RESULT OF A DREAM

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 August 1930, Page 7

RESULT OF A DREAM

PLEA BY SOLDIER'S SPIRIT

Because a woman dreamed that a long dead soldier appeared to her and asked why he and his companions had been forgotten, a memorial to the men who fell at Sedgemoor, Somerset, on July 6, 1685, was unveiled a; few weeks ago, Sedgemoor was the last battle to be fought on English soil. Tlie memorial to the men who died there —a plain oak litany desk —was unveiled at a special service by the Alayor of Bridgwater, in Western Zoyland Church. King James’ cavalry were quartered in ilie church before the light, and sixteen of his soldiers who fell were buried in the precincts. Five hundred of the Somerset peasants, who made up the Duke of Alonmoutli’s army, were herded, into the church, after the battle most of them dying or wounded, and left there until soldiers took them to prison. Five men died in the church, while 22 poor wretches were made to clamber into the belfry before they were strung in chains and hanged from the tower. A few years ago Aliss Elizabeth Winter, of Cliedzov, dreamed that one of tlie men killed at Sedgemoor appeared to her, and asked why he and his .companions were lying forgotten. Since then she has worked unceasingly to assure that memorials should be placed in A\ estern Zoyland Church and on the battlefield.