Battle of Rowton Heath 1645
Outline: officially registered battlefield boundary. Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 24 September 1645 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1645 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | England | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | English Civil War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Cavalier, Roundhead | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 53.1725, -2.8283 | Wikidata P625 |
| Official record | Historic England list entry 1000031 | OGL v3 |
| Registered area | 63.4 ha | OGL v3 |
About the battle
The Battle of Rowton Heath, better known as the Battle of Rowton Moor, occurred on 24 September 1645 during the English Civil War. The Parliamentarians, commanded by Sydnam Poyntz, inflicted a significant defeat on the Royalists under the personal command of King Charles I, inflicting heavy losses and preventing Charles from relieving the siege of Chester.
Before the battle, Charles had been attempting to link up with the Marquess of Montrose in Scotland following the Royalist defeat in the Battle of Naseby. Although his attempts were unsuccessful, they were disruptive enough that the Committee of Both Kingdoms ordered Sydnam Poyntz to pursue the King with approximately 3,000 horse. After Charles was informed that Chester, his only remaining port, was under siege, he marched intending to relieve the defenders, ordering 3,000 horse under the command of Marmaduke Langdale to camp outside the city while he and 600 others travelled into Chester itself on 23 September 1645. The intent was to attack the besieging Parliamentarians from both sides, Charles mistakenly believing that Poyntz had failed to follow them. In fact he was barely 15 miles (24 km) behind, and moved to attack Langdale's force in the early hours of 24 September.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Rowton Heath (revision 1370273153), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Battlefield boundary © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. See also this battlefield on Battlefields of Britain.
Nearby battles
- Battle of Chester 615 · 4 km
- Siege of Chester 1645 · 5 km
- Battle of Ewloe 1157 · 16 km
- Battle of Nantwich 1644 · 22 km
- Battle of Winnington Bridge 1644 · 22 km
- Second Battle of Middlewich 1643 · 26 km
Other battles of the English Civil War
- Battle of Cropredy Bridge 1644
- Battle of Marston Moor 1644
- Battle of Ormskirk 1644
- Siege of York 1644
- Storming of Bolton 1644
- Battle of Naseby 1645
- Battle of Weymouth 1645
- Siege of Bristol (1645) 1645
- Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold 1646
- Battle of Worcester 1651
All 22 battles of the English Civil War →
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