Cropredy Bridge

Cropredy Bridge carries the minor road from Cropredy to Williamscot over the River Cherwell, north of Banbury. The royalist army of Charles I beat Sir William Waller's Parliamentarians here on 29 June 1644. The present bridge dates from 1937, but it is on the old site, and Historic England registers the battlefield around it.

The story of the bridge

The crossing is old, even though the bridge is not. The earliest record is of work on it in 1312, and the Victoria County History notes that later medieval deeds call it the magna pons, the great bridge, or le longebrugge. It may have been restored in 1691, a date cut on a stone on the old cutwater.

By 1776 it was in need of repair, and around 1780 the western arch was rebuilt with a round head while the eastern stayed pointed. In 1886 it was widened on the downstream side. The authorities meant to use red brick, but the vicar, Dr William Wood, persuaded them to use blue brick instead, though he could not get them to use stone. Then in 1937 it was demolished and replaced by the present three-span bridge, with a concrete deck, faced with Hornton stone that includes much of the old material. The work uncovered remains of an earlier bridge inside the structure.

The Battle of Cropredy Bridge

The fight turned on three river crossings. The King's army marched north from Banbury on the east bank of the Cherwell with Waller's shadowing it on the west, and when the royalist column became strung out, leaving a gap before its rearguard, Waller tried to cut that rearguard off. He sent Lieutenant General John Middleton over Cropredy Bridge and led about 1,000 men himself across Slat Mill Ford, a mile south.

It went wrong quickly. Musketeers stopped Middleton's horse at Hays Bridge in Wardington, to the north, with an overturned carriage across it. The Earl of Northampton's brigade drove Waller back over the ford, and the Earl of Cleveland's charges pushed Middleton back to Cropredy Bridge. Parliament's foot held the bridge itself, but Waller had lost some 700 men, deserters among them, and the Royalists took his train of eleven guns. On the night of 30 June the King's army slipped away to Deddington, and Waller's army soon fell apart in mutiny. Afterwards, the Victoria County History adds, Charles slept in the parsonage at Deddington. Our story of the Civil War in Banburyshire gives the whole campaign.

What to look for

The inscription on the south side reads 'The site of the battle of Cropredy Bridge, June 1644. From Civil War Good Lord deliver us.' The 1691 stone from the old cutwater was reset in a stretch of the old bridge's wall kept in the new work, according to the 1938 account of the rebuilding. Historic England's entry notes that the bridge is a good vantage point over the field, and from it you can see the valley floor the armies fought across. The Oxford Canal runs close by, reaching Cropredy in 1778, more than a century after the battle.

Visiting and getting there

It is a public road bridge, free and always open. There are no visitor facilities, so park in the village rather than on the approach. The walk from the centre of Cropredy is short. The Battlefields Trail, a waymarked 20-mile path from Chipping Warden to Kineton, links this field with Edgehill and Edgcote, and the Battlefields Trust publishes a free leaflet with directions. The Trust says the Cropredy and Edgehill sections have many stiles.

Nearby

The village of Cropredy has the canal, and the towpath runs south to Tooley's Historic Boatyard in Banbury. The Griffin Inn at Chipping Warden is a listed pub to the north east. Fairport's Cropredy Convention is held at Cropredy each August.