Huntingdon exhibition uncovers the real story of the Civil Wars across Britain

Although battles dominate popular imagination, the conflict was in fact a war of sieges. Between 1642 and 1648 there were 28 major battles in England, but 189 places were besieged. Across the British Isles more than 1000 fortified towns, castles and country houses formed a defensive landscape that touched almost every region. Very few places in Britain are far from a Civil War fortification, making this history something that sits on all our doorsteps.

Besieged: Sieges of the Civil War Exhibition introduces visitors to the scale and impact of fortress warfare. It explains why so many places were fortified, how earthwork defences were built using clay, timber and even manure, and how siege tactics evolved from blockades and bombardment to mining and assault. The exhibition also explores the people involved, from engineers and soldiers to civilians who laboured on ramparts, and the women who defended their homes when their families were away at war.

The exhibition brings these themes to life through a series of case studies.

A selection of original artefacts illustrates these stories, including plans of sieges at Newark, Plymouth and Colchester, musket balls recovered from siege sites, a cannon ball from the siege of Sheffield Castle, and a scale model of Earith Bulwark. Several items are on loan from other collections, and the exhibition features the only surviving Civil War siege helmet in the United Kingdom.

Stuart Orme, Curator of the Cromwell Museum, said: “When people think of the Civil Wars they tend to think of the great battles like Edgehill, Naseby, or Worcester, but there were eight sieges for every one of these. Places all over Britain and Ireland were fortified and then besieged as part of this brutal conflict, dragging many thousands of ordinary people into the front line of the conflict and leaving scars on the landscape and many of our historic buildings that can still be seen today.”