MARSTON MOOR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 22, 26 July 1939, Page 4

MARSTON MOOR

MEMORIAL TO THE BATTLE

On Marston Moor, a few miles westward of the city of York, Cromwell's notable victory over the Royalist army commanded by Prince Rupert will ba commemorated by the unveiling of a permanent memorial, said the "Manchester Guardian" on June 19.

bMany fierce fights have been waged on Yorkshire soil, but there are few battlefield memorials- throughout the county, and the scene of the greatest encounter of all, Marston Moor, has for 295 years remained with nothing to mark it save a roadway along which the- routed forces of Charles I iled in contusion, and which to this day is known as Bloody Lane.

The erection of a permanent memorial was inspired early this year by the Harrogate group of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society -and the Cromwell Association. Sir Robert Newbald Kay, of Poppleton Hall, near Yoriv, gave a site as near as possible to the centre of the battlefield, and ar; obelisk of hard brown sandstone rising out of a solid pedestal approached by a flight of three steps has been erected at a cost of £275, towards which £100 was subscribed by the Cromwell Association. The obelisk and the lay-out of the garden which encloses it have been designed by bMr. Leonard H.

Clarke, the borough engineer of Harrogate, who has evidently borne in mind the strong, austere character of the great Puritan commander.

The unveiling ceremony will be performed by the president of the Cromwell Association, Mr. Isaac Foot.

Those who know Mr. Foot and his admiration of Cromwell will understand how inevitable was his.election for this task. Sir Robert Newbald Kay is to preside, and Mr. James R. Ogden. leader of the Harrogate archaeologists, will probably take the opportunity to present him. with a collection of books on famous Yorkshire battles which are being specially bound as a gift to him in recognition of his contribution to the memorial.

The battle of Marston Moor was fought on July 2, 1644. Cromwell's victory—for it was the conduct of the brigade under his leadership which decided the issue—was a severe blow to the fortunes of Charles I. Cromwell had trained and selected his men according to principles which afterwards became the foundation of the "New Model" army that struck the final blow at Nnseby.

{ But for Cromwell's brigade the battlej might have been lost to the Parlia- | ment. His brigade, however, won, j complete success over Rupert's troopers. "God made them as stubble I to our swords." he wrote at the close of the day. A contemporary commentator wrote: "'The runaways on both sides were so many, sol brertbless, so speechless, so full of tears that 1 should not have taken them for! men but by their motion, which served! them very well." But in all the con-! fusion on both sides Cromwell's Iron sides remained staunch and firm. I — ■■„ . 'I ----- j J r,2r. Leonard Starkey, of Pinner, has j ir.:ri. a model of Hereford Cathedral! ! complete in tvery detail, and so small j div.-; it Will fit into ths palm of the .hand. - . j