Keep Your Powder Dry

The  ECW Travelogue turns its attention on Staffordshire. For some reason, rather than starting the entry at the bit of Staffs that is 'next door' to  Château KeepYourPowderDry I started with the corner of Staffs that was furthest away. The first entries look at the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester. Of course any post about Staffordshire requires, by law, pictures of Staffordshire slipware - this one by Thomas Toft; Potteries Museum, Hanley First up is Moseley Old Hall  on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, and is cared for by the National Trust. Moseley bills itself as "the home that saved a king" - considering the number of close calls that Charles had during his escape, this isn't really the unique selling point that you might expect it to be. I do wonder how many other houses, along the Monarch's Way could also make that claim? Built about 1600, the National Trust have recreated a seventeenth century garden on the estate. A rather s...

At the outbreak of war the Royalists took control of Lichfield, or rather they occupied The Close - the medieval fortified Cathedral precinct surrounded by a moat and defensive walls. Lichfield's population generally sided with the Parliamentarian cause, but the Cathedral staff with the King. The First Siege In March 1643 Lord Brooke led the Parliamentarian assault upon The Close, famously being shot at long range by John Dyott (a deaf mute game keeper, in position on the Cathedral's central spire). This is most probably the first recorded death due to sniper fire. Sir John Gell took over command and The Close fell to Parliament after two days. Brooke's Memorial The Second Siege In April 1643 Prince Rupert led a considerable Royalist force from Oxford to retake the town and Cathedral. Rupert's engineers drained the moat, undermined the walls of The Close and detonated a mine - possibly the first example of a mine being used in England to breach a wall. The Par...