Muskham Bridge Redoubt

The Muskham Bridge Redoubt is a polygonal three bastioned earthwork near Newark, Nottingham.

Extensive arrangements were made by the Parliamentarians to attack Newark by forces from Nottingham, Lincoln, Derby, and elsewhere, who were, however, completely routed at Muskham Bridge, and the Parliamentary army lost four thousand stand of arms, eleven pieces of brass cannon, two mortar pieces, and about fifty barrels of gunpowder. Prince Rupert appears to have aced with great recourse and moderation.

On the 26th November 1645 the Scots Army, at that time allied to the English Parliament, appeared before Newark from the North under the command of the experienced soldier General Alexander Leslie, the first Earl of Leven. In a short space of time his forces gained control of Muskham Bridge on the Great North Road to the North of Newark, slightly west of the current modern road to South Muskham and deployed his forces on ‘the Island’. The ‘Island’ being the rectangular strip of land created by the dividing and rejoining of the River Trent to the West of Newark. The Scots forces now effectively sealed off the approaches to the town from the North and the West.