Marlborough and the English Civil War: A Photo Essay

Marlborough is a historic Wiltshire market town with a broad High Street, handsome old buildings and considerably more history than one might expect to encounter during a quiet weekend visit.

My trip coincided with a large re-enactment of the Battle of Marlborough, fought during the English Civil War in 1642.

Before the muskets, pikes and cavalry appeared, I spent some time photographing the town and nearby Silbury Hill, one of Britain’s most remarkable prehistoric monuments.

The Battle of Marlborough

On 5 December 1642, Royalist forces attacked Marlborough, which supported Parliament. The fighting spread through the town before the Royalists captured it and took prisoners to Oxford.

In July 2014, the English Civil War Society recreated the event on Marlborough Common.

The living-history camp offered a quieter look at seventeenth-century life, with demonstrations of clothing, cooking, crafts, equipment and weapons.

Muskets, Pikes and Cavalry

Once the battle began, the Common filled with musket smoke, marching infantry, cavalry and long lines of pikemen.

The heavy clothing and armour looked uncomfortable enough in July. The original battle took place in December, when everyone would at least have been cold with greater historical accuracy.

It was an impressive mixture of local history, careful reconstruction and organised chaos.

For a few smoky minutes, seventeenth-century Marlborough seemed remarkably close.