Egginton Heath battle resumes 354 years on

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Just over 350 years ago, a bloody battle took place between Royalists and Roundheads at Egginton Heath. Now battle lines have been drawn again on the site – as Maxwell Craven describes.

Major Thomas Sanders, the absent commander of the Republican forces at the battle of Egginton Heath in 1644

When I first came to Derbyshire in September 1966, the Trent Valley was a relatively unspoilt swathe of land, dotted with remarkably unspoiled villages and only disfigured by a succession of huge power stations which, I learned later, were only ever going to be temporary.

Since then, Castle Donington has gone, Willington is due to come down and Drakelow has been culled; only Ratcliffe still looks permanent.

The valley has subsequently suffered the erection of Toyota’s car plant and the building of a McDonald’s. Now we hear that Egginton Heath is to be covered with railway interchange sidings or, if Derbyshire County Council has its way, a refuse dump.

This impending environmental disaster reminded me of why the area is important; it is the site of one of only two armed engagements fought in Derbyshire during the Civil War.

For the Royalists, a serious problem was that Sir John Gell had seized Derbyshire for Parliament, which was a serious strategic impediment to communications between the King’s HQ at Oxford and the Duke of Newcastle’s northern command.

In spring 1644, Gell was on the back foot, expecting a determined attempt by Lord Loughborough and Prince Rupert to retake Derby and thus control the county.

However, what Gell did not realise was that half the forces gathered under Loughborough’s command at Ashby were drawn from various garrisons which urgently needed to return to their posts.

One, under Sir Andrew Kniveton of Mercaston, belonged to Tutbury; another, under Sir John Frescheville of Staveley, was holding the upper Dove Valley.

In returning to their garrisons on March 31, these two units, totalling some 600 men, were “bounced” by Sir John Gell’s cavalry at Egginton Heath. Unfortunately, no Royalist account of the engagement has survived, only a piece of spin from Sir John and a memoir by commander Major Thomas Sanders.

Sir John’s cavalry was only 350-strong, well outnumbered by the Royalist detachment, but was made much more effective by the element of surprise. Gell claims he sent his troops to intercept Sir Andrew’s force which was allegedly plundering Repton and Willington.

He also claims he ordered out another unit of infantry from Derby to back up the cavalry but only another 50 or so seem to have arrived. They belonged to the command of Major Molanus, the Dutch assistant to lead mine sough engineer Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, who got caught up in the Civil War.

The engagement took place in “the lane about Egginton Heath”. The Royalist forces were said, after a brief but bloody engagement, to have been scattered and driven into the Trent, where many of the men drowned.

Some 200 were taken prisoner. Frescheville’s contingent was said to have suffered serious casualties while the Parliamentary forces had no losses at all. At least three Royalist officers, reported by Gell as killed, can be identified as alive a decade later!

Nevertheless, the Royalists undoubtedly suffered a serious defeat.

The commander at Egginton was almost certainly Captain Nathaniel Barton, for his superior, Major Sanders, was holed up in Babington House, Derby, with its owner, Captain Robert Mellor, their reinforcements off skirmishing near Lullington well to the south.

Gell, who hated the Republican firebrand Sanders, failed to give any credit to Barton or even mention him but instead trumpeted the prowess of his own crony, Captain William Rhodes.

Most of the Royalist survivors of the battle were driven back to Ashby, from where they had started out.

Egginton Heath, although a minor engagement, was of crucial importance in the region, for it resulted in the weakening of the Royalist cause. Only four of their outposts remained in Derbyshire and, following the defeat of the King’s forces at Marston Moor in Yorkshire, Tamworth, Wingfield Manor and Wilne Ferry all fell. The tide had turned decisively in favour of Parliament.

Now we have a new battle of Egginton Heath on our hands with two powerful enemies pitted against each other and both opposed by private individuals who just happen to love their countryside.

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