Bolton AES Lecture - Lancashire in the Civil War
21st October 2025 - 7.30 pm
Speaker:
Stephen Irwin - Local Historian
Stephen Irwin was back again this year to tell us about how Lancashire fared during the Civil War (or wars:Â 1 to 3).
Lancashire was generally a poor backwater in the 17th Century, before the Industrial Revolution; the route up the Ribble Valley into Yorkshire being an exception. Its isolation meant that it was still largely catholic in the west, protestant in the east and the towns, including Bolton, were generally independent and staunchly puritan.
Once the Civil War started, much of the fighting in Lancashire was apparently quite chaotic and comprised back and forth raiding on towns and strongholds. However, it was often nasty and deadly. Out of all the nation’s counties, Lancashire lost the highest percentage of its population during the Civil War, and the first named casualty of the war was Richard Percival, killed in an early clash between Manchester parliamentarians and Salford royalists.
The Battle of Old Read Bridge
Not quite as well known as such Civil War battles as Edgehill (October 1642), Marston Moor (July 1644) and Naseby (June 1645), Lancashire did have what turned out to be a decisive battle for the county. This was the Battle of Old Read Bridge on the old road between Whalley and Padiham.
The army of James Stanley, the Earl of Derby and Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire, (about 3,000 men) had looted Whalley and were marching towards Padiham. Colonel Richard Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham was trying to stop them. Four hundred of his musketeers hid in ambush, just uphill from the bridge, fired into the royalist army who, thinking they were under attack from a larger force, turned tail and fled, into their own rearguard. The Parliamentarians set off in pursuit and chased them back into Whalley, where they triumphed. This battle marked the end of Royalist dominance in Lancashire.
Stephen described several other Lancastrian battles of the Civil War, including, of course, the Storming (or Massacre) of Bolton. On the 28th May 1644, after being initially repulsed, the Royalists (under the command of the Earl of Derby) breached the town’s defences, in the rain, at night, and the street fighting that ensued resulted in hundreds of deaths, including many civilians who were caught up in the chaos.
In one of the final acts of the Third Civil War, in October 1651, the Earl of Derby, who was fleeing a death sentence for treason was re-captured and taken to Bolton, where he was (infamously, for Boltonians) beheaded outside Ye Old Man and the Scythe pub on Churchgate. The skull of his executioner is reputedly the one in a display case in the Pack Horse pub in Affetside.
Like other counties in the country, Lancashire’s families must have been devastated by the Civil War.   The county eventually became one of the great centres of the industrial revolution but that was still a century away.
Thanks to Stephen for another fascinating lecture. We’ll look forward to having him back again, hopefully before too long.
About the speaker
Stephen is a local historian, and has given several lectures to the Society, including his lecture, last year on Early Aviation in Lancashire.
Stephen worked as a secondary school teacher before becoming a museum education officer in a local authority museum. Since retiring, Stephen is now an active member of Halliwell Local History Society.
Interested in coming along to a lecture?
See the current year’s lecture programme here:
Or find out more about membership of Bolton’s Archaeology and Egyptology Society here:
