Charles, Cromwell and Channon
The campaign to preserve the Battle of Naseby site in Northamptonshire, a pivotal moment in the English Civil War.
England's Civil War Heritage is being wantonly destroyed - that is the claim of campaigners fighting to save Naseby battlefield in Northamptonshire, despite a recent Court of Appeal decision giving the Department of Transport the green light to embark on construction of a twenty-mile dual-carriageway there.
Naseby's fame is linked with the date June 14th, 1645, when Oliver Cromwell led a Parliamentarian army against Charles I and inflicted on the Royalist forces a defeat that was to tip the balance of the Civil War decisively against the king. Superior numbers and the professionalism of the New Model Army brought the Roundheads victory. Today musket balls and tunic buttons can still be found on the site where 5,000 soldiers were killed.
Naseby's significance as arguably a central event in British history, giving Parliament victory over Charles I and moulding the shape of Westminster's future development, has cut little ice with the Department of Transport, for whom it lies in the path of a proposed link road to join the A1 and M1 truckloads.
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