Battle of Bovey Heath Battlefield, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park

Battle of Bovey Heath Battlefield, Bovey Tracey, Dartmoor National Park

Near the eastern border of Dartmoor National Park, on the outskirts of the gateway town Bovey Tracey, is Bovey Heathfield Local Nature Reserve. In the seventeenth century, during the English Civil War, this was the site of the Battle of Bovey Heath. There's an information board on site that reads:

'In 1646 Bovey Heath was over 380 hectares in size - ten times its size today. In January of that year it was the site of a decisive battle in the English Civil War.

Royalist troops, led by lord Wentworth, were encamped on the heath (their headquarters, or 'drums', gave the name to Drumbridges). The Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell and General Fairfax advanced westwards through Devon, engaging Wentworth's company here on 9 January 1646.

The Parliamentarians scored a significant victory. Among the captured were four Colonels, three Lieutenant Colonels, five Majors, 11 Captains, 140 other soldiers and 150 head of cattle.

A rare earthwork, believed to date from this period, and now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, can still be seen today just below the position of this sign. In 1977 the Civil War Society erected a Commonwealth Cross in the north western corner of the nature reserve.'

Another English Civil War battle took place on the north eastern border of the National Park at the Battle of Sourton Down Battlefield.