English Battlefields

A comprehensive A-Z guide of information on every battle fough on English soil. England has been fought over for centuries, by invaders and in civil wars. The sites of these desperate struggles are as varied as the reasons they were fought over, be they fields, towns or fortresses, by land, sea or air. These haunted acres are places of commemoration, memory and, above all, history. These are the places where history was made, and as such they form a crucial part of the historic environment. By 'reading' them like any other form of historical evidence, much can be learned about the events which took place there. Through stripping away later features and land use with an eye for the ground, the battlefield historian can, with the use of contemporary accounts, archaeology and military history, reconstruct the events which have shaped the present. In this ground-breaking volume, covering over 500 battlefields, Michael Rayner unravels these various strands and weaves them back together to give clear, concise accounts of the battles which shaped England. AUTHOR: Michael Rayner is the co-ordinator of the Battlefields Trust, a Heritage Lottery-funded charity dedicated to protecting battlefield sites across the UK. He has been at the forefront of battlefield preservation and interpretation in the UK for twenty years. His other books include Battlefields: Exploring the Arenas of War, 1805-1945. He lives in Norwich. 32 colour, 80 b/w illustrations

'A painstaking survey of English battlefields ... expunges myths, illuminates facts, and puts these haunted acres into their proper context. A first-rate book.'

'A fascinating and, for all its factual tone, an atmospheric volume.'

'It may come as a surprise to some just how many battles have been fought on English soil ... An authoritative work.'

'The most comprehensive reference book on English battlefields ever written.'

MICHAEL RAYNER is Chair of the Battlefields Trust’s Battlefield Panel, and a member of Historic England’s Expert Advisory Group. He has been at the forefront of battlefield preservation and interpretation in the UK for over 30 years since helping to set up the Battlefields Trust, a charity dedicated to protecting battlefield sites across the UK and internationally. His other work includes Battlefields: Exploring the Arenas of War, 1805-1945. He lives in Norfolk.

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