How Battle of Powick Bridge happened

After the Parliamentary victory at the Battle of Worcester on 3rd September 1651, Hugh Peters, the Chaplain to the Parliamentary army addressed the victorious soldiers and said to them, “when your wives and children ask you where you have been and what news, tell them you have been at Worcester, where England’s sorrows began and where they are happily ended.” England’s sorrows began at the Battle (or skirmish) of Powick Bridge on 23rd September 1642, the first engagement of the English Civil War.

When King Charles I came to the throne in 1625 he believed in the divine or God given right of the king to rule. Throughout the 1630’s he refused to allow Parliament to sit and only relented to order them to raise funds to enable him to go to war against Scotland. Parliament would only agree to do so on condition that the king allowed them, on behalf of the people to have a role in running the country. King Charles refused and on 22nd August 1642 he left London and raised the Royal Standard in Nottingham, effectively declaring war on Parliament and began forming a Royalist army.

Oxford sided with the King and raised silver plate and gold to pay for his army. The King had moved to Shrewsbury to gain support in Shropshire and Wales and a Parliamentary army of 20,000 men was based at Northampton under the commanded of Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex. So much ‘treasure’ had been raised at Oxford that the convoy was given a Royalist escort of about 200 men under the command of Sir John Byron. They left Oxford on 10th September 1642 but the ‘Treasure Convoy’ was so heavily laden that by 16th September it had only reached the Royalist city of Worcester, where it paused. The Parliamentary spies informed the Earl of Essex at Northampton that the ‘Treasure Convoy’ was on the move. Essex sent Colonel John Brown and a cavalry force of 1,000 men to Worcester to ambush the convoy, or to delay it until Essex could bring the main Parliamentary army to Worcester to capture the convoy. Brown arrived outside Worcester at dawn on 22nd September and camped on Powick Hams, ready to ambush the convoy as it left the city.

The Royalist spies informed the king that John Brown’s Parliamentarians were preparing to ambush the convoy so the king sent his nephew, the 22 year old Prince Rupert of the Rhine together with 1,000 Royalist cavalry to protect the convoy. Prince Rupert arrived during the afternoon of 22nd September and hid his men in the hedgerows. As the Royalist cavalry advanced towards the city ready to ambush the convoy, the would be ambushers were ambushed by the Royalist men from behind the hedgerows. Colonel Brown and his Parliamentarians were taken completely by surprise and a cavalry charge by Prince Rupert’s men saw the Parliamentarians retreat over Powick Bridge, where a few brave Parliamentarians set up a barricade to halt the Royalist attack while their colleagues escaped.

The Parliamentarians admitted to 36 dead and 21 wounded, who were treated at the Red Lion, in Powick. Prince Rupert claimed to have killed 80 Parliamentarians, with some trampled to death during the chaotic retreat and others drowned in the river Teme, either being pushed in during the mêlée or trying to swim across. Prince Rupert claimed his losses were “negligible” but his reputation was born at Powick Bridge and the Treasure Convoy was safely delivered to King Charles at Shrewsbury.