A viewing platform with information boards at the site of Sulby Hedges.
"This hedge marks the northern side of Sulby parish and joins the southward boundary at the eastern (left) side of the field to the south, overlooked from the viewpoint. During the deployment of the New Model Army, Oliver Cromwell ordered Okey to lead his regiment of Dragoons (some 676 men in early June but maybe as few as 600 in the battle) northwards on the western side of Sulby Hedges in order to fire on the royalist right wing of horse (cavalry) east of the hedge. This encounter opened the battle and forced the royalist horse to charge forward."
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The board tells us:
"The decisive Battle of the English Civil War was fought in the fields of Naseby, Sulby, Sibbertoft and Clipston parishes between the royalist army, under the command of King Charles and Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and the eventual victors, the parliamentarian New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax.
Patrols clashed on the evening of Friday 13 June in Naseby village. Early on 14 June Fairfax marched the New Model Army to rendezvous at Naseby windmil (now the Obelisk Monument site). By 8am King Charles and Rupert had taken the royalist army to a position on the ridge between East Farndon and Little Oxendon. Both sides were determined to fight. When Fairfax ordered his army to a position on the ridge to the south of this place, Rupert saw the movement and brought the royalists to Dust Hill. You are now standing at the western end of Dust Hill.
Okey’s Dragoons 1: the fight beginsThe western boundary of the open fields was formed by the ancient Sulby parish hedges. They arte still here, next to this platform and then turning south across the valley. The royalist cavalry was drawn up between the hedge east of this platform and the far buildings beyond, although neither was there at the time; it was an open field. While he was marching west from Naseby windmill to Mill Hill, Oliver Cromweil saw this hedge from the distant ridge. He immediately realised its potential as a position from which to harass the royalist horse. Cromwell ordered Colonel John Okey to lead his 676 dragoons northwards behind the hedges, but as the leading troops came to the top of this slope, musketeers with Prince Maurice’s cavalry shot at them. Okey wrote:
“...they were incompassed on ihe one side with the King's Horse, and on the other side with Foot and Horse to get the Close; but... wee beat off both the Horse and the Foot on the left, [where you are how] and the [royalist] right Wing, and clearéd the field..."The dragoons had retreated a little way down the hill and, lining the hedge, opened fire on the horse. The royalist cavalry was forced to move off and to’attack the main parliamentary positions.
Sulby HedgesThe hedge running south across the valley follows the line of the ancient boundary hedge on the eastern side of Sulby parish, which was probably enclosed as early as 1428. It is known that in 1547 some 2,000 sheep were grazing here, when the hedge would have been robust and stock proof. If it remained so in 1645, it would prevent movement by men or horses, but would give no shelter from musket fire.
Okey’s Dragoons 2: the evolving battleAs the royalist cavalry moved southwards, as described on the other board, the dragoons fired on their flank. Sir Henry Slingsby, serving with the royalist Northern Horse, said,
'...they had possess’d an Hedge upon our right wing wch they had lin'd with Musqueteers to Gall our horse, (as indéed they did) before we could come up to charge theirs.’Prince Rupert’s journal states that his brother Maurice commanded the royalist horse here, but also that Rupert was with them in the charge
'...and beat back the right [as he viewed his adversaries] wing of their horse and a great part of their foot.'The royalist attack broke the centre of the parliamentary cavalry formation, and Colonel John Butler’s regiment on the extreme left of it found itself isolated. Okey, who must have taken his met south once more, wrote:
'..had not wee by God's providence been there, there had been but few of Colonell Butler's Regiment left.’ But the fight seemed to be going against the New Model Army. Okey went on
'...After this wee gave up our selves for lost men, but wee resolved every man to stand to the last, and presenty upon it, God of his providence ordered it so, that our right Wing, which was Colonel Cromwell his Regiment drave the Enemy before them...' When the royalist foot soldiers' assault collapsed Okey had his men remount and join the action on Broadmoor taking, he claimed, 500 prisoners,
‘besides what wee killed.' The dragoons then took part in forcing the royalist retreat and flight."