Keep Your Powder Dry

  Google/Feedburner have announced  that they will be discontinuing the 'follow by email' gadget with Blogger in July 2021. Obviously this will only impact those of you who do follow by email: no idea how many of you there are, as Blogger doesn't easily let me know this. So you'll be pleased to hear that my nonsensical rubbish will no longer be cluttering up your inboxes on a Monday. Those of you who will be devastated to lose these quality missives, I usually schedule posts to be published at 6am (UK time) on Mondays. DELETE AS APPROPRIATE There is a way that I could make a mailing list, to which you could subscribe, but as this would then add onerous bureacracy, and cost (think GDPR), on to my already busy schedule I'm not going to. Sorry. Update: a little more delving on the FeedBurner service update page states that they are migrating to a more stable platform. Whether this means that 'follow by email' will return at some point I'm not sure. KeepYour...

This post is brought to you courtesy of a Twitter poll; struck down by indecision, the poll overwhelmingly voted for a Regiment of Foot rather than a Regiment of Horse to be next on the painting queue. Sir Arthur is best known for raising the London Lobsters , he also raised a Regiment of Foot, who served in Waller's Southern Association.  Originally planned to be Colonel Edwards Aldrich's RoF, I realised that I'd already represented them (but in their Lord Saye and Sele guise), so I needed another blue coated regiment. Hesilrigge's fitted the bill.  Raised in August 1643 they first saw action at the siege of Basing House. They would go on to the standoff at Farnham; they stormed Alton Church; the siege of Arundel; Cheriton; besieged at Lyme Regis; Cropredy Bridge; the relief of Taunton; they garrisoned Wareham; possibly took part in a skirmish at Dorchester; before being reduced into Sir Hardress Waller’s Regiment of Foot of the New Model Army in April 1645. Cooke’s Re...

In a break from things military, the ECW Travelogue adventures into the radical politics that fermented in the  'World Turned Upside Down' and visited the most famous sites associated with the True Levellers, known as The Diggers, and their leader Gerard Winstanley. Don't forget that there is a movie about  Winstanley   and The Diggers, particularly useful if you're suffering from insomnia. (Don't get me wrong, it's a great historical recreation, it's just rather slow.) Gerrard/Gerard Winstanley (it looks like he may have spelled his name Jerrard) was born in Wigan in 1609, a fact that is celebrated in the self proclaimed nation's pie capital with a memorial garden and an annual music festival - The Wigan Digger's Festival. Whilst on the subject of music: Winstanley and the Diggers were immortalised in a seventeenth century ballad, which was reprinted and tweaked in the 1800s. More recently Chumbawamba*, and Billy Bragg both recorded it (Bragg's...

Just in time to wet your appetite for the pubs reopening... (and remember, please drink responsibly). Anyone would think that I'd carefully planned a pub guide to be published on the day that pubs partially reopen. Complete coincidence. Maybe... I just hope these pubs have been able to weather the financial storm of Covid. Once again the hedonistic ride that is the ECW Travelogue ventures south to that there London. This time in search of pubs. I must point out that we do have pubs near Château KeepYourPowderDry, I'm looking at London pubs with a link to the Civil Wars. I have also included those pubs with 'a legend has it..' link, and those pubs that existed during the time. To be honest you'd be hard pushed to link all ten pubs (or twelve if you include the two optional extras) together, they are probably best visited in three separate trips. Most of the pubs are close together, being in Transport for London's Zones 1 & 2, but there are also two separate o...

As per the title of this post, please don't panic. However, I do have to inform my regular readers (hello both of you) that KeepYourPowderDry may go a little quiet for a wee while. It's not going away, you don't have to Wayback Machine everything, it's just I am rather busy*. A new job inevitably leads to being ridiculously busy for a period until systems are in place - which has had the consequence that I haven't picked up a paint brush in weeks. That pile of harquebusiers on my desk are still bare metal. A red herring attending a fancy dress party as an owl? Plus a very exciting offer has been accepted which will take my full attention away from KeepYourPowderDry for a period. I really really want to tell you, but I can't. So don't ask. Rubbish at keeping 'good' secrets. You'll find out eventually, and agree that it is 'moderately acceptable'. But rest assured that the usual poor quality blather and waffle will return soon.  There are a...

The Civil War version of the 95th Rifles/French Old Guard finally emerge from my painting pile; I'm not that tardy, they were 'lost' for a number of years, and I am slowly working my way through the figures that went astray. Every ECW wargamer worth their salt will have the London Lobsters in their collection. Sir Arthur raised a troop of horse in 1642 in Leicestershire, they were attached to Balfour's Regiment and fought at Edgehill. After Edgehill, Sir Arthur returned to London to raise the troop to full regiment strength. Their initial engagements saw the troop storm Malmesbury; fight at Highnam; and skirmish at Ripple Field, where they took heavy casualties covering the Parliamentarian retreat. The Regiment would fight as part of Waller's Southern Association. By now at full regiment strength they fought at Lansdown; Devizes; Roundway Down; Basing House; the Farnham standoff; Alton Church; the siege of Arundel; Cheriton; skirmished at Newbury; Cropredy Bridge; t...

There were more Royalist commanders, so only a matter of time before there were more Parliamentarian command figures. First up Sir William Waller , an unadulterated figure, Sir William has a spare regiment of foot flag  on his base. Pure bunkum, as a found/captured ensign would be paraded rather than just left on the floor. Normally Maverick flags need sealing with a PVA/water mix but I didn't think I'd be able to get the close folds that I wanted. Trimmed very carefully with a new X-Acto blade I cut the flag so that I had the side I wanted and just enough to wrap around the flagstaff (a spare pike I had lying around), I superglued the flag in position, and once dry I washed the flag with a 75/25 mix of PVA and water, left it to dry for a few minutes then made the folds. Frequent adjustment was required whilst it dried, then any loose strands of fabric were trimmed once it was thoroughly dry. Waller's history is entwinned with that of his good friend, and opponent Sir Ralph...

Regular readers (hello both of you) will be familiar with Sir Arthur  and know all about how he earned a spot in the Horrible Histories 'stupid deaths' hall of fame. His Regiment of Horse were raised in Oxfordshire and the North in 1642 after the Battle of Edgehill; they took part initially garrisoned Reading; they took part in a skirmish at Henley-on-Thames; the siege of Reading; a raid on West Wycombe; a skirmish at Padbury; they stormed Bristol; the siege of Gloucester; a skirmish at Aldbourne Chase; First Newbury; before they garrisoned Oxford. In September 1644 field command of the Regiment passed to Lieutenant Colonel George Boncle who led the men at the relief of Basing House; the storm of Leicester; and Naseby. George was captured at Naseby and his brother Sebastian Boncle took over command. The Regiment continued but their service is not clear; possibly remaining as part of the Oxford garrison. This is the last of my planned Royalist Regiments of Horse, giving a gran...

 A regiment of horse from the King's Oxford Army, that took an absolute hammering at Cirencester in September 1643: Cirencester had been taken by Essex in 1642, before Rupert recaptured the town in February 1643. Essex would again retake the town for Parliament in September 1643. Crispe's Regiment lost a number of cornets with white fields and black and white fringes at Cirencester; they are recorded in a muster in April 1644 as being four Troops but only having one cornet (in theory colours could not be flown by a troop or company that had lost their colours until they had captured a colour from the enemy). I've represented them carrying the cornet of Sgt Major Christopher Wormsley's Troop. Crispe was the son of a London Alderman, and at the outbreak of war he was an important Royalist agent in London, before he fled the capital to Oxford when an intercepted letter revealed that £3700 was owed to him ‘for secrett service done for his Majestie'. Commissioned to rais...

This Lieutenant General Thomas Hammond must not be confused with Lieutenant General George Hammond, commander of Stargate Command. Hammond's firelocks were the artillery guard of the Eastern Association, not a galaxy traveling special forces unit that was part of Stargate Command. Believed to have been raised at the same time as the artillery train of the Eastern Association, they were most likely present wherever the Eastern Association fought: more specifically they were possibly present at Lincoln, and were certainly at the Siege of York and Marston Moor before continuing the fight at Second Newbury. In 1645 they joined the New Model Army as the Artillery Guard of Firelocks. In their new guise they fought at Oxford, Naseby, Leicester and Bristol. They are described as wearing tawny coloured coats pre NMA, then tawny orange coloured coats lined with white when they were the firelock guard of the NMA. Hammond was paid for two colours in April 1645, but we don't know what the...

 Another stalwart regiment of King's 'cavaliers'. An extensive roll call of battles bookending the First Civil War: Powick Bridge; Edgehill; the storm of Cirencester; taking of Evesham; skirmish at Little Dean; skirmish at Upton Bridge; Ripple Field; Caversham Bridge;  skirmish at Chewton Mendip; skirmish at Glastonbury and Somerton; skirmish at Bradford on Avon; Lansdown; Roundway Down; storm of Bristol; siege of Barnstaple; siege of Exeter; First Newbury; siege of Plymouth; Cheriton; Tipton Green; Cropredy Bridge; Lostwithiel; Second Newbury; the relief of Donnington; the relief of Chester; the relief of Beeston Castle; stormed  Evesham; storm of Leicester; Naseby; storm of Huntingdon; Rowton Heath; skirmish at Tutbury; finishing the First Civil War at Stow on the Wold. Pretty much only Marston Moor missing from the First Civil War Greatest Hits album... Maurice was of course Rupert's younger brother; aged sixteen, Maurice's military career began in the Prince of ...

The very last of my Royalist Regiments of Foot - that's a total of seventeen pike and shot, and three commanded shot (650 men in case you were wondering). But we've heard that before, so we'll settle on 'last' for the moment . Although... I have just learned that Sir Beville Grenville's Regiment of Foot had blue and white painted pikes and musket rests...  Allen, Alan, or Alen? Apseley or Apsely? All used, so take your pick: I'm going with Allen Apsley (as that is what is carved upon his tomb in the south ambulatory of Westminster Abbey). Raised in 1643 in Devon, the Regiment served in the West Country and with the King's Oxford Army throughout the First Civil War. Sir Allen was born on 28th August 1616, the eldest son of Sir Allen (1567-1630), Lieutenant of the Tower of London, and his third wife Lucy (St John). Apparently Sir Allen Snr was so well loved by the Tower's inmates (often lending them money) that many didn't wish to leave their accom...