Talk:Battle of Preston (1648)

Sent to Coventry
I don't know much about the history of the Battle of Preston, but I do know one (hopefully) interesting fact...

Scottish Royalist prisoners from this battle were housed at St John the Baptist's Church in Coventry. There they were shunned by the locals, thus giving rise to the phrase "Sent to Coventry". I do have a source for this info - the church's own website: http://www.stjohn-the-baptist.co.uk/history.htm. Would it be possible for this fact to be entered onto this articl in an appropriate place? StephenBuxton 12:51, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Copyright problems
This article unfortunately needs to be rewritten as it includes duplicated text and text closely paraphrased from A Land Afflicted. I do not have access to the book to see where it is at its most extensive, but see: While material was evidently added in good faith, it appears it is unusable. See the cleanup project for more.
 * (p. 149); ; (p. 158);  (p. 159);  (p. 159); ; ;  (p. 160); ;  (There is very likely more; I stopped the search midway through, having confirmed an issue with this article.)

I am blanking in the article in the hopes that a regular contributor can suitably rewrite this. It will be revisited after a week to see what further steps may be necessary. --Moonriddengirl (talk) 13:42, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Number of troops
Cromwell's page says that Cromwell commanded 9,000 troops, but this page says 14,000. Given that he was facing 18,000 troops that's a significant difference. Is there really no closer consensus?

Eshafto (talk) 17:42, 30 September 2009 (UTC)


 * The number of 14,000 is not supported in the sources, it was closer to 9,000. I have now fixed the problem. But this is a complicated thing to report accurately because Cromwell thanks to Hamilton's incompetence was able to engage different parts of Hamilton's army in succession and destroy each different part separately (or "in detail" as the military histories describe such actions). -- PBS (talk) 01:08, 2 August 2010 (UTC)

The strength of the Royalists is now given at 9000, "significantly outnumbering" Cromwell's 8600. The casualties are given as 2000 dead, 9000 captured for the Royalists. Something don't add up... 98.225.197.59 (talk) 04:38, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

Purple prose
" All the restless energy of Langdale's horse was unable to dislodge Lambert from the passes or to find out what was behind that impenetrable cavalry screen. The crisis was now at hand. " Seriously? Reads like a propoganda document for Victorian public school boys. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 115.186.240.40 (talk) 01:08, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Battle section first paragraph
There is something wrong with the first sentence "On 14 August 1648 Cromwell and Lambert were at Skipton, on 5 August at Preston, and on 15 August so they marched down the valley of the Ribble towards Preston ...". It seems something is missing - several things?? Is it meant to be something like "On 14 August 1648 Cromwell and Lambert were at Skipton, on 5 August the Royalists had arrived at Preston. Cromwell learned this on 15 August and marched down the valley of the Ribble towards Preston .. " I'm only guessing, but clearly there is something wrong as it stands.Baska436 (talk) 04:55, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

I have looked back in the history, and the nonsense above was apparently inserted by Yournan on 22nd May 2016. I have changed the text back to the version of 14th May.Baska436 (talk) 10:58, 17 January 2017 (UTC)