My son sent me this, knowing it will interest some of our regulars.
On this day in 1644 – 382 years ago today – the medieval Town Walls of Newcastle were violently breached for the first and only time in their history during the bloody climax of the Great Siege.
Set against the backdrop of the English Civil War, a massive 30,000-strong army of Scottish Covenanters under the command of General Alexander Leslie had spent months surrounding the staunchly Royalist town. On the afternoon of 19th October, after enduring weeks of starvation and bombardment, the town's defences finally buckled. The Scottish forces detonated massive gunpowder mines beneath the walls and unleashed a devastating artillery barrage, blowing open the stone defences and pouring into the breaches.
What followed was fierce and desperate hand-to-hand combat along the ramparts and through the narrow streets and alleys of Newcastle, including around the Bigg Market. Prominent local Royalist defenders – including former Mayor Sir Alexander Davison and his son, Captain Joseph Davison – were mortally wounded trying to hold back the tide. With the town overrun, Newcastle's defiant Mayor and military Governor, Sir John Marley, was forced to retreat into the Castle Keep alongside a handful of loyalists, eventually negotiating the garrison's surrender two days later on 21st October.
Next time you walk past the surviving stretches of the Town Walls along West Walls near Chinatown, just imagine the incredible history those stones witnessed!
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