English Civil War Fortifications 1642–51

This extract taken from the chapter entitled ‘Tour of the Fortifications: Defensive Fortifications’

Seventeenth-century fortifications could be quite complex and extensive in scale and a few places, such as Oxford, London and Newark-on-Trent, saw the construction of defences mirroring the latest developments. For an enemy approaching these formidable ‘workes’, he would see long earthen breastworks several feet high surmounted by wooden palisades of sharpened poles. Sometimes stone structures were built like the Roushill Wall at Shrewsbury or the stone redoubt constructed near the old Portwall, Bristol. Angular bastions projecting perpendicular from these earthen banks might be spaced at intervals along the circuit to provide covering fire. On the bastions, often covered with turf, would be cannon-baskets known as gabions and occasionally woolpacks to protect cannon. In front of the rampart would be a ditch or graffe created by the quarrying of the earth. Protruding from the bank might be horizontal sharpened stakes called storm poles. In most cases the ditch would have been dry although some engineers did occasionally direct water into these. A steep glacis would be seen on the landward side of the ditch affording no protection to the attackers; and sometimes masses of interwoven wood called an abbatis would cover this area to hinder movement.