Royal Ordnance in 1637

One of the culverins on Gun Hill, Southwold. The origin of the six guns is still open to conjecture. Photo: © Copyright Evelyn Simak (CC BY-SA 2.0)

After revisiting an old guest blog article on 17th century siege warfare I stumbled across a fascinating analysis of a Royal Ordnance inventory  ...

Bromley Hall: London's oldest brick building

A grim stretch of the Blackwall Tunnel northern approach is hardly where you'd expect to find London's oldest brick building - or an English Civil War gunpowder factory, for that matter ...

Guest blog: The 17th Century Military Revolution on the Celtic Fringe (Charles Singleton, author)

Montrose’s Irish Brigade at the Battle of Aberdeen, 13 September 1644. Divisions of pike and musket deploy into firing lines to fight with the centre of the Covenanter Army at Aberdeen. Painting by Peter Dennis © Helion & Company Limited.

The significance of the role played by the Earl of Montrose (see previous interactive map) in upholding the Royalist cause in Scotland has been much discussed, though less has been written about the influence of the military tactics and technology Montrose was exposed to as a veteran of fighting in the Thirty Years War. Less still has been investigated about the impact of continental war-fighting techniques on Irish troops who fought aboard before returning to the domestic theatres of the 1640s and 50s.

In the guest article below, author Charles Singleton introduces both of these topics, explored in detail in his new book Famous by my Sword: The Army of Montrose and the Military Revolution, and suggests how they helped contribute to a 'Military Revolution' of the 17th century ...

Firing a matchlock musket

Short video from the Royal Armouries showing how a soldier in the English Civil War would load and fire a matchlock musket.

More articles on arms and armour

Guest blog: New techniques for understanding 17th century siege warfare (Amanda Wynne)

Reconstructing the maximum possible diameter of a spherical bullet using the bowl of an impact scar from St Luke’s church, Holmes Chapel (Image: Dr Paul Bills, University of Huddersfield).

Damage left by the English Civil War is still evident on many castle walls, church doors and elsewhere around the UK. The study of cannon and musket ball impacts has helped archaeologists and historians piece together a narrative of those violent events, but many explanations rely on conjecture or are coloured by local myth.

New archaeological techniques, however, are beginning to provide more scientific explanations of how 17^th century warfare was fought. In this guest post Amanda Wynne explains how laser scanning technology is helping us to more accurately interpret English Civil War sieges - and the benefits the results may have for other fields ...

Talk at the Wallace Collection

Keith Dowden at the Wallace Collection

A talk by Keith Dowden of the Wallace Collection last Saturday focussed on the life of the English Civil War soldier.

The entertaining, hour-long lecture gave an overview of all aspects of a regular trooper's lot, while also throwing up some fascinating details for those with more than a passing interest ...

Ashdown to become patron of CMSM

Lord Ashdown had become a patron of the Combined Military Services Museum in Maldon, Essex - the home of one of the best English Civil War collections in the UK  ...

York skeletons confirmed as English Civil War dead

Google map of the excavation site on the junction of Fawcett Street/Kent Street, York, prior to re-development. View larger map
113 skeletons found in York have been proven to be from the English Civil War siege of 1644.

Scientists from BBC History Cold Case conducted a series of tests on the bones, which were found at the junction of Fishergate and Kent Street after a routine rescue excavation in 2007-8 ...

Rawdons @ Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey

Rawdons Regiment of Foote @ Waltham Abbey

The fearsome pikeman of Sir Marmaduke Rawdons Regiment of Foote!

The series of photos below were taken at the Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey, last summer ...