HAMPSHIRE
AND THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR

The Battle of Alton, 1643

Alton a small market town northeast of Winchester was the setting for two battles which took place during the English Civil War, and one of these battles has been regarded as being obscure though one of the best "storming's" of the war.

It was on Sunday, February 22nd 1643 that a detachment of approximately 200 men of the parliamentarian forces arrived in the town to do a reconnaissance of the roads leading to Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and met up with a contingent of around 1,500 men of Prince Rupert's Royalist horsemen. This resulted in a small skirmish in which 120 royalists were said to have been killed or wounded by just two shots of the parliamentarians field gun.

In 1643 the Royalists had already had success in overrunning the north, west and central parts of Hampshire, as well as Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset. Their commander Lord Hopton defeated Sir William Waller in the west and dispersed his army to find quarters for the winter at Alton, Alresford and Winchester. The price of keeping his army in food and water plus plenty of ale and accommodation would have been astronomical and would expend the majority of the towns resources, as there were around 1,000 men which would have probably equalled the number of townspeople causing great inconvenience.

Lord Crawford was put in command of the Alton Foot and Horse and Colonel Bolle was in charge of the infantry, which all arrived in the town on 1st December. Hopton had given them orders to retreat rather tan engage the enemy, especially if Waller was to advance from the nearby town of Farnham. But following a raid on Crawford's quarters on December 9th, he decided not to retreat but to despatch scouts onto the main Alton to Farnham road, who were consequently spotted by Waller's scouts and this caused him to rethink and to consider an alternative route which would allow him to creep up unexpectedly on the Royalists.

At around 7pm on 12th December Waller with around 5,000 men set off from Farnham Park along the road to Basing. Then after a change of tack they eventually arrived on the outskirts of Alton at 9am completely unobserved.

Crawford learnt of Waller's presence and immediately fled with his horsemen to Winchester to try and obtain reinforcements from Hopton. This meant leaving Bolle with only about 1,000 men to defend the town. Tough fighting to the north of the church followed with the royalists being pushed back into the churchyard and the large earthwork. Then suddenly an attack came from the south and pushed the royalists back further towards the south of the churchyard and this soon meant that the two groups of royalists met in the churchyard and fighting ensured for some two hours.

Left with only one option the royalists had to fall back to the church itself, and began to fortify the building.

The parliamentarians, led by Major Shambrooke attacked and forced their way into the church and it is said that this was where 8 or 9 parliamentarian troops met their doom.

Colonel Bolle, despite the prospect of defeat, and many of his men decided to ask for  fight and and not ask for quarter, and some 50 or 60 of them died bravely at the hand of their enemy, and around 900 taken prisoner, most of which from around the church and the churchyard. The prisoners dug a large pit to bury their dead by the north wall of the church, and next day they were escorted to Farnham and then on to London where around 500 were thought to have taken covenant and swapped sides.

The people of Alton would probably have not got involved with this due to the soldiers would have carried disease with them and despite them having a bias towards the parliamentarians the damage to the church and threat of higher taxation would have done plenty to change the minds of the people, plus having to pay for the repairs of the church themselves.

The storming of Alton church helped considerably to end the royalists dream of marching through the county and on to London, thus giving the parliamentarians a stronger position for when they started their 1644 campaign.

THE CITY OF PORTSMOUTH

One of the reasons for the English Civil War was the demand for "ship-money" by Charles 1st in 1642 as a part of the money collected from the towns was spent in Portsmouth and amounted to around £60. This led to a dramatic impact on the town and also for affecting the lives of its inhabitants. Portsmouth was considered to be a very important city during the war as it used to control both sides, as it had the status of a noted naval centre. Parliament at the time regarded it as a well fortified town that could act as the military headquarters in the south of Hampshire, while the harbour was considered by Charles to be and extremely helpful port due to his inability to rely on other ports as they were not so loyal.

At the outbreak of the Civil War the town was in the hands of Colonel Goring who had earned both trust and funding from both sides leading up to the war, and who finally declared his allegiance to the King on 2nd August 1642. The reaction of  Parliament to this caused some of the biggest skirmishes of the war to take place in Portsmouth, including the overrunning of the Portsbridge garrison, Southsea Castle and the Town Mount which was at the north end of the High Street.

Portsmouth Harbour was blockaded by the Earl of Warwick on 8th August and Parliamentary forces completely surrounded the city in September, and set up gun platforms at nearby Gosport. After threatening to destroy the city using large amounts of gunpowder that was already contained in Portsmouth Goring was finally forced to surrender on 7th September.

The effect on the citizens of Portsmouth was due to the fact that when the city was under the control of Charles, a majority of the population supported Parliament. After ten days of Goring's statement of support for the King, more than half of the soldiers and workers left the town and the number of soldiers fighting gradually dwindled as the war progressed, those that didn't support the King were told to get out but a lot were forced to stay because of the possibility of their premises being looted and besides, there were not sufficient funds in the coffers to pay to move them elsewhere.

This caused friction in the city, Liberty was reduced for everyone and many men were pressed into military service. When Parliamentary forces attacked the city the farmers who used to bring their cattle into the city to help alleviate the food shortages were always forced into the army upon arrival. Women and children from Portsea were taken over to Hayling Island  so as not to be captured by the Earl of Warwick's men.

By September the morale of the troops had sunk lower and more civilians were forced to leave the city as there not many who wished to continue fighting. Due to Goring's actions and the events that occurred workers were unable to move freely within the city and lost their jobs, and those that remained had the risk of imprisonment, military service or execution. Families struggled to support themselves as the war continued, and the harbour blockade and regular supply of of supplies were intercepted at Gosport, making it more and more difficult to send food into the city which caused severe food shortages and this led to starvation for many families. The communications with the outside world deteriorated as the war progressed, with messages and equipment becoming impossible to send. To get out of the city a lot of people disguised themselves, and those that were caught smuggling or fleeing were deprived of their living, their belongings and property confiscated and made to pay compensation. After the surrender  of Goring things began to improve as there were only sixty unskilled townspeople and servant left to defend the city. The city remained under the control of Cromwell's forces for the rest of the war, which helped to stabilise the difficulties that arose during fighting.

SOUTHAMPTON
The town of Southampton also held a great military significance. The east of the country was a Parliamentarian seat while to the west much of the area was loyal to the king due to it being dependent on local landowners who were disposed to the royalist cause, thus leading to Southampton being an advanced base for attacks on the West Country, but also open to raids from the kings forces as they advance on the capital. Its position was also important in that it lied in close proximity to Charles headquarters in Oxford, which was easily within striking distance of Southampton, but it was luckier than  its neighbours of Portsmouth, Winchester and Chichester as the town had no actual fighting within its walls.

Southampton was one of many seaports along the south coast. With the exception of Portsmouth most of the ports in this area were in Cromwell's hands  since the naval fleet had accepted the Parliamentary Vice Admiral the Earl of Warwick as opposed to Sir John Penington the Kings nominee, thus giving Southampton no choice other than to be Parliamentarian, and this pleased the government. Many of the local towns and cities such as Winchester, Romsey and Portsmouth had fallen in the hands of the Kings followers at some point during the war and the government did not want this to happen to Southampton. The people of the town were royalists sympathisers  and this included many of the city officials. A letter to the Mayor of Southampton from the parliamentary naval commander Richard Swanely, dated 2nd December 1642 supports this:

"I have also authority to summon you and that town to your obedience to the Grand Council of England to which I desire an answer, if no answer, shall take it as denial, and then if any unhappiness befalls you, thank yourselves".

Although the King's fortunes were subsiding elsewhere in the country Hopton, the royalist and his men advanced through Winchester and captured the market town of Romsey, but this was short-lived as Hopton was forced back by the forces of Colonel Richard Norton, but two weeks later while retreating Hopton broke down the bridge at Redbridge, which severed contact between Southampton and the New Forest. Hopton then led a mini-siege so that with a few weeks there was "hardly any left for man or beast".

The town managed to stay on the side of parliament all through the war and there was little fighting in the town itself but this still made great changes in the lives of the people. One of the biggest changes was the change in religion, under the Commonwealth and Protectorate, Puritan preaches such as Nathaniel Robbinson and Giles Say were housed in livings of the churches of the town whilst other puritans were also prominent members of society.

To be continued....

CIVIL WAR ECHOES