Doctor Mackerell, John Throgmorton, Baynton, and Wroughton. [a/][148a]
Tewkesbury is a small town, situated ten miles from Gloucester, and eight from Cheltenham, close to the confluence of the Severn and one of the Avons. “It standeth in lævâ ripâ Avonæ, a good flite shot above the confluence of Avon and Severne.”
“Ther is a greate bridge of stone at the northe ende of the towne, and ther a little above the bridge, Avon brekith into 2 armes. Yet the bridge is so large that both cum under it. The right arme cummith into Severne withyn a flite shot of the bridge, and at the point of this arme is the towne key for shippes callid Pickardes.”
“The other arme commith downe by the side of the towne, and the Abbay, leving it on the este, and so passing harde ther by Holme Castelle goith into Severne.” [149a]
The field of the battle of Tewkesbury is close to the first mile-post [149b] on the turnpike road, leading from Tewkesbury, through Tredington to Cheltenham and Gloucester. For the information of persons desirous of visiting it, it may be well to observe, that on the westward side of the town of Tewkesbury, there is a range of elevated ground, called the Holme Ground, or Holme Hill, where a castle once stood, [149c] the rise of which commences very near the town, upon part of which, contiguous to the turnpike road, the union workhouse stands, and close behind the latter there is a field called the Gastons; and immediately beyond the union workhouse, are two fields which were purchased in 1855, for the purpose of, and are now laid out as, a cemetery for Tewkesbury, and are called in the title-deeds, part of “the Gastons,” a name which I shall afterwards have again to refer to. This high ground extends on the side of the turnpike road, as far as the first mile-post; just opposite to which, and on the eastward side of the road, is a field which has immemorially been called “Margaret’s Camp,” and which is situated upon a part of the elevated ground which is called Gupshill.
The battle appears to have been fought at that place, and in the adjacent fields to the southward, and also in those a little to the eastward of it, [150a] and on the spot where Gupshill Farm houses and gardens now stand.
The high road from Cheltenham did not formerly pass as close to Margaret’s Camp as at present. Within the memory of persons now living, it turned out of the present turnpike road from Cheltenham, in the descent of the hill, two or three fields’ breadth before arriving at the first mile-post from Tewkesbury, and wound with a considerable curve round the westward side of Gupshill Farm houses and buildings, at which place, part of the old road still remains, and joins the turnpike road at a spot sixty or eighty yards nearer Tewkesbury than the first mile-post. [150b]
In the field called “Margaret’s Camp,” are some slight inequalities in the ground; but they are not sufficiently decided to enable any person to state that they are the remains of intrenchments; and in the centre of the field there is a small circular enclosure, which measures as nearly as I could judge, by stepping over it, about twenty-eight or twenty-nine yards across. It is surrounded by a small and shallow ditch, [150c] which was dry when I visited it; and is without any hedge or bank; it has, however, a number of large elm-trees growing round its inner edge. It is too insignificant to have formed part of the military intrenchments; but it may possibly have been a place of interment of some of the slain; or, as seems probable, it may have been formed in comparatively modern times, by some owner of the land, to commemorate the spot where the Lancastrian army was posted.
It may readily be admitted, that the Lancastrians might have formed their encampment, in some place possessing greater natural strength, on the north instead of the south side of the town; but in that case, they must most unwisely have abandoned to their enemies, the advantages of the possession of the town, and the command of the river, and would have enabled them to intercept the reinforcements which were expected.
It seems impossible to find any place near the town, where an army intending to await and give battle to the Yorkists, when they advanced by the road from Cheltenham, could have been so advantageously posted, as at the spot before mentioned. Although perhaps not naturally very strong, the position was, of course, strengthened by artificial defences, which we may conclude, were then adopted, as has frequently occurred on similar occasions, as for example by baggage waggons, fallen trees, and intrenchments; and it had the additional defences of hedges, ditches, brushwood, &c. It was approached on three sides by ascents, which, though not steep, were at least disadvantageous to the assailants; and it was situated at the end of the tract of elevated ground before noticed. [151] The field before mentioned belongs to Mr. Haywood, and is tenanted by Mr. John Phillips; and I was informed by elderly people, when I visited it, that human bones had formerly been discovered in the immediate neighbourhood of it; but I was not able to learn that any other indicia of the battle had been found there. It is not possible for any intelligent person to mistake the spot, if he is desirous to find it, when he has walked a mile from Tewkesbury on the turnpike road. The place is called “Gupshill,” and is in the parish of Tewkesbury. [152]
The old annalists and chronicles have left us much in the dark, as to the exact place near the camp of the Lancastrians, where Edward’s forces passed the night prior to the battle; but on the morning of the battle, and immediately before it commenced, his army, according both to tradition and probability, took up a position upon some elevated ground, adjoining the turnpike road, and to the southward of, and scarcely half a mile from, the Lancastrian army. From that position, a small tract of ground (now inclosed fields) slopes downwards so as to form a depression between it and the spot occupied by the Lancastrians. This tract of ground was formerly called the Red Piece; and is intersected by the turnpike road, leading towards Cheltenham and Gloucester, and at present forms two fields, one of which, on the right side of the road, is called the Near Red Close, and the other, on the left side of the road, is called the Further Red Close, belonging to Mr. Naish, of Bristol, of which the tenant is Mr. William Brown, a farmer and cattle-dealer. The portion of it on the left side of the road extends to the field called Margaret’s Camp; and it was on the southward side of the latter, that Edward’s forces appear to have made their attack.