The roundheads and cavaliers do battle (From Lancashire Telegraph)

The roundheads and cavaliers do battle

3:34pm Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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HISTORIAN Steve Chapples takes us back through four and a half centuries to relive the Battle of Heptonstall during the Civil War.

In November 1643, the only means of reaching the remote hilltop village was by the steep slope from the humpbacked Hebden bridge.

The 800-strong cavaliers from Halifax, under the command of Sir Francis Mackworth, massed at Hebden Bridge, where violent storms had turned the river into a torrent.

Above them Colonel Bradshaw and his roundhead forces had prepared well for the attack. His army was about the same size as his enemy’s, but his knowledge of the terrain gave him a distinct advantage.

Boulders and rocks were placed strategically along the winding packhorse track – to be released at a moment’s notice.

As the cavaliers slowly climbed the hill, they were spotted by roundheads, on lookout in the church tower of St Thomas a Beckett in Heptonstall. A barrage of rocks and boulders were released.

At the sound of musket fire from the hillsides the royalist horses bolted and men were trampled to death or thrown over the ridge. As others retreated down the hill many drowned as they tried to cross the swollen river.

As the muffled sound of the sheepskin-covered church bells were rung in a call to arms, the roundheads and villagers armed with halberds and pitchforks tore down Old Gate in pursuit of the foe.

A crown of royalist cavaliers and musketeers, many with serious injuries, were locked in Heptonstall Church, before being escorted by armed guard over the border to Rochdale.

Two months later General Mackworth returned with 2,000 troops, but met no resistance, because by this time the roundheads had fled over the Long Causeway to Burnley and Colne.