Battle of Worcester: The aftermath of English Civil Wars

The population numbered around 7,000 people when 12,000 Royalists and 30,000 Parliamentarians fought the last battle of the English Civil Wars on September 3, 1651.

The city was stormed by Cromwell’s far superior force in the late afternoon.

It was violent and unforgiving.

By dawn the next day Worcester was a smouldering wreck with its streets littered with the dead and wounded.

Some streets were impassable due to dead horses, men, wagons and the general detritus of battle.

Around 3,000 to 4,000 Royalists had been killed in the battle whilst Cromwell was very proud to announce he had lost no more than 200 men.

Cromwell used his professional New Model Army, supported by English Militias summoned to the Republican cause.

These included the not-so-faithful men from Worcester itself.

They helped to storm Fort Royal and liberate the city of the Scots.

Eyewitnesses said the roads and fields from Powick Bridge to the City Bridge and the roads and fields from Perry Wood to the City Walls were strewn with the dead and dying.

Former High Sheriff Sir Rowland Berkeley was deeply shocked at the scene on his return to the city.

Most citizens had fled when Cromwell’s guns began to bombard the city days before the battle.

The hot weather forced the returning citizens to act quickly when confronted with the scenes before them.

Waggons and carts were commandeered to transport the dead.

Some would have been buried in Worcester Cathedral grounds and the numerous churchyards in the parishes where they were found.

College Green was a mass of dead due to the wounded having been treated in College Hall.

Mass burial pits would have been dug somewhere on the river meadows and on the surrounding hills too.

We may never locate these burial pits.

At least 10,000 Royalists had been routed at Worcester with many trying to escape back to Scotland.

Cromwell ordered a pursuit and this was mainly carried out by his cavalry.

Others were captured within the city walls after hiding inside churches and houses.

Some were ambushed in places such as Bewdley and Kidderminster.

A small number of Royalists made it as far as Cheshire and Lancashire.

A contemporary quote described the pursuing cavalry.

“They lapped them up as an Ox lappeth up Pasteur.”

Some unfortunate Scots were killed by angry civilians in the area.

Several Scots were beaten to death near Chaddesley Corbett.

All prisoners were rounded up with many being held in the cathedral, the old castle grounds and the Guildhall.

The castles at Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Stafford, Chester, York, Bristol and the Tower of London housed prisoners from the battle too. Officers and their men were segregated and treated very differently.

Some officers were fined heavily, lands confiscated or imprisoned.

General Derby was executed for his involvement.

The Englishmen in Charles’ predominantly Scottish Army were very badly treated, especially those who swore an oath in 1646 to never take up arms again.

Father Huddleston saw some prisoners and described: ‘All of them stript, many of them cutt, some without stocking or shoes.”

Regimental coats were removed so the men often stood in just their shirts.

Due to the lack of space to hold prisoners indefinitely, it was decided to transport many below the rank of Cornet of Horse and Lieutenant of Foot to places like Barbados, the West Indies and the Americas.

They were treated as slaves, forced to work on the sugar and tobacco plantations.

Colonists were shocked at the state of these prisoners when the first ships arrived.

Later, searing heat, poor food and hard work, along with disease, killed many of them.

It was also decided to move some prisoners to the marshes of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.

They were then set to work improving the farmland by digging drainage ditches.

Meanwhile, Worcester continued with the clearing up, rebuilding and eventually trying to get back on its feet.

The city had been a wealthy wool-producing area that had only just managed to recover from the great siege in 1646.

The bridges across the Severn and that at Powick needed repairing too.

Powick had been partially demolished by the Royalists under Sir William Keith.

This was to slow the Parliament attack on the west bank.

The citizens were also ordered to pull down their city walls and fill in the town ditch and earthworks.

The damage was still visible during the 1680s and into the early 1700s.

Even today Powick Church and the Castle Walls, running through King’s School, are still scarred with shot marks.

Many people’s homes had been looted, even the city regalia was missing from the Guildhall.

Cromwell wrote to parliament apologising for his men’s actions in the battle.

The homes of at least 266 Parliamentarian supporters in the city had been looted in the frenzy of the victory.

“The town being entered by storm, some honest men, promiscuously and without distinction, suffered by your soldiers,” it was said.

The Civil Wars ended with the Battle of Worcester and sadly we will never know how many Worcester civilians were killed in the battle.

Their loss was never recorded and I for one will remember them.

Wars have a nasty habit of killing and affecting the lives of non-combatants, even today.

Our columnist Paul Harding runs Discover History which offers hands-on learning of the county’s history.