News

New Civil War battle interpretation board unveiled in Stow on the Wold

28 March 2025

A new information board about the battle of Stow on the Wold, fought on 21 March 1646 during the English Civil War, has been installed in the town.

The Battlefields Trust, a national charity promoting battlefield heritage, and the Town Council worked together to install the information board.

Following short speeches from Battlefields Trust co–regional chair Simon Marsh and Chairman of the Town Council, Ben Eddolls, the board was unveiled by David Glaisyer, whose ancestor, Jacob Lord Astley, commanded the royalist army during the battle. David was assisted by local Battlefields Trust member Joyce Norris.   

Deputy Lieutenant for Gloucestershire, Sybil Ruscoe, and the Reverend Karen Wellman, priest in charge of St Edward’s church in Stow, also attended the ceremony along with around 50 members of the public.    

Simon Marsh said, ‘the Battlefields Trust is delighted to have partnered with the Town Council to install this information board which will hopefully help local people and visitors to the town better understand what happened here almost 380 years ago’.

Ben Eddolls added, ‘Stow is already a thriving tourist destination with its shops, eateries and world famous Tolkein door on the church. But it also has plenty of Civil War interest from the funerary monument of Captain Hastings Kyte in the church to the Christie Crawford collection of Civil War paintings in St Edward’s Hall’.

‘This new information board builds on this heritage and the Town Council is pleased to have been involved in this project’.  

The installation of the information board followed a project run by the Battlefields Trust between 2015–2022 to find the location of the battlefield using a systematic metal detecting survey. 

The results of this work suggested the current battlefield area registered by Historic England is incorrect and the battle was fought much nearer the town. This revised interpretation is reflected in the information board.

The battle was the last of those fought during the first English Civil War (1642–1646) and saw the defeat of a small royalist army by parliamentarian forces from the midlands.