Re Bosworth Update ("ridge and furrow")

To answer the question of what is "ridge and furrow" which features in some
of this debate.
This is (and I don't mean was) a hangover from the medieval 'open field'
system which became commonplace with the widespread introduction of feudalism
after the Norman Conquest of England. Under this system of farming each serf,
villein, cottar, etc. received strips of land in each of the village's open
(i.e. not hedged) fields - these could often be over a mile across. The
theory was that good and bad land was thus distributed equally.

When ploughing the strips (which were usually three or four yards wide and
did not necessarily run either the full length of the field nor did they
always run the same way across the whole field) it was usual to plough so that the
top soil turned 'in' towards the centre of your strip. The logic behind
this was that you thus preserved the good top soil on your own land and didn't
plough it onto your neighbours' strips. The physical effect of a couple of
hundred years of such ploughing (and by 1485 it had been going on in much of
the Country, including Leicestershire for four centuries) was to create a field
that was a series of mounds and dips - like a wave effect if you could see
it in profile, hence 'ridge and furrow'.

The fields around Naseby (not very far at all from Bosworth) were enclosed
for sheep in the mid 16th Century and such farming practices as above ceased.
However despite another four hundred years of sheep plodding across these
fields the ridge and furrow is still easily visible on the fields that have not
been ploughed since. About ten years ago I surveyed the fields of part of
Naseby battlefield where the ridge and furrow was preserved and the width from
bottom of furrow to bottom of furrow was between eleven and twelve feet -
much how it must have been in 1645 and in 1485. The surprise was that ridge
was often three feet higher than the bottom of the furrow and that after four
hundred years of weathering and sheep trampling. One can only assume that in
1645 and 1485 the height must have been greater.

The effect of ridge and furrow on any body of troops trying to move across
it is to massively disrupt the formation if you move at any speed (many thanks
to members of the Sealed Knot for conducting this bit of the experiment).
If you are moving on anything but straight along the formation or directly
across it at right angles this disruption is magnified.

Horse (cavalry if you will) have even more of a problem because of the
constant fear of a horse stumbling and breaking a bone. One horse or two are no
problem - two dozen was a nightmare and I hesitate to imagine what any large
number would encounter and this, of course, may well have been part of the
problem encountered by the Royalist Left wing Horse at the Battle of Naseby
where their formation was broken up as they advanced. This could also have been
highly influential in Richard dismounting during his "charge" since horsemen
tell me that it is impossible to go full gallop in any sort of formation over
ridge and furrowed ground.

As for Foot (infantry in modern language), English foot are known, by the
early 16th Century, to be using a battlefield manoeuvring pace of 70 paces per
minute (the modern British Army, to put it in perspective, uses I believe 96
paces per minute with a slow march of 72 !). This sort of speed makes it
possible to maintain formation across ridge and furrow, and is the speed at
which 'The English March' is notated.

One anecdote on this concerns the English auxiliaries fighting alongside the
French Huguenots in Normandy in the 1590s. The English Foot had been called
up to support the Marechal de Biron's (the French Huguenot Commander) line.
Of course, they moved at their usual 70 paces per minute which caused de
Biron to ask if they could not march any faster. The retort from the English
Commander was that "This speed was fast enough to beat your forefathers and
will be fast enough to gain the day today". What he is saying, of course, is
that the men will arrive in formation and order and this is as important, if
not more so, than arriving swiftly. The English and Huguenots, by the way, won
the battle.

As far as Bosworth is concerned this all shows how slowly much of the
manoeuvring around the field took place - none of the Hollywood or Ealing rushing
around I'm afraid.

Sorry to waffle on but I hope that all this is of interest

Diomedes