Brentford and the English Civil War
In November 1642 Brentford was the site of a small but significant battle in the First English Civil War. Located at the convergence of the River Thames and the River Brent, Brentford became the bottleneck through which the Royalist and Parliamentarian forces raced into London.
As King Charles swept through Oxfordshire, capturing Banbury and Oxford, Prince Rupert led further forces down the Thames Valley, bringing Abingdon, Aylesbury and Maidenhead under Royalist control. Prince Rupert then tried to take Windsor but failed after encountering a well embedded Parliamentary resistance. The Royalists slowed their advances and considered opening peace negotiations with their opponents. The Parliamentarians, lead by the Earl of Essex, capitalised on this naive indecision and raced ahead into London, barricading the bridges at Kingston and Brentford. Seeing his peace negotiations fail and having lost ground to the Parliamentarians, King Charles marched his army further into London to an area that now makes up Heathrow Airport. Prince Rupert was ordered to continue marching and take Brentford for the Royalists.
The Battle Begins
Under the cover of an early morning mist Prince Rupert attacked Brentford with approximately 2,000 men from the regiments of Thomas Salusbury, a Welsh regiment that had run away at Edgehill, The Prince of Wales' regiment of horse and Prince Rupert’s own cavalry regiment. They charged along the London Road hoping to smash into the town and surprise the Parliamentary troops. They encountered stiff resistance from some troops of Denzil Holles’ regiment which had established an outpost in and around Sir Richard Wynne’s house along London Road (this was right near this cache on the site of the present Lion Gate of Syon House). After taking the full force of the Royalist attack and managing to hold them back, Holles’ men started to fall back along the London Road until they reached the bridge.
