The DIY Civil War Walk reaches Cirencester Park......
After a long delay, the inevitable finally came.
At noon on Thursday 2nd February Royalist troops “rushed” Cirencester.
The main force, under the seasoned command of Prince Rupert, assembled in this area, roughly in line with the Poole Mansion (on the site of Cirencester House). They dislodged the defenders at Barton House and pursued them to the barricades at the bottom of Cecily Hill. There they broke down the barriers and advanced through the main town. In the Market Place they were fired on by snipers from upper windows, but resistance rapidly disintegrated. A second Royalist attack under Lord Carnarvon was launched against Spitalgate; here the defenders fled when news came that Rupert was in the town.
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| Map from John Miles Paddock, The Storming of Cirencester, 1643 (CDC/Cotswold Museum Service, 1993) |