5. A passage in the Evesham chronicle seems to say that the
battle commenced at Siveldeston and it was here that Humphrey De Bohun and
all the Welsh foot soldiers fled. 'Partibus igitur juxta locum qui dicitur
Siveldeston hostiliter ingredientibus Umfredus de Boun et omnes Waleses et
ceteri pedites plusquam sex milia cum pluribus armatis quorum animos timor.....
in fugam conversi sunt'. Siveldeston was an old boundary stone, in
Blayney's Lane about a 100 yards west of the Offenham footbridge. It
disappeared during the 19th century but it would have been about 20 yards
east of the modern bypass.
6. Tyndall, writing in 1794, was informed by a farmer of
many bones having been found in Deadman's Ait and also around the area
just to the west of it. At that time Deadman's Ait was an island in the
Avon opposite Offenham although it has now merged with the west bank. The
bones were never dated, and it has been suggested that they could have
come from a Saxon burial site. Nevertheless, the location is entirely
consistent with the Welsh spearmen fleeing from Siveldeston to Offenham
Bridge, prevented by the bottleneck from crossing it there, and attempting
to swim across the river with consequent heavy casualties.
7. In 1757 Dr Richard Pococke was told at Evesham that the
battle was in the Evesham Kenilworth Road and in Blayney's Lane. A small
point perhaps, but evidence of a local tradition of fighting in Blayney's
Lane.
So I hope that there is enough evidence to persuade the
reader to consider this reconstruction as an option worth thinking about
next time he or she visits the Evesham battlefield. Make your way out of
Evesham via Mill Street and Common Road and along the footpath into the
'campo spatioso'. In front of you - north west and to your left is
Greenhill with Edward's soldiers on it. In front of you, slightly to the
right and north east is Clare's division coming up alongside the River
Avon towards you. Behind you, probably out of sight behind the Abbey
Tower - but you can sense the danger - is Mortimer and his host of
archers. The enemy really is coming at you from three directions.
