Ghosts · Warwickshire

The Phantom Armies of Edgehill

Edgehill, near Kineton and Radway, on the Warwickshire edge of the Cotswolds

Spooky: for older readers

In the autumn of 1642, King Charles's army and Parliament's met in battle below Edgehill, the long ridge above Kineton. It was a bloody fight, and many men were killed on both sides.

Two months later, at Christmas, some shepherds and countrymen and travellers were crossing the place where the battle had been. It was between midnight and one in the morning, and it was a Saturday. Far off they heard drums, and then the noise of soldiers, and what sounded like men groaning their last.

The men stood still in amazement. The noise came nearer, and they were turning to get away as fast as they could when, all at once, the soldiers appeared in the air in front of them. There were two armies, with flags flying, drums beating, muskets going off, cannon firing and horses neighing. One army carried the King's colours, the other Parliament's, and they charged into each other pell-mell. For a while the King's side seemed to be winning, but in the end it was put to flight. The fight went on for three hours. The poor men were too frightened to run, in case those unearthly soldiers came after them. At last the army that had won stayed a while, cheering in triumph, and then the whole host vanished: drums, trumpets, guns and all.

The men hurried to Kineton and knocked up Mr Wood, the Justice of the Peace, who fetched his neighbour, Mr Marshall the minister. The men swore on oath that it was all true. Wood and Marshall might have thought them mad or drunk, but they knew some of them for honest men.

So the next night, Christmas night, the gentlemen went up with them, and with all the chief people of the parishes round about. About half an hour after they got there, the two armies appeared again and fought just as before. Everyone went home terrified, praying God to keep them from such enemies.

For a week all was quiet. Then the next Saturday and Sunday nights, the armies came back, fighting harder than ever. Mr Wood and others gave up and moved away. Mr Marshall stayed.

When the King, at Oxford, heard of it, he sent six officers and gentlemen to see for themselves: Colonel Lewis Kirke, Captain Dudley, Captain Wainman and three more. They waited until Saturday night, and they too saw and heard it all. On the Sunday, they said, they could make out the faces of men they had known who had died in the battle, among them Sir Edmund Verney. They swore to it before the King.

No plate yet. We are still looking for an old picture of this place.

What people said

  • A sign of God's wrath. The pamphlet of 1643 ends: “What this doth portend God only knoweth, and time perhaps will discover; but doubtlessly it is a sign of His wrath against this land, for these civil wars.”
  • Sworn on oath. Lord Nugent, in his Memorials of John Hampden, pointed out that the story was sworn to by three army officers and three other gentlemen sent by the King to calm the fears of the countryside. He found it hard to see how they could have been fooled.

Other tellings

  • The earliest telling. A pamphlet printed on 23 January 1642, by the old calendar (that is, 1643 by ours), only a few weeks after the events. It was vouched for by William Wood, Justice of the Peace, and Samuel Marshall, minister at Kineton. Ingram printed most of it, with modern spelling. [TODO: the pamphlet's title and a free copy]
  • The pamphlet puts Kineton (“Keynton”) in Northamptonshire. It is in Warwickshire.
  • Lord Nugent suggested that a clever trick, or a stormy night on the hillside, might have worked on country people who still had the battle fresh in their minds, but not so easily on the officers sent to look into it.

What the history says

The battle of Edgehill was fought between the armies of King Charles I and Parliament about two months before the first vision, according to Ingram. Sir Edmund Verney, whom the officers said they recognised, was one of those killed there. [TODO: confirm the date and facts of the battle against Historic England's Register of Historic Battlefields]

Go and See

Where
The Edgehill ridge above Radway, between Kineton and Banbury. The pin marks the ridge-top near Edgehill Tower.
Access
[TODO: public viewpoints and footpaths, and how much of the battlefield can be visited]
Allow
Half an hour at a viewpoint, longer for a walk along the ridge.
Families
A ghost story about a real battle in which many men died. Best for older children.

52.1230° N, 1.4563° W · Open in OpenStreetMap

Make a day of it

From our sister sites

The Name GeneratorsName a ghost of your ownPale ladies, grey monks and headless horsemen.Acorn & InkWrite your own legendStory planners to print. What did the shepherds see that night?

Sources

  1. John H. Ingram, The Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain (1884; illustrated edition 1897), “Edge Hill”, pp. 65–69, which prints the pamphlet of January 1643 in modern spelling and quotes Lord Nugent's Memorials of John Hampden. Internet Archive.

This is a legend, told as people told it. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.