
army at Sherington where ‘horses and troops were
gathered as far as the eye could see’.
A few weeks prior to this Sir Samuel Luke’s spies
reported that the King’s forces were gathering for
an imminent attack on the garrison, but both armies
finally met on the battlefield at Naseby,
Northamptonshire (14th June 1645). Outnumbered,
the 9500 Royalists under Prince Rupert were
defeated decisively by the 14,500 troops
commanded by General Thomas Fairfax (Cromwell
was also at the battle) with a cost to the Royalists of
1000 dead and 4500 prisoners.
Luke remained at Newport Pagnell to safeguard the
town and made preparations for receiving prisoners.
Following the battle, the garrison sent out many
patrols rounding-up hundreds of defeated Cavaliers
all trying to escape.
As military actions dwindled the garrison troops
became increasingly more undisciplined. Bouts of
drunkenness, fighting, disorderly conduct, and
gambling were everyday occurrences and life in the
garrison became ‘more like Sodom and Gomorrah’
reported an exasperated commander. The elderly
Rector of Tyringham was attacked outside Stony
Stratford by Roundhead dragoons, who ‘took fun’ in
robbing him of his horse, coat and money leaving
him with a half-severed arm.
A period of martial law with fines and strict curfews
was imposed by hard-line officers, seconded to the
garrison after Luke had retired from the army.
Parliament finally ordered the troops to be stood
down and the fortifications to be sleighted (pulleddown) in August 1646, but this was not carried out
until two years later in 1648.
NEWPORT PAGNELL – CROMWELL’S GARRISON TOWN