Brentford and Turnham Green 1642, Battlefield walks

This post is later than planned. I fell asleep on the sofa on Sunday evening!

On Sunday I attended the Battlefields Trust walks at Brentford and Turnham Green (a couple of miles from each other in west London. Here's a map for context, Brentford in the far west, Turnham Green is at Chiswick just to the east of Brentford. The cities of Westminster and London are the potential prizes for the Royalists in the east.

The guided walks were excellently led by Charlie Cordell and Simon Marsh of the Battlefields Trust. Charlie led the Brentford walk in the morning and Simon, the Turnham Green walk in the afternoon. Each lasted 1.5-2 hours. We were given a very good political and strategic background to the events of 12-14 November 1642. What came across well was that political considerations trumped strategic and tactical ones. This helped to explain some of the decisions taken by the rival generals. We were also given an overview of what the town of Brentford was like in the early 17th century and why it was significant. This was equally valuable context.

The Brentford walk started with an explanation of events close to Syon Park (extreme SW of the above map) where the Royalist advance guard came into contact with a Parliamentarian picket (a company from Holles' foot regiment). We then proceeded up what was then the main road to London from the West Country, stopping at various junctures to have particular parts of the engagement explained, or key features to be pointed out. Obviously the area has changed enormously in the past 380 years, but the substrate is still noticeable rather like the outline of early medieval buildings in aerial photographs of fields. I won't give a blow-by-blow account of the action. You can find this elsewhere, for example here, on Charlie's website:

https://charlescordell.com/brentford-turnham-green-1642/

I've not seen this before, so it will go into my bookmarks folder. There's also this leaflet from the Battlefields trust, which includes a near contemporary map of Brentford, and a map from a survey in the 1740s showing the area of the Turnham Green confrontation.

https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/brentfordandturnhamgreen/images/visiting/Battlefield-Trail-Leaflet.pdf

Whilst it is impossible to see the lie of the land as it was in 1642, it is still possible to get some meaningful insight from these walks. Having walked the Brentford battlefield before, without guides, I have to say you get an awful lot more having the key points and the background explained on the spot as it were. I would highly recommend it.

I'll leave you with a link to the Battlefields trust Events page, and some snaps taken yesterday.

https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/battlefields-events/?fbclid=IwAR3jyKC16Bz3uDNFH3snziZkQnOOnNZOm5DbGJYRJVyYatwIis640nGdfSY

Note that the Trust runs some on-line events, which might be of interest to folk overseas.

View roughly NE from Brentford bridge. River Brent is the right hand fork. left fork is the Grand Union Canal.

Underneath the rail bridge by Turnham Green Tube station. The District Line off the 'Underground' is overground in this area. The maps show the development of Chiswick from the 1590s.

Whilst showing the new Chiswick House a century later (dark area in the centre),  this gives a good idea of the area of the Turnham Green battle. The Royalist right flank was at Chiswick House (then a Jacobean structure). Below that were the meadows - very wet ground, especially in Autumn 1642. The armies faced each other across the open ground to the north. Market gardens and orchards to the west.

View from the left (northern) flank of the Royalists positions towards where the Roundheads were. The legend that Prince Rupert tied his horse to this bench is clearly untrue. He was on the right wing! There is evidence of Parliamentarian cavalry at the other end and just off to the right.

From the same position but looking along the Royalist position.

A Roundhead brigade found itself somewhere in that direction, outflanking the Royalist position, but they were called back by a cautious Earl of Essex. To be fair to Old Robin the days were short and dark, and all he had to do was avoid defeat.

There I told you there was evidence of the Roundhead cavalry!