Battle of Adwalton Moor 1643
Who Fought
Royalists: 4,000 foot and 3,000 horse under the Earl of Newcastle. Parliamentarians: 6,000 foot and 1,500 horse plus local countrymen under Lord Fairfax, Sir Thomas Fairfax and Major General Gifford.
History & Significance
The Battle of Adwalton Moor occurred on 30 June 1643 at Adwalton, West Yorkshire, during the First English Civil War. In the battle, the Royalists loyal to King Charles led by the Earl of Newcastle soundly defeated the Parliamentarians commanded by Lord Fairfax.
During the first half of 1643, the Royalists led by the Earl of Newcastle and the Parliamentarian Army of the North under overall command by Lord Fairfax fought for control of Yorkshire and clashed several times including battles at Leeds, Seacroft Moor, and Wakefield.
On 22 June, Newcastle and the Royalists captured Howley Hall, the fortified mansion of Parliamentary supporter Lord Savile, in Batley. Newcastle then advanced north with his army of 7,000 including an artillery train with two demi-cannons. His intent was to travel seven and a half miles (12 kilometres) to the northwest to attack the Parliamentarian garrison of Bradford. If the Royalists were successful in the campaign they would take control of West Yorkshire and its cloth manufacturing towns.
When Lord Fairfax, the Parliamentary commander, was informed that the Royalist army was marching in the direction of Bradford, he made the decision to assemble his army of 7,500 men, leave the unfortified city of Bradford, and confront the Royalists in the open country. On 30 June, the two armies met on the Old Roman Road at Adwalton. In their respective histories of the battle, each side claimed that the other side was drawn up and positioned when they arrived. As so, it seems that neither side chose the location leading to an encounter battle which occurred where the two armies by chance happened to meet.
Lord Fairfax and the Parliamentarians first encountered Royalist skirmishers at Wisket Hill. After driving the skirmishers back, the Parliamentarians moved to positions in enclosed fields and prepared to meet the Royalist army. Lord Fairfax commanded the centre formation as commander in chief. Sir Thomas Fairfax, Lord Fairfax's son, commanded the right wing and Major General Gifford commanded the left wing. At the outset of the battle, the Parliamentarians used their protected positions and numerical superiority of infantry to push the Royalists back. As the Parliamentarians continued to advance, they came to the edge of the open moor and forced the Royalists to retreat back to the position of their artillery battery.
After defending themselves for a while against cavalry attacks, the Parliamentarians moved into the open field and began to charge the Royalists, aiming to overrun their line and end the battle. In this charge the Parliamentarians were nearly successful. The Royalists seemed on the verge of conceding the battle when a contingent of Royalist pikemen drove back the Parliamentarian's left wing. The Royalist cavalry then swung around to the north and attacked the Parliamentarians’ left flank. Gifford and his troopers collapsed and gave up the fight, retreating in a disorderly manner. The Royalist counter-attack continued and Sir Thomas Fairfax on the right wing received his orders to retreat. Fairfax immediately retreated to the south as he discovered that the Royalists had cut the Parliamentarian right wing off from the main body of the Parliamentarian army.
The ground they fought on
The site of Battle of Adwalton Moor 1643 lies on Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation And South Wales Lower Coal Measures Formation (Undifferentiated), bedrock that formed in the Westphalian. The rock here is mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, coal, ironstone and ferricrete.
- Royalists: about 200 killed, 300 wounded. Parliamentarians: about 500 killed, 1,500 captured.
This battlefield is listed on the Register of Historic Battlefields — a national designation identifying Britain's most significant battle sites for protection and further research. Reference: NHLE 1000000.
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- Battle of Adwalton Moor 1643 · Historic England
- Battle of Adwalton Moor · Wikidata
- Battle_of_Adwalton_Moor · Wikipedia
- Battle of Adwalton Moor · BritishBattles.com
- Battle of Adwalton Moor · Battlefields Trust