Battle of Camp Hill 1643
Marker: recorded battle location (no official boundary).
Key facts
| Date (year) | 1643 | Wikidata P585 point in time |
|---|---|---|
| Century | 17th century | derived |
| Period | Civil Wars | derived |
| Country | England | derived |
| War / conflict | First English Civil War | Wikidata |
| Participants | Cavalier, Roundhead | Wikidata |
About the battle
The Battle of Camp Hill, also known as the Battle of Birmingham, took place on Easter Monday, 3 April 1643, in and around Camp Hill, Warwickshire, during the First English Civil War. In the skirmish, a company of Parliamentarians from the Lichfield garrison with the support of some of the local townsmen, approximately 300 men, attempted to stop a detachment of 1,400 Royalists under the command of Prince Rupert from passing through the unfortified parliamentary town of Birmingham.
The Parliamentarians put up a surprisingly stout resistance and, according to the Royalists, shot at them from houses as the small Parliamentary force was driven out of town and back towards Lichfield. To suppress the musket fire, the Royalists torched the houses where they thought the shooting was coming from. After the battle the Royalists spent the remainder of the day pillaging the town. The next morning before the main body of the Royalist force left town, many more houses were put to the torch.
Visiting the battlefield
Urban development has claimed the site of the battlefield and no physical trace of the battle remains to this day. The site of the Birmingham earthworks is now a roadway. Prince Rupert's headquarters on the afternoon of the battle, the "Old Ship" public-house according to local tradition, survived into the nineteenth century and has been preserved only by photographs.
Location
- Recorded location (Wikidata; may be approximate): 52.4710, -1.8790
Battlefields are often on private farmland: please keep to public rights of way and respect landowners.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Camp Hill (revision 1370108481), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “Battlefield today”; condensed by selecting paragraphs and trimming at sentence boundaries; citations removed. No text added.
Battle location from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby battlefields
- Battle of Kings Norton 1642 · 8 km
- Battle of Tipton Green 1644 · 15 km
- Battle of Stourbridge Heath 1644 · 19 km
- Battle of Tettenhall 910 · 21 km
- Battle of Bosworth Field 1485 · 34 km
- Battle of Worcester 1651 with Powick Old Bridge 1642 · 40 km
Other battles of the First English Civil War
- Battle of Aylesbury 1642
- Battle of Babylon Hill 1642
- Battle of Brentford 1642
- Battle of Edgehill 1642
- Battle of Turnham Green 1642
- Battle of Adwalton Moor 1643
- Battle of Aldbourne Chase 1643
- Battle of Braddock Down 1643
- Battle of Burton Bridge 1643
- Battle of Chalgrove 1643
All battles of the First English Civil War →
Browse more: battles in England · Civil Wars · 17th century battles