Historic Cotswolds battlefield site ‘could be moved’
ByPeople visiting Cotswolds hotels to see the famous battlefield near Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire could soon find the official site has moved two miles further south.
A field outside the village of Donnington currently bears a memorial to the March 1646 clash between the Cavaliers and Roundheads, which represented the last major conflict of the English Civil War.
However, local historians now believe the battle actually took place two miles away, closer to the town of Stow itself.
The Battlefields Trust is hoping to carry out a £50,000 excavation of the new site, using money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
Tim Norris, spokesperson for the Stow and District Civic Society, told the Telegraph: ”Using metal detectors we think we could find musket balls, perhaps the odd cannon and possibly items of dropped equipment.
“We think it’s very unlikely the battle was held on the Donnington site, three miles from Stow.”
Royalists commanded by Sir Jacob Astley were defeated by the parliamentary forces of Colonel Thomas Morgan in the battle, effectively ending the Civil War, with King Charles I surrendering two months later.
Source: Laterooms (http://press.laterooms.com/news/19800843-historic-cotswolds-battlefield-site-could-be-moved.html)
