File:Battle of Winceby - geograph.org.uk - 1770090.jpg

English: Battle of Winceby The 11th of October 2003 and this was the 360th anniversary of the Battle of Winceby. The historical re-enactors have ridden up from Old Bolingbroke to Winceby to re-enact the battle.

The UK Battlefields Resource Centre, created by the Battlefields Trust, has, "The Battle of Winceby is one of the lesser battles of the civil war, with no more than 6000 troops engaged." It goes on to say, "Its significance far outweighs its scale. For parliament’s Eastern Association army from East Anglia this was their first major campaign. It was also the first nationally important victory for Cromwell’s cavalry and the first action in which he fought side by side with Sir Thomas Fairfax, with whom in the New Model Army he would finally destroy the royalist cause in 1645-6.

In this battle, which lasted no more than half an hour, followed by many hours of pursuit, the parliamentarians destroyed a combined force of royalist cavalry and dragoons from Lincolnshire and Newark. The victory was so swift and complete that the Association infantry did not even have time to engage the enemy. The outcome was the fall of much of the county of Lincolnshire to parliament and a halting of the royalist ascendancy in the region.

The battle was fought on the high ground, where the route from royalist garrison at Lincoln via Horncastle to the besieged royalist garrison at Bolingbroke crosses the Lincolnshire Wolds. Although the general location of the battlefield is certain the exact place where the action was fought within Winceby parish is still open to dispute."

In Sir Thomas Fairfax words, "Presently the Bodies met in the plain where the Fight was hot for half an hour, but then we forced them to a rout. Above 200 killed, and 200 taken prisoners".