Bradford skirmish 1642
Who Fought
History & Significance
The sieges of Bradford (also known as the Battle of the Steeple), were two very short-lived sieges that took place separately in the town of Bradford, Yorkshire, in December 1642 and early July 1643, just after the Royalist victories in Pontefract (1642), and the Battle of Adwalton Moor (1643) respectively. In the second siege, with the Parliamentarian forces dispersed to the west in and around Halifax, the Earl of Newcastle subjected Bradford to a brief siege to enforce rule and allegiance to the king.
The first siege gave rise to the term "Bradford Quarter", apparently a misinterpretation by the defenders of Bradford who, on hearing a Royalist officer asking for quarter, assured him that they would "quarter him". The term "give them Bradford Quarter", was used by the Royalists against the defenders of the Bradford during the second siege. The second siege was noted for its apparent salvation from slaughter after the Earl of Newcastle was visited by a wraith-like figure imploring him to "pity poor Bradford...".
The sieges were also notable in that to protect the church and steeple, bales of wool were hung from the tower in an effort to deflect, or deaden the impact of cannon-fire from the Royalists. The siege was said to have decimated Bradford and afterwards, famine and pestilence followed in its wake which affected Bradford for a hundred years. Some even state that as Bradford was withered, it allowed Leeds to flourish as the powerhouse in the region.
Bradford was subject to the fighting in the First English Civil War, between October 1642 and March 1644. The town was besieged twice in this period; firstly in December 1642 and again in July 1643. The settlement of Bradford in the 1640s was quite small and consisted of only three main roads; Ivegate, Kirkgate and Westgate. At that time, the inhabitants of Bradford were Puritans who were overwhelmingly in support of Parliament. There were many reasons for this; King Charles I of England had a Catholic wife and he himself was suspected of being a Catholic. Additionally, the manor of Bradford had been sold off to the citizens of London to pay for the king's debts, a high-church vicar with "papist sympathies" was installed in the parish church and the Tempest family, owners of Bolling Hall, had tried to tax Bradford's cloth industry for the benefit of people in the south of England. Further, economic problems had led to a problems in the cloth trade, which also produced bitter resentment towards the king.
Before the fighting began in earnest, Royalist troops were stationed in Bradford as it was known to be anti-royalist in its outlook. These troops were said to have been "brutal" to the inhabitants of Bradford, which is said to have only increased their hatred of the Royalist cause. The Royalist soldiers were withdrawn in 1642, and the local population set about erecting defences for when the troops came back; ...the generality of the town and parish, and the towns thereabout, stood up for Parliament, and it was made a little garrison, and though it was not easy to keep, yet they threw up bulwarks about it, and they were firm to the cause, and each other.
The ground they fought on
The site of Bradford skirmish 1642 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.
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- Sieges of Bradford · Wikidata
- Sieges_of_Bradford · Wikipedia