HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. 



But as this could not bfe done without confusion, the Royal army 

 was at length put to rout, with the loss of 2400 men. Audley 

 himself was slain, with all the principal officers ; among whom was 

 Sir Thomas Duttoh, Sir John Dunne, Sir Hugh Venables, Sir Rich- 

 ard Molineaux, Sir John Leigh, &c. 



" This battle was fought on September 23, 1459, about one mile 

 from Drayton in Shropshire, on Blore-heath, which lies in Stafford- 

 shire ; where, at the head of the river Sow, a stone is set up in me- 

 mory of James Lord Audley, there slain." 



We subjoin some observations published in the Gentleman's Ma- 

 gazine, from the pen of the Rev. W. Snape, curate of Keel, and 

 the adjoining parish of Maer, upon the probable position of the 

 two armies previous to the commencement of the battle. Mr. S. 

 conjectures, that Salisbury and Lord Audley were posted respect- 

 ively on the celebrated Byrth and Camp Hills, near and upon 

 Maer-heath, both which will be noticed hereafter. 



" In the hurry and confusion of a battle, several transactions, of 

 subordinate consideration or importance, might be omitted Or mis- 

 represented, either from want of recollection, or owing to incorrect 

 information ; while the principal manoeuvres are in their leading 

 points correctly stated. The above account may, probably, be 

 not exempt from such-like errors. In the first place, the stone 

 erected to commemorate the spot where Lord Audley was slain, is 

 said to be placed at the head of the river Sow ; which is not strictly 

 correct: it is placed very near to one source of that river near 

 Ashley and Broughton ; but the brook by the side of which it is 

 placed, 1 was informed by persons resident in the neighbourhood, 

 flows into the Tearne or Tern, which joins the Severn, and thus 

 takes a directly opposite course to the river Sow, which unites 

 with the Trent, It is not improbable that Maer-heath and Ashley- 

 heath, both of which are nearly in a direct line to Blore-heath, 

 and at no great distance from each other, were, three centuries 

 and a half ago, considered, on account of the comparatively few in- 

 closures, as one common, and part of Blore-heath. The Byrth and 

 Camphills are about ttfo miles from Whitmore, which is very near 

 another head of the fiver Sow, which flotys through that place ' a 

 little river.' Indeed none of the rivers' thereabout, nor that by 

 Ihe side of which the ston6 commemorating Lord Audley's death 

 is placed, can be termed great. It appears from the above account 

 of the battle, that the Earl of Salisbury obtained his victory chiefly 

 by stratagem* That he first attempted to defend some pass the 



