Worcestershire in the English Civil War Gloucestershire, made the county vulnerable to raiding and requisitions. Nevertheless, the county was strategically vital to the Royalists, as a bridge from their mostly Western territories including Wales and Ireland back to their headquarters in Oxford. Worcestershire also provided the Royalists with industrial capacity to produce armaments and munitions. In June 1644, General William Waller's force of around 10,000 men pursued the King's army into Worcestershire as it retreated from Oxford. Waller was supported by the residents of Evesham, who repaired their bridge which had been broken to slow his passage into Worcestershire; the town was heavily fined and the
First English Civil War work continuing during the Second English Civil War. Fortifications across the country were targeted, but especially those in Yorkshire and Wales. The rhetoric of Parliament at the national level emphasised that slighting was a military necessity, however the motivations were far more complex and varied regionally. The breach between the New Model Army and Parliament widened day by day between 1646 and 1648 until finally the Presbyterian party, combined with the Scots and the remaining Royalists, felt their preparations for a new war had made them strong enough to subdue the English Independents, as embodied in the New Model Army,