Sir John Gell — the colourful and aggressive Parliamentary commander in Derbyshire — systematically reduced Royalist garrisons across the county. Wingfield Manor was one of the most significant. Gell's forces besieged it twice. After its final surrender, Parliament ordered it demolished. The ruins — still substantial — are among the most dramatic in Derbyshire. Gell himself was later imprisoned by Parliament for alleged Royalist sympathies, a fate that illustrated the difficulty of maintaining political orthodoxy in a civil war.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
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