It has been identified that the proposed route of the government’s High Speed Rail link to Birmingham and the North (HS2) cuts across the historic Wars of the Roses battlefield of Edgecote fought in 1469. While the Beaufort Companye, along with other Medieval Groups, does not have a position on HS2, we would like the government to reconsider the route of the line in order to protect this part of the nation’s heritage. To date the Department of Transport has so far failed to consider the battlefield in assessing the route for HS2.
Frank Baldwin of the Battlefields Trust has advised that the Trust are undertaking the following activities with this regard:
1. Briefed the all party war heritage committee about the threat and written to the Secretary of State for Transport .
2. Making a submission to English Heritage to try to obtain spot listing of the battlefield. Glenn Foard is providing archaeological input and the backing of his university to the case.
3. Have a team working on Edgecote
In the meantime it would be helpful if anyone who wishes to protect this important battlefield could do on of two things
WRITE TO YOUR MP
……asking them to approach the Department of Transport to discover whether Edgecote battlefield has been considered in the project and, if not, why not.
You can find out who your MP is by inputting your post code on the ‘They work for you’ website at:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
You can then either use the ‘They work for you’ ‘send a message to [name of MP]’ option, though multiple identical messages may be blocked, or search for your MP using a search engine (most MPs have a web page) and use the contact details to send them a letter or an e-mail.
The text of a suggested letter is below:
Dear [name of MP]
I am writing to you about the government’s proposed HS2 rail-link and my concerns that it has serious detrimental impact on a key heritage resource that seems to have been entirely overlooked by the Department of Transport.
The current proposed HS2 route around the village of Chipping Warden cuts directly across the historic battlefield of Edgecote (1469) and no consideration seems to have been made of this by the Department in any publicly released documents relating to the project.
Edgecote was fought during the Wars of the Roses and resulted in the exile of King Edward IV. It was also significant for the large numbers of Welsh soldiers and commanders that were killed on the Yorkist side, reducing effective Welsh support for the House of York which became particularly significant at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, which saw the death of King Richard III and heralded the start of the Tudor dynasty.
The battlefield is likely to contain significant unstratified archaeological remains which could be vital in understanding the development of warfare between the medieval and early modern periods; the proposed rail link risks destroying this archaeology.
Battlefields are also historical and educational resources in their own right, creating an understanding of space, sight lines and terrain that cannot be obtained from maps and written accounts. The routing of the proposed rail link across the battlefield would destroy the character of the battlefield and remove the ability to use the extant physical features to better understand the action, destroying a valuable reference and heritage resource.
The battlefield is not currently included in English Heritage’s Battlefields Register, primarily on the grounds that it cannot be securely located. But this assessment is based on work English Heritage commissioned in the 1990s and subsequent work by the Battlefields Trust in 2004/05 provides a location for the battle which is much more secure than some of the other battles currently included on the Register.
I’d therefore be grateful if you could ascertain whether the Department of Transport has considered the Edgecote battlefield in its appraisal of the proposed HS2 route and, if it has, why the battlefield was not judged material in considering the route and what, if any, mitigation it would intend to put in place for this historic site if the project goes ahead.
RESPOND TO THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTS PUBLIC CONSULTATION
The Department of Transport is currently running a public consultation about the project. This can be accessed at:
https://highspeedrail.dft.gov.uk/have-your-say
Question five asks whether the respondent agrees with the proposed route and mitigation of its impact. It would be helpful if interested parties could provide the following or similar answer in response to this question:
I disagree with the proposed route around the village of Chipping Warden as it cuts directly across the historic battlefield of Edgecote (1469).
The consultation document makes no reference to the Edgecote battlefield and consequently no mitigation is proposed. The battlefield is likely to contain significant unstratified archaeological remains which could be vital in understanding the development of warfare between the medieval and early modern periods; the proposed rail link risks destroying this archaeology.
Battlefields are also historical and educational resources in their own right, creating an understanding of space, sight lines and terrain that cannot be obtained from maps and written accounts. The routing of the proposed rail link across the battlefield would destroy the character of the battlefield and remove the ability to use the extant physical features to better understand the action, destroying a valuable reference and heritage resource.
The battlefield is not currently included in English Heritage’s Battlefields Register, primarily on the grounds that it cannot be securely located. But this assessment is based on work English Heritage commissioned in the 1990s and subsequent work by the Battlefields Trust in 2004/05 provides a location for the battle which is much more secure than some of the other battles currently included on the Register.
I therefore request that the government look again at the route of HS2 in the Chipping Warden area, re-routing it to ensure it avoids the Edgecote battlefield.
Frank Baldwin of the Battlefields Trust has advised that the Trust are undertaking the following activities with this regard:
1. Briefed the all party war heritage committee about the threat and written to the Secretary of State for Transport .
2. Making a submission to English Heritage to try to obtain spot listing of the battlefield. Glenn Foard is providing archaeological input and the backing of his university to the case.
3. Have a team working on Edgecote
In the meantime it would be helpful if anyone who wishes to protect this important battlefield could do on of two things
WRITE TO YOUR MP
……asking them to approach the Department of Transport to discover whether Edgecote battlefield has been considered in the project and, if not, why not.
You can find out who your MP is by inputting your post code on the ‘They work for you’ website at:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
You can then either use the ‘They work for you’ ‘send a message to [name of MP]’ option, though multiple identical messages may be blocked, or search for your MP using a search engine (most MPs have a web page) and use the contact details to send them a letter or an e-mail.
The text of a suggested letter is below:
Dear [name of MP]
I am writing to you about the government’s proposed HS2 rail-link and my concerns that it has serious detrimental impact on a key heritage resource that seems to have been entirely overlooked by the Department of Transport.
The current proposed HS2 route around the village of Chipping Warden cuts directly across the historic battlefield of Edgecote (1469) and no consideration seems to have been made of this by the Department in any publicly released documents relating to the project.
Edgecote was fought during the Wars of the Roses and resulted in the exile of King Edward IV. It was also significant for the large numbers of Welsh soldiers and commanders that were killed on the Yorkist side, reducing effective Welsh support for the House of York which became particularly significant at the battle of Bosworth in 1485, which saw the death of King Richard III and heralded the start of the Tudor dynasty.
The battlefield is likely to contain significant unstratified archaeological remains which could be vital in understanding the development of warfare between the medieval and early modern periods; the proposed rail link risks destroying this archaeology.
Battlefields are also historical and educational resources in their own right, creating an understanding of space, sight lines and terrain that cannot be obtained from maps and written accounts. The routing of the proposed rail link across the battlefield would destroy the character of the battlefield and remove the ability to use the extant physical features to better understand the action, destroying a valuable reference and heritage resource.
The battlefield is not currently included in English Heritage’s Battlefields Register, primarily on the grounds that it cannot be securely located. But this assessment is based on work English Heritage commissioned in the 1990s and subsequent work by the Battlefields Trust in 2004/05 provides a location for the battle which is much more secure than some of the other battles currently included on the Register.
I’d therefore be grateful if you could ascertain whether the Department of Transport has considered the Edgecote battlefield in its appraisal of the proposed HS2 route and, if it has, why the battlefield was not judged material in considering the route and what, if any, mitigation it would intend to put in place for this historic site if the project goes ahead.
RESPOND TO THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTS PUBLIC CONSULTATION
The Department of Transport is currently running a public consultation about the project. This can be accessed at:
https://highspeedrail.dft.gov.uk/have-your-say
Question five asks whether the respondent agrees with the proposed route and mitigation of its impact. It would be helpful if interested parties could provide the following or similar answer in response to this question:
I disagree with the proposed route around the village of Chipping Warden as it cuts directly across the historic battlefield of Edgecote (1469).
The consultation document makes no reference to the Edgecote battlefield and consequently no mitigation is proposed. The battlefield is likely to contain significant unstratified archaeological remains which could be vital in understanding the development of warfare between the medieval and early modern periods; the proposed rail link risks destroying this archaeology.
Battlefields are also historical and educational resources in their own right, creating an understanding of space, sight lines and terrain that cannot be obtained from maps and written accounts. The routing of the proposed rail link across the battlefield would destroy the character of the battlefield and remove the ability to use the extant physical features to better understand the action, destroying a valuable reference and heritage resource.
The battlefield is not currently included in English Heritage’s Battlefields Register, primarily on the grounds that it cannot be securely located. But this assessment is based on work English Heritage commissioned in the 1990s and subsequent work by the Battlefields Trust in 2004/05 provides a location for the battle which is much more secure than some of the other battles currently included on the Register.
I therefore request that the government look again at the route of HS2 in the Chipping Warden area, re-routing it to ensure it avoids the Edgecote battlefield.