Latest 'X-ray' images of Wellhead shed new light on Bourne Castle's links to English Civil War

A 375-year mystery has been solved according to a local historian after an investigation shed new light on Bourne Castle’s links to the English Civil War.

Steve Giullari believes images from a latest earth resistance survey of the site reveals evidence of a Parliamentary army garrison at the castle.

Steve has been fascinated by the idea of Roundhead troops at the castle after reading a memorandum from the Bourne Abbey Register from October 11, 1645 which said 'Garrison of Bourne Castle began.’

The consensus among historians was there was no garrison at Bourne, but Steve believes the latest in a series of surveys - which provides an x-ray of the ground - at the Wellhead site suggests otherwise.

The survey of four mounds showed complete diamond shapes underneath two, fitting the shape of civil war bastions - or defensive fortifications - discovered elsewhere.

The other two appear to have remained unfinished.

"Historians had convinced me that we wouldn't find anything, but we said let's do it anyway," Steve said.

"When those results came back and two complete mounds were identical, it solved a 375-year mystery.

"I hope to make more of it in the future. I think it's a big discovery for Bourne.

"It gives Bourne a new identity and adds to our history."

A series of surveys over the summer and autumn had already produced some groundbreaking new information about the castle - including the outlines of inner and outer walls and an additional bridge.

Steve, a member of Bourne History Group, believes the latest images also back up the local tradition that the castle was destroyed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians for the town’s loyalty to King Charles I.

It appears to show a large part of the castle's boundary wall in the western side of the moat, suggesting it has been pushed over.

"This could back up the notion that the castle, or what was left of it, had been slighted by the Parliamentarians as they left to chase the Royalists towards Newark," Steve explained.

"History is fluid and is forever moving. When new evidence comes to light we have to move with it and look at things in a different light."

Having researched the war in October 1645, Steve said the Royalists remained a threat, but defeat at the battle of Rowton Heath, sent them marching north towards Newark, pursued by Oliver Cromwell's soldiers.

The Royalists remained besieged at Newark until their surrender in 1846.

"The Parliamentarians certainly would have prepared themselves against such a threat, and so it's plausible, if they were in Bourne like the Register clearly states, they surely would have built bastions to support the cannons," he added.

"The Parliamentarians, on hearing the news of the defeat and the Royalists now holed up in Newark, would have abandoned their position in Bourne to give chase."