I was delivering a bag of paperbacks to the Charity Shop, and Gerald the manager showed me a pile of new, immaculate hardbacks donated a few hours earlier. As a result, I walked out holding a copy of “Sieges of the English Civil Wars” by John Barratt (Pen & Sword 2009.). Now, I know that this auspicious Society of ours is dedicated to the study of battlefields and not castles, or sieges, but the link is too close to call; especially where Wales is concerned. Sieges determined the course of battle and outcome of so many wars, after all!

I’m not going to review the whole book, many lie far outside our historical place, but simply comment on one chapter, a mere nine pages, which deals with a very Welsh siege in 1646. Entitled ‘Castles & Cannon’ , this is the Parliamentary siege of Denbigh ( Barratt links pairs it with the capture of Goodrich Castle on the Wye by the way).  He provides a basic map of the castle and describes its history and situation in the 1640’s, followed by a short description of the events of the siege throughout the Spring and Summer, leading to the surrender in late Autumn. It’s worth reading, and will I think add to the overall knowledge of warfare in Wales. I was reminded when reading it of the long series of sieges in those wars. Caernarvon and Conwy, Holt, Hawarden, Flint and Beaumaris in the North. With Laugharne, Tenby, Pembroke in the South. In almost every case, there were skirmishes, raids and encounters across the countryside far and wide around these fortified places. All of which provide some valuable material for our battlefield research, far more than just background material too. My own favourite siege, since you ask, is Newcastle Emlyn which fell to Gerard’s Royalists in the Spring of 1645, for the second time, and still stands with the hint of a gun battery before the gate. For an in depth comment on the sieges of the civil wars, and on the almost chevauchee raids of Gerard in particular, you’d probably have to go back to Phillips’ Victorian two volume ‘Memoirs’, and a modern and thorough account is long overdue.

Dr.Rob Morgan.

March 2020.