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The battle of Edge Hill in 1642 was described as 'a blundering-together
of armies'. It was the first of many such engagements large and
small during the Civil War :much of it consisted of encounters which
were a surprise to one or both of the parties. Signposts were lacking,
and it was easy to get lost. Com-manders had no better maps than
those of Saxton (1576) and Speed (1610), which were printed in quantity
for use in the field. Their scale was small, detail was slight and
inexact, and no roads were shown. Our local villages, the largest
watercourses, and a few bridges (but not Birmingham's) were indicated.
Doubt-less the highways were travelled by many a troop of both sides,
for there were no fixed lines and the Plateau was No-Man's-Land.
Some accessible communities suffered billetting, pressing, and levies,
for both King and Parliament not once but often throughout the war.
Recorded engagements took place on Kings Norton Green and at Hawkesley,
and there must have been others : but nowhere suffered worse than
did Birmingham.
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