Qualla: Battle of Nantwich https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:15 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Nantwich https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich Battle of Nantwich: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the morning of 25 January 1644, snow lay across the Cheshire fields around Nantwich and Acton, and the River Weaver moved slowly between its banks at its normal width of twenty feet. By midday a thaw had set in. The snow ran off into the river. By two in the afternoon, when Sir Thomas Fairfax's Parliamentarian relief column came down the road from Manchester, the Weaver was in spate, and the only bridges that could carry an army across had been swept downstream. Lord Byron, the Royalist commander besieging Nantwich, found himself with most of his cavalry on the wrong side of the river. By the end of the day he had lost 1,500 men captured, his artillery park overrun, and the king's plan for a north-western field army was effectively dead.

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/gcqj-battle-of-nantwich-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Nantwich: The Irish Cessation https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. King Charles I had been trying since the start of the Civil War in 1642 to find more troops. In 1643 he signed a 'cessation' with the Catholic Confederation of Ireland - an effective truce that allowed him to bring back the English regiments he had originally sent to Ireland afte...

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/gcqj-battle-of-nantwich-the-irish-cessation.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Nantwich: The Siege https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. Nantwich was the last Parliamentarian-held town in Cheshire, garrisoned by 2,000 men under Colonel George Booth and well supplied with food and ammunition. It mattered to both sides: a centre of salt production, of leather tanning, of regional trade, and a town that Queen Elizabe...

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]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/gcqj-battle-of-nantwich-the-siege.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Nantwich: Fairfax in Tears https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. While Byron was besieging Nantwich, Sir Thomas Fairfax was in eastern England with his father, having been freed from the siege of Hull. His cavalry had ridden south to join Oliver Cromwell's Eastern Association horse, and together they had won several actions including the Battl...

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Image: Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/gcqj-battle-of-nantwich-fairfax-in-tears.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Nantwich: The Thaw https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 24 January, Fairfax brushed aside a Royalist screening force in Delamere Forest. Byron now had to decide: lift the siege, or fight Fairfax in the field with his depleted army. He chose to fight, and ordered his infantry and artillery to consolidate on the west bank of the Weav...

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]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/gcqj-battle-of-nantwich-the-thaw.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Nantwich: Two Hours of Hard Fighting https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fairfax attacked at about two in the afternoon. The first Parliamentarian assault was repulsed by Gibson's men, but Fairfax's cousin William Fairfax led the cavalry around the Royalist right wing and forced it back. In the centre, Warren's regiment - the 'Irish' troops that the P...

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]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/gcqj-battle-of-nantwich-two-hours-of-hard-fighting.mp3 0:06 6 full Battle of Nantwich: Holly Holy Day https://qualla.com/battle-of-nantwich/ Photo credit Nilfanion, created using Ordnance Survey data, CC BY-SA 3.0. The defeat at Nantwich destroyed the king's plan to base a new field army on the regiments returned from Ireland. Among the captured Royalist officers was Colonel George Monck - commanding Michael Warren's regiment - who later switched sides and would become one of the most impor...

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]]> Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/q/j/battle-of-nantwich-wp/gcqj-battle-of-nantwich-holly-holy-day.mp3 0:06 7 full