Just before dawn on the 20th September 1643 two armies clashed on the outskirts of Newbury.

The opposing forces were the Royalists (or Cavaliers) led by King Charles 1st and the Parliamentarians (or Roundheads) led by Robert Deveraux, 2nd Earl of Essex .

It was a year into the English Civil War. The two forces had already fought a long summer of actions, skirmishes and battles which had left both sides exhausted, hungry, demoralised and both camps rife with illness.

The battle, probably the third largest of the First Civil War, ranged across the fields and lanes of Enbourne, Skinners Green and Wash Common, and was, according to contemporary reports "a monumentally confusing" battle.

During the twelve hours of brutal fighting approximately 6,000 men lost their lives, many of the bodies being buried where they fell. At dusk the fighting ceased and the exhausted soldiers slept where they could. At the break of day on the 21st of September, the Earl of Essex awoke to discover that the Royalist forces, perilously low on ammunition, had withdrawn under the cover of darkness. The result of the battle can be seen as inconclusive, a tactical withdrawal by King Charles, or as a Parliamentarian victory.