Keighley & the English Civil War

[malcolm]

;D

I have just been researching records from 1643/1644 and find that there were several soldiers buried in Keighley Parish Church graveyard.

On further investigation I have found others soldiers in Addingham Parish Church and in Bradford Cathedral during this period.

Between the Battle of Aldwalton Moor on 20th June 1643 and the Battle of Heptonstall on 1st November 1643 there must be other records around showing that Keighley was not immune from the troubles.
I have also found soldiers who died in 1645 buried in Colne Parish Church
Other soldiers buried at Bingley Parish Church in 1648 around the time of the surrender of Carlisle and Berwick -

Some of the soldiers are actually named and two were identified as a Soldier of Colonel Cromwell and the other Humphrey Bland a Soldier of Captain Balsome.

Regretably Kildwick Parish Church records do not identify the occupation of those buried during this period.

Anyone have any ancestors involved?

M

[Lewis]

Hey Malcolm

A bit of info regarding Keighley and the English Civil War


It Is Believed a Battle took place in the town, with the Royalists from Skipton and Parliamentarians from Keighley. During this time 15 Royalists were killed and their Commander was taken prisoner.

In the winter of 1644, 150 Royalists on Horses from Skipton surprised the guards and entered Keighley Town, taking almost 100 prisoners, 60 horses and loot.
Extract from my upcoming book "Keighley Murders and other Tales" which will be released later this year


Lewis

[barcroftlad]

When I were nobbut a lad in the 40s, we were told/believed that mounds on Bingley Moor were graves of Roundhead soldiers. Maybe they were? We never did any research on it, it was just local belief. Cheers.

[Admin]

maggieblanck.com/


The Civil War (1642-1649)

Concerning the civil was in the area in the 1640s, William Keighley quotes Vicars and Whitelock:

" early in the month of February, 1645, a party of about 150 horse from Skipton, taking advantage of the absence of Col. Brandling, who commanded, fell suddenly upon the Parliamentary quarters at Keighley, where they surprise the guards, got into the town and took near a hundred prisoners, sixty horse and other booty. Col. Lambert and his party, however, who happened to be quartered in the neighborhood, having heard the alarm, came to their relief, and preformed their part so gallantly that they recovered all the parliamentary prisoners and most o the booty which the enemy had taken, killed fifteen of them on the spot, took about twenty prisoner, wounded and took the commander---a Captain Hughes--- killed his Lieutenant also, and pursued the rest to the gates of Skipton. On Mr. Lambert's side were lost in this service, Captain Salmon, on of his best officers, and eight dragoons."
The army was in the area for several years. The parish records reflect several burials of "souldiers" including:
"A souldier Called Hobkinson bur. the 26 daie", April 1643.
"A souldier ye was found slaine on the pke moore bur. ye 7 daie", December 1643.
" A Souldier of Collonell Crumwells bur. ye 18 daie", June 1644.
"Two Souldiers slayne at new brigge bur. the 28 daie", June 1644.
"Two souldiers was buried ye 16 daie", January 1643.
"Fower souldiers was bur. the 14 daie", February 1644.
"Humphray Bland a souldier under Captaine Balsome bur. the same daie", March 25, 1644.
The war brought additional devastation to the area. A notation at the end of the month of October 1645, which included eight deaths, states, " All ye dyed this month of October was of the Plague".

[malcolm]

Isn't life funny? - up to the day I posted this item on the Forum 22nd September - I knew nothing about Civil War battles in this area other than the main one at Aldwalton.
Yesterday I went to Bankfield Museum at Halifax to see the Duke of Wellington's Regimental Museum and whilst there I went into the library located within the museum.

To the great credit of the staff there, they not only knew about the Battle of Heptonstall, but produced a book written about it.

"The Halifax Cavaliers and the Heptonstall Roundheads", by David Shires and Sheila King. ISBN 0 9521528 0 0 - published in 1993 by Puritan Press of Sowerby Bridge.

The book is written in the style of a diary, giving the timeline of events leading upto the Battle of Heptonstall and setting the scene for their later involvement in the Battle of Marston Moor in July 1644.

M

[parkwoodgirl]

Before the war Druids Altar and the surrounding moorland were my playground and I too was told stories of battles being fought there. Also we were told of 'ghosts' of soldiers mounted on war horses still roaming the moorland down as far as Marley Farm.... Fairytales? perhaps..........

[barcroftlad]

Oct 3, 2010 16:47:26 GMT parkwoodgirl said:

Before the war Druids Altar and the surrounding moorland were my playground and I too was told stories of battles being fought there. Also we were told of 'ghosts' of soldiers mounted on war horses still roaming the moorland down as far as Marley Farm.... Fairytales? perhaps..........

Hi Gladys- I didn't see you when I played up there. Maybe you were a year ahead of me! lol. We sure believed it though. Did you take empty pop bottles to fill up with spring water because you thought the iron, rust, in the water made you stronger? We believed anything then. Cheers.

[eric]

Colonel Fairfax was billeted at Harden Hall (now St Ives) for part of the Civil War and on the O.S. maps there is marked "Fairfax Entrenchment a house on Moss Carr Rd is called Fairfax Coppy, and the owners believe it (or the site) used to be the armoury for Fairfax, the fact that there were coalmines close by could well lend weight to the belief.For anyone interested in the civil war, there is a book by Halliwell Sutcliffe called "The White Company" which tells of the Metcalf family who lived in Nappa Valley in the dales, and formed a company of Metcalfs for the King, all mounted on white horses, and describes various skirmishes between Addingham and Otley, and round Ripley Castle and Knaresborough Castle and describes the scene as Skipton surrenders to the Parlimentarians.

[danmoorhouse]

There is mention of troops staying in Keighley on route to Bradford in this account of the Civil War in the Bradford area. walter9.info/Bradford/html/march_1644.html

Given the number of references in this account to the links between Bradford and the troops besieging Skipton its pretty likely that troops were passing through Keighley on a reasonably regular basis - also a good chance that men from Keighley responded to the request for assistance prior to the sieges of Bradford, though thats semi educated guesswork on my part.

There was a Halloween event at East Riddlesden Hall last year in which they reported sightings of civil war ghosts in the area and said that historians believed there were 200 civil war soldiers are buried at St Ives - anyone know which Historian this might be? (If they cited it, I've forgotten).

[parkwoodgirl]

Hello Bill - I think I'm more than a couple of years a head of you!! Im still in touch with old friends living up the Brow - the iron spring is till running at Currer Laithe. My mom used to bathe her eyes with the water from the spring. I don't recall collecting pop bottles on the moors but I spent many happy hours climbing over the wall into St. Ives estate and dropping down into Harden, problem was it always seemed much harder to walk back up the hill...