Distance: 8.7 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: hard
Get the route via: Ordnance Survey Maps or by downloading the gpx file from Dropbox.
Walk in rural Warwickshire from Lower Tysoe up and along Edge Hill the northeastern most part of the Cotswold escarpment and down to Kineton across the site of October 1642’s Battle of Edgehill
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
Ghastly Conflict Comes to Middle England
On 23rd October 1642 the first battle of the British Civil Wars occurred at Edgehill, in southwestern Warwickshire, near the northeastern most part of the Cotswolds escarpment.
This was the first major pitched battle of the civil conflict between King Charles I and his Parliament after the monarch declared war in early August 1642.
The war had been brewing for a very long time. Relations between Charles I and Parliament representing key power groups in the country had been fraught for almost the entirety of the King’s reign which had begun with the death of his father James I in 1625.
Disputes had arisen between the King and Parliament because of Charles I’s high handed desire, despite being a ruler of middling competence at best, to govern the country without input from MPs and peers. This led Charles to try and run the country without calling a parliament for pretty much the entire 1630s. It was when the need to raise taxes – a parliamentary prerogative – became urgent, that Charles was forced to call a parliament, setting in train the fractious events, including the king’s attempts to use the army to arrest MPs, which led to the conflict.
Charles left London in March 1642, never again to return as monarch. He then progressed around northern and central England attempting to encourage enlistment to his cause, and with very mixed success, to secure armaments from garrisons and military storehouses around the country. At Nottingham on 22nd August he “raised his standard” effectively declaring war on Parliament and initiating the civil war. Then ensconced in Shrewsbury in the west of the country where his support was strongest Charles I began seriously raising an army. In their strongholds around London and in East Anglia and the eastern Midlands Parliament began doing the same.
There had not been a sustained conflict in the central and southern parts of England or in Wales since the 15th Century and the Wars of the Roses. For this reason it was initially quite hard for the two sides to figure out how to coalesce their forces and come together for a battle. Skirmishing in the border counties between the two opposing blocks, and efforts to capture the other side’s few strongholds in the other’s main territory, were the result. Early battles like the Siege of Coventry, skirmish at Powick Bridge and the Battle of Kings Norton Green were the result.
In October 1642, his army, albeit a poorly trained one, gathered, the King decided to move south towards London and provoke the Parliamentarian army to come out and stop them marching on the capital. This proved to be the case, as the Earl of Essex the commander of Parliament’s army, who had been marching westwards with an army primarily drawn from the ranks of Londonders and towns in the southern Midlands like Northampton sympathetic to the Parliamentary cause.
For Charles and his supporters, if they destroyed the Parliamentary army in the field, then the road to London and a swift end to the Civil War was open to them. While for Parliament, halting the advance of the King, and potentially destroying his army and forcing him to negotiate with them, could also end the war, and do so on their terms.
This meant the stakes for the pitched battle were high. On 22nd October it became apparent to both sides who were converging upon the same point, between the two northern arms of the Cotswolds escarpment in south Warwickshire, that battle was nigh. The Parliamentary army was drawn up a couple of miles east of the village of Kineton, and the next morning the Royalist force assembled on the prominent escarpment at Edge Hill to meet them.
The battle on the flat lands of Vale of Red Horse beneath the Edge Hill ridge proved to be bloody and confusing. The two sides consisted of large numbers of completely inexperienced soldiers, leavened by a few veterans of Britain’s occasional overseas expeditions and former soldiers of fortune. They were not well armed, and in most cases lacked uniforms meaning that there were numerous instances of friendly fire during the battle.
Out of the two armies the Royalists had better cavalry, largely consisting of experienced horsemen from genteel and aristocratic families in the western parts of Great Britain. By contrast Parliament had better equipped more experienced foot soldiers, equipped with good armour, muskets and pikes. The Royalist infantry by contrast had turned out with whichever weapons they had to hand, and frequently had inadequate or no armour.
On 23rd October the day of the battle, the Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary commander, had no intention of storming the steep Edge Hill ridge and engaging the Royalist army. Instead his army grouped itself amidst the hedgerows in front of Kineton aiming to use them as a defensive position.
For this reason the Royalists decided to descend the ridge and force a confrontation. Their army began moving downhill around midday, reaching the bottom of the slope at around two o’clock in the afternoon.
A heavy artillery bombardment by both sides ensured. The Royalist cavalry then charged the northern end of the Parliamentary line, ensuing a rout. This did not however, disrupt the bulk of the Parliamentary army, and the mounted Royalist soldiers became carried away pursuing the fleeing enemy forces. The Royalist cavalry carried on pursuing the fleeing Parliamentary soldiers as far as Kineton, where they stopped to loot Parliamentary supplies which had been left in the village.
Back on the battlefield itself the bulk of the Royalist army buoyed by the cavalry charge began advancing to attack the remaining portions of the Parliamentary army. Some members of the Parliamentary army fled at the sight of them, but others stood firm. When the Royalist army actually engaged the Parliamentary line, they were robustly countered, their inferior equipment and chaotic organisation counting against them. Parliament’s remaining cavalry swept in to attack them, and soon the Royalist infantry was fleeing back up the slope away from the battle pursued by the bulk of the Parliamentary army.
Realising that his army was in danger of being routed Charles I ordered that his sons the future Charles II and James II were spirited away. The Royalist standard was briefly captured by the Parliamentarians, but a Royalist Lieutenant Colonel named Robert Welch managed to take it back.
The Royalist army managed to largely reassemble at the top of the escarpment, meaning that they were battered, but still a united force. The Parliamentary army was in a similar condition, shaken by the experience of battle but largely undefeated.
On the 24th October the two armies lined up in their positions again, but it was decided not to fight once more. Charles I offered the Earl of Essex a pardon if he surrendered his army, but his messenger was beaten up and insulted, before being sent back to the king. A clear rebuke to the monarch.
The Earl of Essex then resolved to march north back into firmly held Parliamentary territory to regroup at Warwick. Royalist propagandists claimed this withdrawal as a victory, but it wasn’t really, as the Parliamentary army, while it had not prevailed, was still substantially intact, and had turned the king’s forces back in the heat of battle. It is reckoned that at least 500 were killed during the fighting at Edgehill and no fewer than 1,500 wounded.
After the battle Charles I decided to continue his march on London, but this time he took a circumlocutious route via Oxford, Abbington and Reading, all places firmly within his side’s sphere of control. The Earl of Essex by contrast moved his army south from Warwick to place it in the way of the King’s advance towards the capital from the west. Reinforced by the City of London militia the Parliamentary army was far too strong for the king to have a hope of defeating it.
At Turnham Green, now in Chiswick within Great London, this vast Parliamentary army saw off the Royalist advance on 13th November 1642. Never again would the Royalist’s seriously trouble London. The first phase of the Civil Wars in England would rattle on until 1646, after any serious hope of the Royalists winning was banished at the Battle of Naseby in June 1645. While the civil conflict itself would rattle on until 1651 when the future Charles II was defeated at Worcester and forced to flee the country via an oak tree in the Staffordshire, Shropshire, borders.
Though there are reports that the Battle of Edgehill never actually finished. Shortly after the battle farmers, other agricultural workers and villagers in local settlements like Radway, Kineton and Edgehill began complaining of hearing the sounds of battle ringing out in the night and seeing phantom soldiers clashing in the fields where the battle took place.
Charles I was so intrigued when these ghostly claims reached him that he sent a royal commission to investigate. The investigators also saw the apparitions and heard the sounds of battle. Some of the investigators even thought that they recognised some of the ghostly figures fighting as being amongst those killed during the fight.
The local visitors resolved to try and bring peace to the battle site. In the weeks prior to Christmas 1642 took care to scour the countryside and recover all of the corpses and body parts that still littered the battlefield. All of the remains were then carefully and respectfully buried after a funeral service in consecrated ground.
This did not entirely stop the apparitions and ghostly battle sounds. To this day visitors to the Edgehill Battlefield still sometimes claim to encounter these phenomena. But they are not constant or on the scale that local people experienced in the weeks immediately after the battle. So, if you believe the ghost stories from 1642 then the local people’s care and respect for the dead, regardless of their social rank and political affiliation during life, did the trick in terms of bringing some nocturnal peace to this corner of south west Warwickshire.
What were these apparitions and hideous echos? Actual spiritual manifestations or not, there is no doubt that the deaths, maiming and trauma caused to so many during the Battle of Edgehill left a deep mark. English society, while deeply divided politically and along religious lines, was not used to such conflict and the brutality of the injuries, looting of property, and looting of the dead and dying which followed the battle. In this shell shocked, traumatised moment, is it any wonder that Vale of Red Horse residents and royal commission members alike, were haunted by dark, unprocessed memories of the conflict, death and the battle’s brutal aftermath?
The Walk
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or by downloading the GPX. file from Dropbox
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This walk from Middle Tysoe to Kineton, via the top of the northeastern most section of the Cotswolds escarpment, and the site of October 1642’s Battle of Edgehill, starts from the village centre.
At the time of writing in October 2024 the village was served by buses, around five times a day, between Stratford-upon-Avon and Banbury. It was also served once a day between Tuesdays and Saturdays by a community transport bus from Shipston-on-Stour.
Upon reaching the village and alighting the bus, walk through the centre heading north through the village past the village shop, and Peacock Inn pub, approaching the settlement’s dark yellow Cotswold stone church.
Past the church you near the edge of the village.
Here on the right hand side of the road there is a waymarking sign pointing through a gateway into a field.
Once in the field the heavily wooded Cotswolds escarpment rises prominently in front of you. Here turn to the left and follow a well worn footpath across the field in front of you.
On the far side of the field you pick up a path running to the left alongside a hedgerow and a field to your right.
Continue straight ahead along this path running parallel with the escarpment.
Presently ahead of you to the right there is a clear gap in a hedgerow ahead of you which you walk through.
Carry on straight ahead along a path around the edge of the field. Soon you reach a metal gate set in a hedgerow leading into a field on the other side.
Cross the field in front of you. It was very muddy when I walked the route, and there is a stream running through straight down the middle.
Having crossed the stream turn right and begin walking uphill towards a metal gate situated near the far right corner of the field.
Through the gate carry on straight ahead across the field.
Soon you reach another metal gate which you pass through. Having passed through the gate carry on straight ahead approaching a further metal gate set in a gap in a hedgerow.
On the other side of the hedgerow continue straight ahead downhill across a field approaching some footpath waymarks and a series of broken down gates.
Passed these gates head uphill, now beginning to climb part of the escarpment.
Look out on your right for a gap in the hedgerow for a metal gate leading into a field beyond.
On the other side of the gate walk across the field on the other side heading to the right up the escarpment.
Upon reaching the far side of the field there is a metal gate which you pass through, then immediately through another corresponding gate.
Through this set of gates turn right, facing a steep part of the escarpment. Here head to the left, picking up a path through some gorse bushes.
Having passed the bushes continue to the left heading uphill towards a stand of trees at the top of the ridge.
Soon you reach the top of the escarpment. Here you pick up Warwickshire’s Centenary Way. There is a great view behind you looking south down the Vale of Red Horse towards the Cotswolds.
Here turn left and pass through a gate, following a well worn path through the trees.
Presently you reach a very large Cotswold stone house. You approach its driveway.
Upon reaching the driveway turn right. Then upon soon reaching a bend turn left.
Soon you reach a main road. Taking care as you cross, as you are on a bend and cars travel fast along this stretch, turn left and begin walking downhill.
After walking a very short distance you reach a footpath off to the left running into woodland along the top of the escarpment.
Follow the path, which in places is rather than a green lane for quite some distance. It is well worn and clear to follow at all times.
Presently you enter some mature seeming woodland. Here you walk alongside a weathered Cotswold stone wall until you reach a paved track.
Follow the track a very short distance until you reach a place where a footpath runs off to the right into woodland.
Walk along the path for quite some distance, climbing up a short flight of steps and walking along the edge of a field.
Presently you reach another stand of mature woodland close to a main road. Here you reach a junction where the path forks. Turn right here and head a little way downhill.
Very soon you come to another fork in the footpath. At this point you can shave a bit of distance off the walk by heading straight ahead down King John’s Lane to avoid the village of Radway in the shadow of the escarpment.
Instead, to follow the route further north along the escarpment turn right at this point and follow a path heading further into the woodland.
Follow the path through the woodland near the top of the escarpment for some distance. Every now and then the path runs up and down short steep flights of steps cut into the hillside.
Presently the path begins running steadily downhill through the trees.
You pass another gate leading to a path down from the escarpment into Radway, but instead of taking it continue straight ahead to the right.
The path dips down a little further and narrows, and you approach and obelisk set at the top of an avenue of trees surrounded by some water features high above a very large house in Radway called The Grange. The Grange once was a monastic grange for Stoneleigh Abbey on the southern edge of Coventry. But is has been a private house since the Reformation. One once lived in prior to the First World War by the infamous Field Marshal Haig. These days the former chair of Aston Martin resides there.
Past the obelisk continue straight along the path through the trees, which widens once more, and continues its gentle downwards descent.
Soon you reach a gate on the left leading out into a field. There are great views from this point out across the Vale of Red Horse in front of you.
Follow the well worn path downhill, off the escarpment. Much as the Royalist army would have done prior to the Battle of Edgehill on 23rd October 1642.
At the bottom of the escarpment and the base of the field there is a gateway leading onto a footpath which turns into a snicket between two back gardens.
You reach a driveway which leads down between buildings to the road through the centre of Radway.
Radway has the feel of being an expensive place to live even by the standards of the priciest part of the Midlands. Once on the main road turn left and begin walking through the village.
Carry on straight along the road through the village, which is quite dispersed, approaching the village’s yellow stone church.
Past the church – which hosts a free permanent exhibition about the Battle of Edgehill – continue along the twisty road leading out of the village.
Look out on the left for a gate into a field which you turn right towards and enter.
Once in the field turn left and follow a well worn path across it.
You enter a further field and then continue across it too, reaching a further gate which you also walk through and continue along the path straight ahead. As you walk there are great views to your left up towards Edge Hill and the Cotswolds escarpment high above Radway.
Soon you reach a gap in a hedgerow, blocked by a metal footgate out onto a lane.
Walk straight ahead across the lane and past a footpath waymark, through a hedgerow on the far side.
Once through the hedgerow, turn right and head through a gate, leading to a path across a small copse where when I walked the route a fairly sturdy camp had been set-up, presumably by the landowner.
Pass through a gate on the far side of the copse and walk straight across a large field, heading to the left, making for a farm and small cluster of houses on the far side of the field.
This leads onto a footpath running between the back gardens of two properties.
This ends in a small meadow. Once in this field turn left and walk to the far corner where there is a metal gate out onto a bigger field.
On the far side of the gate walk straight ahead following a path along the edge of the field.
Soon you pass through a metal gate and continue along the path past a horse paddock approaching another metal gate.
Through a further gate walk straight ahead across a field, typically of the flat open landscape of the Vale of Red Horse.
You cross into another, very similar field and continue walking straight.
Presently the path curves around to the left and you approach the outer perimeter of MoD Kineton. Europe’s largest ammunition dump where around sixty percent of the British Army’s munitions are stored. It is served by its own internal railway system which connects ultimately to the Chiltern Mainline.
Upon reaching the perimeter of the MoD site walk through a metal gate then turn left.
After following the line of a fence for a short distance there is an opening on your left again, which you walk through and then follow a path straight ahead between two hedgerows.
Presently the stretch between the two hedges ends and you walk straight ahead along the edge of a field.
Soon you reach a bend in the hedge where you turn right, continuing to follow the perimeter of the field.
Reaching some woodland you turn left, walking along the edge of a field away from the woodland.
This area, and the site where the MoD storage depot has been built, lies right at the heart of where the Battle of Edgehill occurred on the 23rd October 1642.
Continue following the path around the edge of the field.
After some distance you reach another point where there is a sharp corner to the field. Here turn right.
Carry on straight along the grassy border at the side of the large field you are now crossing. Passing through a metal gate set in a hedgerow and then carrying on straight ahead.
Approaching a very big house made from Cotswold style stone, you reach the end of the field and then turn to the right continuing to follow the edge of the field.
Right in the field’s furthest corner you reach a metal gate out onto another green lane style path. Turn right and follow this around for some distance.
Presently this runs around to the left and you follow it for some distance.
Having walked along the green lane for some distance on the right you come to a gate which leads to a crossing point over the perimeter railway around the MoD ammunition depot.
After crossing over the railway line, once on the far side of the corresponding gate turn left.
Begin heading to the left along the bridleway track on the far side which runs through woodland beside the railway.
Once beyond the level crossing continue walking straight ahead along the track for several hundred metres.
You reach a fork, next to where the track curves around sharply to the right crossing the railway once more. Here turn left and follow a narrow, but well worn path through the trees.
Continue along this path for some distance until you reach a metal gate leading off MoD land back into open fields.
Through the gate continue walking straight ahead across the field following the line of a well worn path around the edge of a field.
Soon you reach a metal gate which you walk through.
On the far side of the gate the path you have been following soon becomes an unpaved lane, where you turn left.
Walking along the lane, to the right the outskirts of Kineton are visible, while up ahead a mobile phone mast comes into view.
Presently the unpaved lane becomes a tarmac driveway. Here turn right and follow the road downhill approaching the edge of Little Kineton.
Continue past the first buildings in the village until you reach the village green.
Here, turn right and walk along a narrow road lined with old stone cottages on one side.
Just beyond the cottages you reach the main road into Kineton.
Follow the road to the right as it crosses open land between Little Kineton and the bulk of Kineton itself.
Then walk straight up the road as it runs uphill into the centre of Kineton.
Opposite Kineton’s yellow church, turn right and reach the bus stops in the village centre.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
At the time of writing in October 2024 Kineton was served by an array of buses primarily between Stratford-upon-Avon, Leamington Spa and Banbury, which served the villages and small towns in between. Of the major towns Banbury was the least well connected with five or six services a day, while both Stratford-upon-Avon and Leamington Spa had at least an hourly connection until after 20:00 on weekdays and Saturdays. There were also two buses a day south to Shipston-on-Stour, as well as some small local community, schools transport and service on demand buses to outlying villages across southernmost Warwickshire. Stratford-upon-Avon, Leamington Spa and Banbury all have mainline stations, the latter two on the Chiltern Mainline which are served by Chiltern Railways and Cross Country, while Stratford-upon-Avon’s services all run north, mostly to Birmingham and the Black Country.