Battle of Stourbridge Heath

A small battle that took place in 1644 during the First English Civil War

Date	26 March 1644
Location	Stourbridge Heath52°27′04″N 2°09′10″W / 52.451164°N 2.152772°W / 52.451164; -2.152772
Result	Royalist victory

Belligerents

Royalists

Parliamentarians

Commanders and leaders

Sir Gilbert Gerard

Colonel "Tinker" Fox

Stourbridge Heath

Edgbaston

Birminghamclass=notpageimage| Worcestershire now within West Midlands

v t e First English Civil War
1642 1st Hull Marshall's Elm Portsmouth Plymouth Babylon Hill Powick Bridge Kings Norton Edgehill Aylesbury Brentford Turnham Green Farnham Castle Piercebridge Tadcaster 1st Exeter Muster Green 1st Bradford Chichester 1643 Braddock Down Leeds 1st Middlewich Hopton Heath Seacroft Moor Camp Hill Lichfield Ripple Field Reading Sourton Down 1st Wardour Castle Stratton Wakefield 1st Worcester Chalgrove Field Adwalton Moor 2nd Bradford Burton Bridge Lansdowne Roundway Down 1st Bristol Gainsborough Gloucester 2nd Hull Aldbourne Chase 1st Newbury Winceby Olney Bridge 1st Basing House Heptonstall 2nd Wardour Castle Alton Bramber Bridge Arundel 2nd Middlewich 1644 Nantwich Newcastle 1st Lathom House Newark Boldon Hill Stourbridge Heath Cheriton Selby Lyme Regis York Lincoln 1st Oxford Bolton 2nd Basing House Tipton Green Oswestry Cropredy Bridge Marston Moor Gunnislake New Bridge Ormskirk Lostwithiel Tippermuir 1st Aberdeen Montgomery Castle 1st Chester 1st Taunton Carlisle 2nd Newbury 1645 Inverlochy High Ercall Hall Weymouth Scarborough Castle 2nd Taunton Auldearn 3rd Taunton 2nd Oxford Leicester Naseby Alford 2nd Lathom House Langport Hereford Kilsyth 2nd Bristol Philiphaugh 2nd Chester Rowton Heath Sherburn in Elmet 3rd Basing House Annan Moor Denbigh Green Shelford House Newark 1646 Bovey Heath Torrington Stow-on-the-Wold 3rd Oxford 2nd Aberdeen Lagganmore 2nd Worcester

First English Civil War

1642

The Battle of Stourbridge Heath (26 March 1644) was a skirmish that took place during the First English Civil War, in which a Parliamentarian contingent under the command of Colonel "Tinker" Fox was defeated by a larger Royalist force under the command of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Governor of Worcester.

Prelude

In 1644 Colonel Fox, led a raid that succeeded in capturing Stourton Castle. His brother held the castle for the Parliamentarians however a Royalist force under the command of Sir Gilbert Gerard, Governor of Worcester, was dispatched from Worcester to lay siege to the castle.

Despite pleas for assistance Tinker Fox received no support from Basil Feilding, Earl of Denbigh, the Parliamentarian commander. Fox had no choice then but to lead a relief force from Edgbaston. Fox, however, was intercepted at Stourbridge by the Royalists. Fox's forces were bolstered by the addition of 110 men from Coventry however without support from Denbigh he was in no position to match the force fielded by Gerard.

Location

The exact location of the battle is unknown. The two forces met near Stourbridge on 26 March 1644. The heath at Stourbridge is located south of the town, somewhere in the vicinity of Mary Stevens Park, however during that period Stourbridge was surrounded by heathland.

The battle

The battle was a resounding victory for the Royalists. Tinker Fox's forces were routed, with the gleeful Royalists claiming that Fox was the first to flee the battlefield. Exact casualties are unknown however, Royalist accounts claim that the routed Parliamentarians were pursued for three miles, with many killed. Some prisoners were definitely taken by the Royalist forces, as Fox was later angered that men captured by the Royalists at Stourbridge Heath were not exchanged later in 1644 for a high ranking Royalist prisoner. Continual disagreement and a real or imagined lack of support was a frequent feature of Fox's relationship with his parliamentary Commanders, particularly the Earl of Denbigh.

Aftermath

With no prospect of relief, the Parliamentary garrison at Stourton Castle was forced to surrender. Tinker Fox never again attempted to take on a large Royalist force directly, instead achieving remarkable success, notable the sacking of Bewdley and the raid on Dudley a matter of hours after the departure of the Royalist forces from the town, through shrewd tactical understanding and the use of his extensive intelligence network. Fox finished the war as a senior officer appointed to the County Committee for Worcestershire. Gerard continued fighting in support of the Royalist cause, dying in 1646 and is buried at Worcester.

Citations

Reports 1919, p. 386.
^ Hopper 1999, p. 108 (pdf 11).
Haden 2015.
Willis-Bund 1905, pp. 119–123.
Gilbert 2010, pp. 129–135.
Hutton 2002, p. 159.
Robinson 1843, p. 91.

References

Gilbert, C.D. (2010), "A Dramatic Incident in Royalist Worcestershire: 'Tinker' Fox's Raid on Bewdley of May 1644", Midland History, 35 (1): 129–135, doi:10.1179/004772910X12629513109056, S2CID 159946740
Haden, H. Jack (20 February 2015), About Stourbridge - this historic town in the English West Midlands, retrieved 25 August 2017
Hopper, Andrew J. (1999), "'Tinker' Fox and the politics of Garrison Warfare in the West Midlands 1643-50" (PDF), Midland History, 24, Maney Publishing: 98–113, doi:10.1179/mdh.1999.24.1.98, hdl:2381/361
Hutton, Ronald (2002), The Royalist War Effort 1642-1646 (2nd illustrated, revised ed.), Routledge, ISBN 9780203006122
Reports and Papers of the Architectural and Archaeological Societies of the Counties of Lincoln and Northampton (Volume 35, Parts 1-2), 1919
Robinson, Edward (1843), Beamont, William (ed.), A discourse of the warr in Lancashire, Remains, historical and literary, connected with the palatine counties of Lancaster and Chester, vol. 62, Chetham society
Willis-Bund, John William (1905), The Civil War in Worcestershire 1642-1646 and the Scotch invasion of 1651, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Company

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