Even today the rising land dominates the Southern approach to the city through Sidbury, where one of Worcester’s main medieval gates stood.

The Earl of Essex’s army for Parliament converged upon Worcester, seeking to capture a royalist treasure train and occupy the city, which was a Royalist stronghold. A detachment of Parliamentarians under Commander Nathaniel Fiennes approached the city from the South. They attacked the Sidbury gate with an axe, which was in such poor repair that it allegedly went through with one blow.

The Royalist guard were unaware of the presence of Fiennes’ soldiers, and it took the firing of a pistol through the hole in Sidbury gate to rouse them! Somehow Parliamentarian forces failed to press their attacking advantage and withdrew. Fiennes’ forces manoeuvred to the North-West of the city, where detachment of Prince Rupert’s cavalry unexpectedly met them and defeated them in a messy engagement.

It quickly became clear that Worcester’s ancient fortifications needed repair and improvement.

In 1646, following the Royalist defeat at Battle of nearby Naseby, the defiant city was once more besieged by Parliament. On this occasion the Parliamentarian forces were able to bring their artillery to bear on Green Hill, near to this site, from where they could fire in to the city.

Although it is not clear when a fort was first raised here, it seems likely to have been after this incident.

When Charles II invaded England at the head of a Scottish Army in 1651, he arrived at Worcester where he awaited a Parliamentarian attack. Word was sent out for parties of workers in the county to come to Worcester and aid in the raising and improvement of fortifications.

The battle proper saw Cromwell use his superior numbers to envelope the city from East and West. A concerted effort by the Parliamentarians on the West of the Severn saw Charles take the opportunity to gather his forces at Sidbury gate (where Cromwell’s forces hinged in the South) and charge Cromwell’s weakened eastern flank, aiming to split his forces.

This effort by the King was not well-supported and, the momentum of the advance lost, Parliament counter-attacked. A report by Parliament mentions the capture of Fort Royal:

‘At length we gained their works and planted their guns against them in the town’.
Fort Royal acted as the bulwark of the King’s forces ranged to the South of the city. Its capture caused a catastrophic loss of morale amongst Charles’ men and signalled the beginning of a general retreat by the Royalists who fled through Sidbury gate.

Parliament turned the guns placed at Fort Royal for the city’s defence against it. It must have been terrifying for anyone within the walls.

Over a century after the battle, the battlefield was visited by two of America’s founding fathers. Thomas Jefferson and Robert Adams were on a diplomatic mission to Britain and stayed for a time at The Star Hotel in the Tything.

They saw the English Civil Wars as a struggle for liberty against the tyranny of the monarchy and could not believe that a site that had played such a vital role in the conflict was so neglected by the citizens of Worcester.

In a diary entry for April 1786, John Adams records ‘Edgehill and Worcester were curious and interesting to us, as Scaenes where Freemen had fought for their Rights. The People in the Neighbourhood, appeared so ignorant and careless at Worcester that I was provoked and asked, “And do Englishmen so soon forget the Ground where Liberty was fought for? Tell your Neighbours and your Children that this is holy Ground, much holier than that on which your Churches stand. All England should come in Pilgrimage to this Hill, once a Year.”’

Fort Royal park was landscaped for use as a leisure-ground in 1915. Today the shape of one of the fort’s diamond-shaped bastions echoes its military past.

This location fact has been provided by Joe Tierney of Faithful History. To learn more stories of the ancient city of Worcester, spanning thousands of years of history in ‘The Faithful City’, visit https://www.facebook.com/faithfulhistoryworcester