AT the last meeting, the group was visited by Robert Rookwood (alias David Lord), a member of Cromwell's Parliamentarian army.

In 1645, the New Model Army, managed by Thomas Fairfax and led by Oliver Cromwell, came into action against the Royalists.

It was the first time an army had been issued with a uniform - red coats with different coloured cuffs denoting rank.

The musketeers were always first into battle, dangerously wearing their bandoleers of ammunition and flasks of priming powder.

These were followed by the cavalry, armed with broadswords and wearing "lobster pot" helmets for protection, with the shire horses taking the lead followed by faster horses.

The pikemen, whose instructions were given by drum beats, followed with their 18-foot pikes, the first row at horse chest height, designed to bring the horses and their riders down, with the second row at the riders' throat level.

The whole story was fascinating, how men cheated death from the results of enemy action and often from the inadequacies of their own crude equipment.