Was This Rare Coin Another Civil War Siege Souvenir?

English Civil War emergency siege money comes to market very rarely. That’s why TimeLine Auctions staff smiled broadly when one of our earliest sales (December 2010) included a rare Scarbrough Castle five shillings silver piece that sold for £7,590. We told its fascinating story, with details of the bloody fighting that took place before Scarbrough Castle surrendered, in our STORIES column published in September 2023 under the headline: A Pocket Souvenir … From An English Civil War Castle Under Siege. It soon joined the most popular features in our archive. We thought it unlikely that another English Civil War coin with a story to match it would come along any time soon …
But here it is! ..

Lot 3425 in the November 2024 TimeLine Auction - an excessively rare halfcrown of Charles I; believed to be from the Hereford mint, and dated 1645. The obverse depicts the king on horseback wearing a cloak flying from his shoulders as he holds an upright sword in his right hand; while the reverse displays an oval shield within a garter, supported by a lion and unicorn - a design normally reserved for use on the gold coinage of the reign. You can study further numismatic description of this rarity, together with extensive provenance notes, on the catalogue page; but allow me, in the space remaining here, to sketch a few scenes from Herefordshire during the First English Civil War.

During the first two years of the conflict Herefordshire and adjacent Shropshire served as important regions for Royalist recruitment until 1643 when a surprise attack by Parliamentary forces saw Hereford fall briefly into enemy hands. The scare led to the appointment of a new governor, Colonel Barnabas Scudamore, a loyal and experienced soldier, who at once threw himself into strengthening the city’s defences and increasing troop numbers by requisitioning and arming men of fighting age from every parish in Hereford. He gave orders for work to begin on reinforcing the city’s gates; for drawbridges to replace fixed bridges; for strengthening Hereford Castle’s walls; and for the demolition of buildings beyond the walls to deny their use to any attackers.

Countrywide, the war settled into a routine of minor skirmishes until June 1645 when Royalists suffered a heavy defeat by the English New Model Army at the Battle of Naseby in Northants. Charles and the remnants of his routed force fled westward to reach the safety of Hereford Castle, where the King gave Colonel Scudamore orders to hold the castle while the monarch and a handful of his officers made their way into Wales on a recruitment drive. Scudamore’s defenders numbered around 1,500; half of them unbloodied. Civilians living in the city amounted to around 4,000.

On July 30th 1645 Hereford awoke to find an army of 14,000 Scottish Covenanters poised to launch attacks on the city’s bridges and walls. The Scots had agreed to serve as mercenaries for the Parliament in return for promised religious concessions following a final Parliamentary victory in the Civil War. Commanded by the Earl of Levan, the Covenanters had orders to attack Hereford and to disrupt Royalist attempts to assemble a fresh army. Aware of the notorious reputation for looting and female molestation the Scots had earned since crossing the English border, Scudamore refused surrender terms, informing Levan that he would not quit the castle until he received a direct order from King Charles. Infuriated, the besiegers at once trained their cannon on the castle walls, and also laid mines in attempts to undermine the foundations. Hereford’s citizens, aware of the treatment they could expect if the Covenanters overcame the defences, risked life and limb to carry out emergency repairs to any breaches. Colonel Scudamore commented, in a later report on the siege: “I wish to pay tribute to the valour of our common soldiers and townsmen who hazarded themselves in making up the breaches even when cannonballs played between their legs, to the astonishment of the enemy. The womenfolk displayed great gallantry in support of the men, venturing even where musketballs flew.”

Hereford’s defenders used inventive and imaginative tactics by turning from defence to attack at every opportunity. Snipers fired from vantage points on several tall buildings across Hereford, obliging attackers to keep their heads down. One who failed to do so and received a bullet to the brain was Scottish Major General Lawrence Crawford. At night firebombs rained down on the enemy’s encampment, setting fire to anything that would burn. At ground level the defenders deployed stray cats and dogs with lighted faggots strung to their bodies, thrusting the animals through city gates at night and chasing them in the enemy’s direction. Siege warfare continued unabated for almost six weeks. Then, on September 1st, the Covenanter army commenced a flurry of wagon-loading and kit packing that signalled an end to the conflict. The Earl of Leven had received news that King Charles and a large body of Welsh and Irish Royalist recruits had reached to within a three-day’s march of Hereford. The Scottish army broke camp; and Hereford loyally welcomed King Charles with a joyful parade on September 4 th, where Colonel Scudamore received a knighthood. The year’s end brought yet another reversal of Royalist fortune when a large Parliamentary force under command of Colonel John Birch launched a surprise night attack on Hereford and caught almost the entire garrison still abed. Within a few days Colonel Birch became governor of the city, which supported the Parliamentary cause for the remaining months of the First English Civil War.

Among the handful of Royalist troops who managed to evade capture on the night of Birch’s surprise attack on Hereford, Sir Henry Lingen, who had received his knighthood at the same time as Sir Barnabas Scudamore, made his way eighteen miles south to Goodrich Castle. Within a few weeks he had attracted 200 staunch Royalists still eager to serve the King and to provide a garrison for the last castle under Royalist control in the county. They formed several mounted troops and patrolled irregularly across the county seeking opportunities to cause havoc and to disrupt efforts to impose Parliamentary rule on Herefordshire. In response, governor Birch devised a plan to steal every horse in Goodrich Castle. He commanded the raiding party, carried off 76 horses, and burned down their stables.

Lingen’s counter attack called for even bolder action. A few days later, leading a troop of only 30 men, with no artillery in support, he charged Hereford’s main gate in broad daylight, killed 4 guards, then rushed to the city centre and called for civilians to join in a general county-wide uprising. Not a man, nor a woman, responded to his appeal.

At Goodrich Castle, a few weeks later, Lingen had left the Hereford disappointment firmly behind. He still retained the loyalty and respect of almost the entire garrison who had joined him at the outset; replacement mounts for those carried off by Birch had been begged, borrowed, or otherwise acquired from a few Royalist supporters around the county; and essential stores were gradually increasing. Even the approach of Birch’s well-equipped siege army in mid-May failed to dim the flame of resistance .. until the governor’s secret weapon hove into view: Roaring Meg, the largest mortar piece used on any English Civil War battleground. Birch had ordered it cast to fulfil his vow to render Goodrich Castle uninhabitable. The mortar fired shells that weighed in excess of two hundredweight. The defenders withstood six weeks of Roaring Meg’s pounding, eventually running out of water, food and cannonballs. Lingen then lowered his standard, raised a white flag, and ordered his 170 men-still-standing to quit the castle ruins. Relieved of their arms, they were marched off to imprisonment.

A similarity of circumstances, including besieged castles, the issuing of emergency coinage; the surrender of defenders; and men taken prisoner as a siege ended, hint at the possibility of examples of siege coins retained by combatants as souvenirs. Compare the Scarborough and the Hereford cases.