Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
By 1646 the war was all but lost for King Charles I. In Herefordshire, only Goodrich Castle (HER entry number 349) was in the hands of the Royalists. Sir Henry Lingen, knighted by the King after the siege of Hereford in the preceding year, had escaped to Goodrich Castle after the fall of Hereford and was put in charge of maintaining it for the Royalists. Lingen had managed to gather a garrison of 200 mostly local men, who knew the area well and were committed Royalists. They knew that a siege was inevitable.
An extract from a letter Lingen wrote to an estate near Ross-on-Wye on March 3rd 1645 shows that he was already fortifying the castle and constructing accommodation for the garrison:
"I shall desier you to send your twoe teemes Loaded with boards hither presently and that hey may bee of your Longst size of Boardes, for I am informed that you have very Longe ones, I pray you send them away presently for I must make Use of them ..."
Using the castle as a power base, troops of armed riders harassed the Parliamentarian troops throughout the county. In order to curb this Royalist threat, Colonel John Birch, the Parliamentarian governor of Hereford, decided to steal the horses at Goodrich and fire the stables. He himself led the raiding party on a dark and miserable night in March, when the horses were sure to be in their stables between the inner and outer castle walls. As with the attack on Hereford only three months earlier, he had a clever plan.
A few men scaled the wall under cover of darkness, and when the main party led a diversionary attack on the main gate, the garrison was taken in and left the stables undefended. In the meantime, a further party of men had attacked the boat-house on the ford across the river and another group of men had made a hole in the outer wall. Seventy-six horses were led out through this hole and the stables set on fire. The fodder, harness and twelve horses which had refused to leave were all destroyed.
But if Colonel Birch thought that this would hinder the Royalists from causing problems, he was to be disappointed. Only a few days after this incident, Sir Henry Lingen staged an audacious attack, with only 30 men, on the City of Hereford in broad daylight. They charged the gate and killed four guards. Did the Royalists seriously think 30 men could take the city in broad daylight without any artillery? No, Lingen was hoping for support from within the city, but this support failed to materialise as no-one from within the walls rallied to the Royalist cause.
Why did the townspeople not support Sir Henry Lingen, when they had less than one year earlier so courageously stood up to the siege by the Scottish army? Were the inhabitants war-weary and fed up with fighting? Had the Parliamentarians imprisoned all the committed Royalists? Could even the ordinary man on the street see that the Royalist cause was lost? Had the Herefordians defended their city so staunchly against the Scottish army because they saw them as foreigners? Had the Royalists lost much of the good will of the people by constantly demanding resources? These questions - to which there are no clear answers - demonstrate why it is so difficult to say that Herefordshire was solidly Royalist in support.
Be that as it may, no-one could doubt the unswerving loyalty of Sir Henry Lingen. When he realised that no support was forthcoming from the townspeople, he and his men had to return to Goodrich Castle. If Sir John Birch were to keep Hereford safely under Parliamentarian control, he would have to neutralise Goodrich Castle and once and for all defeat Sir Henry Lingen.
Towards the end of May 1645, Colonel Birch gathered his army round Goodrich. As was usual, the attack itself was preceded by an exchange of letters. The garrison of Goodrich was summoned to give up the castle on June 19th in the name of Parliament and that if he did so, Birch would offer his personal protection for the safety of Lingen and his garrison. But even in these trying situations, gentlemen were expected to preserve style and manners. When Sir Henry Lingen answered Birch's letter, he said that the King had entrusted the castle to his care and until he had orders to the contrary, he would continue to hold it. This refusal to surrender he signed with "your loving friend ... ".
Colonel Birch in his answer to this letter showed that he too was familiar with the etiquette of letter writing:
"Sir,
I have received your resolution by your drummer, which far better contents those under my command than myself, who really desired your welfare.
In honour, sir, your loving friend. John Birch."
Colonel Birch mounted a systematic attack which included the use of an enormous mortar piece (some say the largest used during the Civil War), specially cast for this siege. "Roaring Meg", as this artillery piece was known, carried a shot of over 200 lbs (90kg). Birch also wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons describing his plans for the attack and requesting more gunpowder:
"... and am now almost ready to play upon them with a mortar piece, which I have cast here, carrying a shell of above two hundred weight; and have planted my battery, and am going on with my mines; for effecting of all which, a considerable quantity of powder will be speedily necessary. I there humbly entreat your honour will be pleased to move the honourable house for eighty barrels, which will much forward the service, and exceedingly engage..."
The desperate defenders had no way of requesting anything from the outside world. In fact, to preserve their shot they fired barrages of stone onto the besiegers. In the face of such overwhelming opposition they gallantly - some might say recklessly - sallied forth time and time again, until all their horses had been shot from under them. According to Birch, over 100 horses were killed.
Roaring Meg wreaked havoc on the walls and towers of Goodrich Castle, and in conjunction with the mining activity the castle was lost. Birch records the destruction and surrender:
"... And after I had very much torne the Castle with my mortar piece, that no whole roome was left in it (that not doing the worke) I resolved to go on with the mines, and battery (where I could not myne) both of which went on so succesfully, that in a few howres I intended to enter by Storme And to that end drew my horse and foot together, which the Enemy perceiving, rather then they would run the hazard, took down their Cullers, and put up white (without which I denyed them any Treaty) their desires were honourable tearms, which I thought not fit to grant, neither to give them any thing beyond mercy for their lives ..."
The water supply had been cut to the castle and the defenders had run out of cannon balls. The Royalists at this point tried to negotiate favourable terms for surrender, but were rebuffed by Colonel Birch, who was already planning to storm Goodrich. When Sir Henry Lingen realised that all was lost, he took down his personal standard and hoisted a white flag.
The siege had lasted six weeks. Stylish to the last, it was said that the 170 or so Royalists, among them 50 gentlemen from many of the leading local families, marched out of the ruins to the tune of "Sir Harry Lingen's Fancy", a piece which supposedly survived for over two centuries in the village dances of south Herefordshire. The men were taken prisoner but their lives were spared.
The capture of Goodrich Castle was the end of Colonel Birch's successful military career. He settled in Herefordshire and turned his attention to a political life, adopting the lifestyle of the Royalist gentlemen he had so systematically defeated. You can still see his monumental tomb in Weobley Church.
The capture also spelled the final ruin of Goodrich Castle itself. In 1647 the castle, now virtually uninhabitable, was slighted and all evidence of the Civil War activity removed. Lead was stripped off the remaining roofs and gun emplacements and mines back-filled. All that now remains is one of the most scenic castle ruins in Herefordshire.
[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2003]