University of Huddersfield unpublished report series

The site of the battle of Barnet, fought in 1471 between the Yorkist king Edward IV and the Lancastrian army of the Earl of Warwick, is not securely located. This report presents the results of a project run by the University of Huddersfield in 2015-2018 which sought to resolve that uncertainty, by applying the techniques which had proved so successful in locating the battlefield at Bosworth. The report first explores why the site of the battle was lost, then assesses the range of different interpretations of the events of the battle and their location provided first by antiquarians and more recently by local and military historians. It then reviews the primary documentary evidence to give the secure evidence for the events of the battle and to establish the topographical framework within which the action played out. Next the report presents a reconstruction of the evolution of the historic landscape in order to establish as far as possible its character in 1471. While this reconstruction is principally based on map regression and wider documentary research, the putative site of the battle chapel was also examined using a range of geophysical survey techniques. The reconstruction of the historic landscape is then used in an attempt to locate the sparse topographical details given in the primary sources and to assess the wider tactical potentials of the terrain. This enables a range of alternative locations to be suggested for the deployment of the armies and the action. Finally the report reviews previous discoveries of artefacts which might be battle-related, then describes the results of the systematic metal detecting survey which tested several of these alternative sites, seeking evidence in the form of lead and lead composite round-shot and other non-ferrous metal artefacts which are expected to have been deposited during the action. While no battle-related evidence was recovered on any of the areas tested, the report has provided a secure base from which future studies of the battle can work, and identifies the principal targets for new fieldwork to test the locations which the current project was not able to examine.

The results of the metal detecting survey undertaken as part of the Barnet Battlefield Project