Battle of Stoke: The Battlefield Site

16th June 1487

Looking towards Red Gutter

Battlefield meadow, the incline of Burrand Funlong

Standing with your back to the bell tower of St Oswald’s Church in East Stoke, and looking across the site that was once a medieval village, you can see England's third longest river, the Trent. The River Trent and the Fosse Way play an important part in the story of Stoke Field, both run parallel to one another, and between the two, and just over a mile in length, are the fields on which the last battle of the Wars of the Roses was fought. ​​

Arial view of the whole of the Stoke battlefield

The Trent winds its way northeast from its source in Staffordshire until it meets the River Ouse to form the Humber Estuary, and as it does, it passes through the county of Nottinghamshire. After flowing under Trent Bridge in Nottingham it makes its way towards Newark. At one point it runs in an almost north-to-south direction passing the village of Fiskerton on its west bank, after another mile of meandering it gradually turns eastwards, this curve forms a flood plain which it encompasses on three sides before turning north once more. It is at this point the Trent is only a quarter of a mile from the village of East Stoke. This village, often referred to as Stoke, has now been returned to the pleasant village it once was, no longer are its residents troubled by volumes of traffic trundling through the village centre, tooting their horns impatiently at the crossroads traffic lights, for the traffic that traveled along the Fosse Way, now pass at a pleasing distance along the new A46.

East Stoke, looking down School Lane toward cross roads, (North east of the battlefield in on the right)

The tiny village is dominated by Stoke Hall, a red-bricked Georgian mansion once the home of Sir Robert Howe Bromley, admiral, and politician. Adjacent to the hall is the aforementioned St Oswald’s Church, in whose hallowed grounds lie the bodies of the slain of the Battle of Stoke.

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Stoke Hall

St Oswald's from Church Lane

The village of East Stoke, the aforementioned River Trent and Fosse Way form natural boundaries to the battlefield, the Trent snakes its way east and the ancient Roman road, the Fosse Way, runs from Exeter to Lincoln. Other significant landmarks are Humber Lane, an old drove road that runs through the middle and cuts the battlefield in half, and a wooded area known as Stoke Wood that now covers a steep embankment that forms the side of what has come to be known as Red Gutter. ​

​The Battle of Stoke, along with Hedgeley Moor, Hexham, Edgecote Moor and Lusecote Field are much overlooked when it comes to analysing the politics of the Wars of the Roses, in fact, Stoke, is more often than not, not seen as part of this time period at all. The Battle of Stoke, which took place on the morning of the 16th June 1487, saw off the last of the Plantagenets and gave the Tudors a foundation on which to build their new dynasty, was an attempt by Yorkist loyalists to take the crown from the head of Henry VII and place it on the head of Yorkist figurehead Lambert Simnel, a claimant to the English throne, posing as Edward, Earl of Warwick. 
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Following Simnel’s coronation in Dublin in May, the rebel army landed at Furness in Lancashire on the 4/5th of June. As they made their way southeast, they gathered English soldiers and Irish and German mercenaries before coming face to face with the forces of Henry Tudor on the 16th. In 1487, the battlefield was referred to as the 'moor beyond Newark’ which suggests a grass, moss, and bracken-covered area where there would be no hedges and few trees as there are today. As time passed the battlefield succumbed to enclosure and the ‘moor’ was divided into a series of smaller fields, about twenty of them in all, bordered to the north by School and Church Lane in Stoke village and the south side by RAF Syerston's airfield. Just off centre is Rampire Hill, which actually is more of a bump than a hill which on one side slopes fairly steeply down towards the Trent near Hazelwood Lock, its other sides having more of a gentle incline. However, it is a hill nonetheless and its highest point has long been called Burrand Furlong. The vast majority of the battlefield when we visited this weekend was filled with lush green crops, only the fields that run along Stoke Wood and Church Lane are left uncultivated. The area, toward Stoke Wood that would have been used for strip farming by the residents of the ‘lost’ medieval village, is today exactly as seen in the above aerial photograph, a beautiful flower-filled meadow.

The Yorkist Battle line (Troops with their back to Stoke wood) they would eventually run in this direction towards Red Gutter.

At present, the exact positioning of troops on the battlefield is not known, this is due in part to no artifacts being found to confirm a definite position.  However, most accounts agree that the right flank of the Yorkist's held Burrand Furlong. The 'traditional' account of the battle suggest that the lines ran across the width of the battlefield with the Yorkist forces facing towards Syerston, with the Lancastrian right flank and the Yorkist left both straddling the Fosse Way. An alternative deployment, and the one I favour, has the Yorkist line within the battlefield with its center point crossing the end of Humber Lane and its back to Stoke Wood and Red Gutter. (See map above)

Looking towards Burrand Furlong. The Yorkist force right flank were placed on Burrand Furlong (first image) and straddled Humber Lane (second image) and Lancastrian position at Burrand Furlong (Images four and five) 

The Battle of Stoke began by 

  " 9:00 am, after marching eight miles that morning from Radcliffe, the vanguard of the royal force, under the command of the Earl of Oxford, encountered the rebel army and deployed for battle. The rebel army advanced to the attack. Only the royal vanguard was engaged and, at first, they came under considerable pressure. Although probably outnumbered, these will have been the crack troops of the royalist army, better equipped and far more experienced than most of their opponents. As at Bosworth the Earl of Oxford's troops took the pressure and then counter attacked, first breaking the Yorkist army and then destroying them in the rout."

After three hours the Yorkist line was broken and all was lost. Blooded and frightened for their lives, those who survived the battle attempted to escape towards the top of the escarpment and down the embankment to Red Gutter, a gully that separates the battlefield from the floodplains of the River Trent. The legend that the vast majority of the Yorkists fled the battle making their escape from Rampire Hill via Red Gutter adds weight to the theory of the aforementioned 'alternative' battle line. 

Red Gutter and the Trent flood plain. Red Gutter is not so called because it ran red with blood of the slain, but because of the redness of the soil as
​you can see in the fourth image.

Slipping and sliding down the steep embankment into such a small gutter, slowed down the Yorkist's escape, and made it easy for their slaughter at the hands of the sword-wielding but victorious Lancastrians. Those who managed to escape crossed the field and perished in the cold waters of the River Trent. While his men stripped the dead of their belongings, Henry VII made his way to Burrand Furlong, the highest point on Stoke Field, to proclaim his victory, here he placed the Tudor standard, a symbolic gesture reminiscent of Bosworth.

The estimate of the number of men killed at Stoke varies quite considerably, it ranges from 4000 to 7000, and all but a few hundred were Yorkist dead. Those who did not escape with their lives were carried or dragged the short distance into the grounds of St Oswald’s Church where they were hastily buried in a large pit. Evidence of the burial site is quite plain to see, the ground level of the churchyard is notably higher than the surrounding area, and it is significantly higher than the floor level within the church itself. A neat and well-kept grassed mound in a pretty English churchyard is all that remains of a battle that took place here so very long ago. ​

Raised burial ground of St Oswald's thought to be the burial pit of thousands slain on the battlefield. 

Today, there are few monuments to the dead, one stands in the churchyard tucked unobtrusively to one side and the other, the Burrand Bush Stone, is totally inaccessible. Legend has it that a tree was planted on the spot where Henry placed his standard (A hawthorne bush? An attempt to reinforce the Lancastrian claim to Richard III's crown?)  Later a small grey monument was placed where a tree once grew, it reads:

                        Here stood the Burrand Bush planted on the spot where Henry VII placed his standard after the 
                                                                           Battle of Stoke June 16th 1487.

Walking around this battle site you would never know anything happened here, it is quite heartbreaking to think that only two
grey stones mark this area where such an important event in our history took place. The Battlefield Trail that at one time circled the site has fallen into disrepair, only a few rotting steps remain in place, the Burrand Bush Stone can no longer be seen, and the memorial stone to the fallen blends into the wall of the St Oswald’s bell tower so much so that if you don’t know it’s there you’ll miss it. The information boards that lie within the church are actually quite informative but again not easily noticed or accessed, both the porch latch and the doors to the bell tower were stuck so tight that pressure had to be applied for them to open.

Remains of the Battlefield Trail, Battle of Stoke Memorial Stone, Information board and gates into St Oswald's church porch.

Something should be done to make more of this site, in memory of and giving the reason why 7000 men lost their lives here if nothing else! I’m not talking about a heritage centre, just a couple of brown road signs pointing to this historic site* and a few information boards placed at points along School Lane and Church Lane that lead to Red Gutter will do, or maybe just a flag pole standing proudly on Burrand Furlong with a white and red rose flag  fluttering in the breeze, just something that would catch the eye of walkers and those motorists who drive past on East Stoke's brand new road to get people asking

​                                                              “I wonder what went on over there?"

*I am pleased to say that since writing this blog two years ago something has been done (I cannot say how excited I am) and now the story of what when on here in 1487 can be told from the exact site. You can now walk a trail that circles the battlefield and see, almost exactly, what all those men saw in those awful moments before the first charge. You can read the story of the last battle of the Wars ​of the Roses on a series of five oak panels which describe the background to the battle, the bloody events of the day and the aftermath. 
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You can find out more about these new boards, a joint project between Nottinghamshire County Council and the Battlefields Trust here:   www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/media/1494449/battlefield-leaflet.pdf

What is important to remember though, is that today, the land on which the battle was fought in 1487 is private land and the owner will not want people wandering all over his property and straying from the trail, it is important that this is always be respected. 

Most of my photographs were taken in 2016 on the boundaries of the battlefield, from behind fences and gates, which is as close as we could get to the site. Others were taken from Humber Lane, however, we did walk a short distance up a well-used track to get some photographs of Burrand Furlong, at no point did we trample through the landowner's crops. Other photos added since then are from a tour, led by Mike Ingram in 2017, in which permission was granted by the land owner to visit the Burrand Stone (That brought a lump to my throat I must say!) and in April of this year.