Culcheth , Warrington

The Sealed Knot returns to Culcheth – bigger and better than before!

Following the fantastic response to our first event in 2024, the Earl of Manchester’s Regiment of Foote once again will bring the sights, sounds and smells of the English Civil Wars to this close knit community in the rolling fields of Cheshire.

Be transported back in time with our tented encampment, watch displays of pike, musket and cannon, see demonstrations of traditional skills, and discover what life was like in the age of Roundheads and Cavaliers!

Located right next to The Raven Inn on Warrington Road – and within easy reaching distance of Warrington, Leigh, Newton-le-Willows St Helens, and Manchester – don’t miss discovering more about the history under your feet in a place where Parliamentarians and Royalists once clashed in 1651!

Opening hours: 10am-4pm each day

More details to be announced…

The history:
In September 1651, two thousand defeated Scots from the Battle of Worcester were escaping north, harassed and picked-off along the way. Five hundred Scots crossed the River Mersey at Hollin Ferry and, following the track just west of the Glaze Brook, traversed the next obstacle – Jibcroft Brook, five miles north at The Raven Inn. The Scots were now deep in enemy territory. Alerted to the troop movements, Lord John Holcroft and his men ambushed them from land adjacent to The Raven. Given the difference in troop numbers, the ambush was probably little  more than musket and small cannon fire. In 1905 a ‘Minion’ canon ball was found at nearby Moss House Farm (which must have been fired at point blank range) and in 2019 several musket balls were detected opposite the Raven by detectorist Sean Holcroft. The 3” diameter ball is on display in Warrington Museum.

One historical character associated with the site is Captain Thomas Blood who married one of the Holcroft daughters. Because the Raven Inn was later described in 1770 as ‘ancient’, it is more than likely that John Holcroft and Thomas Blood frequented The Raven for their ale. But that wasn’t the end of Blood’s story: he remained a military man, rising to the rank of Colonel and later hatched ‘a dashing plan’ to steal the Crown Jewels in 1671, which ended in abject failure. Surprisingly, he was not hanged for his crime but gained a good deal of notoriety.