What's on
Study Day: Civil War Sieges and Fortifications
20250208,
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Admission: £40 Adults, £30 Students/Museum Members/Fortress Study Group Members
Location: Huntington Town Hall
Join us for a fascinating study day, the Civil War Sieges and Fortifications Symposium, organised by the Cromwell Museum in conjunction with the Fortress Study Group.
Sieges dominated the Civil Wars of the mid-seventeenth century, a fact that is only relatively recently being recognised by historians, and to a lesser degree by the more general public who still have a preference for the spectacle of the pitched battle over the trenches and ramparts of the siege.
It is through the research and writings of a number of historians, several of whom are joining us for this study day, that the perception of the wars is changing, and the notion that sieges outnumbered battles by perhaps as much as 8:1 is being more widely accepted.
The programme covers nearly every aspect of fortress warfare during the conflict, from the defence of the respective Parliamentarian and Royalist capitals to several well-known sieges and those involved in them. Topics cover England, Ireland, and Scotland, demonstrating that the Civil Wars were really the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. The programme for the day is:
10:00 – Doors Open Tea and Coffee on arrival
10:20 – Welcome and introductions
10:30 – Ismini Pells – Keynote speaker – Between tedium and terror: hardship, health and the experiences of sieges during the English Civil War
11:00 – Richard Israel – ‘The Cittye of Bristoll stands in a hole’: The Fortifications and Sieges of Bristol in 1643 and 1645
11:35 – David Flintham – ‘Against tumults of the citizens’ – London’s ‘other’ Civil War fortifications
12:00 – Paul Beckmann – ‘Our incomparable engineer’ – Diderich Beckman and the defences of Oxford
12:30 – Richard Blows – Time Machine Designs: a digital recreation of Oxford’s Civil War defences.
12:45 – Lunch – Buffet Lunch provided. There is also a chance to explore the Cromwell Museum or perhaps have a go on the Time Machine Designs simulator
13:45 – Geoffrey Sutton – The New Model Army’s siege works at Oxford of 1645 and 1646
14:20 – John Rees – Thomas Rainsborough: siege-master and Leveller
14:55 – Pádraig Lenihan – Moral Contexts: Basing House (1645), Drogheda (1649) and Dundee (1651) compared
15:30 – Stuart Orme – ‘We thought we should have some resistance…’ Huntingdon’s Civil War Defences
16:05 – Question and Answer session; closing remarks
16:30 – Close
Tickets include refreshments and a buffet lunch.
