Identification Of The Battlefield Site.
Great stress is laid on the presence of the 'Heathyards' enclosure in the best modern study of the battle of Hopton Heath, undertaken by the late Colonel Alfred Burne. He based his reconstruction of the battlefield on Yates' map, and while it is true that the Colonel never asked himself whether the house and grounds shown in 1775 existed 130 years previously, it is hard to imagine for what purpose walls would have existed in 1643 on a barren heath, if not to enclose a property such as this. It is therefore probably safe to assume that an earlier version of Heathyards was in place at the time of the battle.
Hopton Heath has changed radically since the battle with the introduction of hedged field enclosures between 1770 and 1788.
The Battle And The Sources.
The best source for the Battle of Hopton Heath is a letter preserved in the Dunrobin Muniments. It is unsigned but clearly written by an eyewitness amongst the Royalists.
Sir William Brereton wrote an excellent account of the battle from the Parliamentary point of view.
The battle saved Stafford for the Royalist cause and facilitated the subsequent recapture of Lichfield, but was not otherwise of great strategic importance. Brigadier Peter Young commented that the battle is of interest tactically because, as at Roundway Down, a mounted forced engaged and got the better of a more balanced force of horse and foot. The struggle was also keenly contested with the Royalist commanders displaying a reckless courage, which led to a disproportionate number of them becoming casualties. Estimates of the total number of killed and wounded in the battle varies but it may have been as many as 300-500.
The Royalist cannon Roaring Meg was firing 29lb cannonballs at the Parliamentarians during the battle . The actual 29lb cannonball pictured here (PRN 753) was unearthed in 1940 during the construction works for the RAF site on the battlefield, and this cannonball now resides in the Officers' Mess.