Firing into the night at Crowland Abbey

Photo by Michael Molcher

What a way to draw our reenactment season to a close – with a blaze of glory at a spectacular muster in the grounds of a ruined abbey once besieged by Oliver Cromwell!

Shut down during the Reformation, Crowland Abbey sits on the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens north of Peterborough and was a stunning backdrop for a brilliant event organised by our friends in the Army of Parliament’s Cittie of London Brigade.

This won’t be an event we’ll forget in a hurry – whether it was firing over the town from the abbey’s tower, the smell of woodsmoke and cooking in our tented encampment, the torch-lit parade through the town, the night-time assault of fire pikes and cannons, or a huge fireworks display, it was an enthralling weekend!

We were there to reenact the kidnapping of Reverend Ram, the Puritan preacher from nearby Spalding, and a John Harrington by Crowland’s Royalist militia under one Captain Welbie in 1643. Bound in ropes, Rev. Ram and Mr Harrington were paraded through the streets and harangued by the town’s Royalist preacher, the Reverend Stiles, before being kept in the ruins of the abbey as hostages. The citizens of Spalding soon marched against Crowland, but the Rev. Ram was forced up onto the wall surrounding the abbey and used as a human shield!

After repeated assaults on the walls, as the sun went down the Spalding Militia used fire pikes – pikes with balls of flame at their point – to try and force the Crowland men to surrender. As we were playing Royalists for the weekend, our musketeers joined their comrades on the barricades and fired into the night, clouds of sparks flaring up from their matchlock muskets while cannons and mortars fired at the defences. It was incredible experience being in the thick of the action, especially as this final battle ended with a volley of musket fire heralding a brilliant fireworks display in the abbey grounds.

On the Sunday, Oliver Cromwell himself turned up to lick the Spalding troops into shape and – eventually – subdue Crowland and finally release Rev. Ram and Mr Harrington.

A huge thank you to the organisers from the Cittie of London Brigade for letting us be a part of such a thrilling and varied weekend – we’ll be telling the story of the Siege of Crowland for years to come!

Please enjoy these galleries of photos from the weekend. Our regiment is now entering its winter quarters, but we’ve plenty of social activities planned for the coming months before our reenactment season begins anew in January!

Photo gallery by John Beardsworth: