On this day … 17 August 1648

Oliver Cromwell sat down to write his account of that day’s victory of his New Model Army in the Battle of Preston, in which he estimated 2,000 Royalists were killed and 9,000 captured. He is believed to have been staying at the Unicorn Inn, now Pinocchio’s, in Walton-le-Dale at the time, and the battle should probably have been called the Battle of Preston and Walton, since it spread on both sides of the Ribble.

The extent of its spread was traced on the ground by the Preston historian Charles Hardwick, who recorded the many finds of weapons, cannon balls and bodies discovered in the years following the battle.

In his History of Preston, Hardwick includes a number of Cromwell’s letters describing the battle, as well as other contemporary accounts, including one from the mayor of Preston at the time. They give a vivid feel of what the encounter must have meant for the opposing forces, and the townsfolk who were witness to it.

His description of the relics of the battle left buried in the ground to be uncovered by later generations includes the following:

‘On Killingsough Farm, in Fulwood, several iron cannon balls, weighing about seven pounds each, have been picked up at various times. The country people often use them even to this day, as bowls, in their rural games. Gossip lore declares the farm took its name from the circumstance of an immense quantity of human bones being dug up during the construction of a drain or “sough,” soon after the enclosure of the moor, in 1813. This, however, is highly improbable. The name is unquestionably of much higher antiquity.

‘Large quantities of leaden bullets, nearly an inch in diameter, have been dug up near the corner of Gamull-lane. Bullets have likewise been found in the garden belonging to Mr. Lawrence Dobson, at Sion Hill, and what is believed by some to be a stone cannon ball, in the grounds at Ribbleton Hall. From its size, this is, however, improbable.

‘The eastern slope of Ribbleton moor towards the brook, exhibits marks of entrenched earth, which may yet perhaps disclose some remains. The present road is modern; the one referred to by Cromwell passed nearer to Mr. Birchall’s house. The formation of the land on the farm occupied by Mr. Robert W. Dobson, yet plainly indicates the site of the “deep lane,” where the severe struggle took place between Cromwell’s horse and the English, under Langdale. On the upper portion of the steep bank overlooking this ravine, several bullets were found in the spring of last year (1856).

‘The “deep lane”, near Walton bridge, passed through the strawberry garden to the west of the present road. … When this garden was first cultivated, many coins, bones, and other remains were found. The site of the old Ribble bridge is indicated by a fragment of the centre pier.

‘Two cannon balls, in the possession of Mr. Dearden, weighing between eight and nine pounds each, were found not far from Darwen bridge. The modern structure is near the site of that upon which the advanced guard of Cromwell’s army rested on the night of the battle. Bullets have been found upon “Walton Flats,” and a sword, the blade of which is much corroded. … Several relics of the battle were dug up in Mr. Mansley’s garden, some fifty or sixty years ago.

‘An old man informed the author that he remembered, when a boy, hearing of two human skeletons falling from out of the north bank of the Ribble, after a flood, which were pronounced by the people of Walton to be the remains of “Scotch warriors.”

‘A short time ago, an iron cannon ball, nearly seven pounds in weight, was found in the clay on the land belonging to Mr. Catterall, behind the “Lane Ends Hotel,” at Ashton. The locality is somewhat to the left of the old road to the north, which passed by the old Water-lane and the present Aqueduct-street. This shot was probably fired during the pursuit of the fugitives northward. Or it may have been discharged from the outwork on the Maudlands, at the time of the surprise of the town by the earl of Derby, in 1643.

‘Mr. Peter Whittle, in his History of Preston, publishes the following curious paragraph: “1831, Oct. 22: An ancient iron boot, found at Ingol, near Preston, by Mr. Simpson, sedan carrier, with the initials engraved on it of O. C. 1648, supposed to be the identical boot of Oliver Cromwell,”(!) “or belonging to one of the numerous body of men he commanded when at Preston, during the civil wars.”!’

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Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Preston_(1648)