22 



consequence, of passing through this field alone at night : and 

 that she had often heard her father say, still more recently, 

 that, if ever the mounds were disturbed at Barber's Bridge, 

 there would be found the bodies of many soldiers who were 

 killed down below by the brook side, and brought up there 

 to be buried ; that they were Welshmen who had fought at 

 Highnam, and had been driven back, and met at the brook by 

 another body of soldiers, and there surrounded and killed ; that 

 there was no bridge over the brook then : that the bridge had 

 been built in his hfetime : that he had been told by his father, 

 that his grandfather was an eye-witness of the fight. This 

 woman — Hannah Taylok, died in the early part only of last 

 month, but has frequently repeated these statements, invariably 

 closing them with these words "they were Welshmen, and 

 they were very fine men." 



A stirrup, discovered under the bridge, on the site of the 

 ancient ford or passage across the brook, and which it was 

 natural to suppose was in some way connected with the other 

 remains, seemed to point to an earlier period than the civil 

 wars. The Society of Antiquaries, to whose inspection it was 

 submitted by Mr. Niblett, however pronounced it to be of the 

 13th century (see their proceedings of June 30th 1867, page 529). 

 A cannon ball and some few buckles and buttons, however, 

 which were discovered with the skeletons have been pronounced 

 to be of a more recent period; and further enquiries were 

 therefore directed to the local histories of the Siege of Gloucester. 

 Shortly after this two old men Samuel Colwall and Charles 

 Smith, at that time both of them living in one of the Tibberton 

 Alms Houses, of whom only the former now survives, confirmed 

 the statements of Hannah Tatlor. Colwall said that his 

 father worked in the construction of the Canal, and that the 

 bones discovered at that time were said to be the remains of 

 Welshmen who came up to besiege Gloucester for the King : 

 that they were entrenched at Highnam, and attacked the gate 

 which then stood on Westgate Bridge, but were beaten back ; 

 that they fought a battle on Ludnam's Hill, the field in which 

 Mr. Parry's church now stands ; that they were defeated and 



