The sieges of Taunton (23 September 1644 – 9 July 1645) during the First English Civil War were a series of three blockades of the town and castle of Taunton in Somerset. During all three, Robert Blake commanded the Parliamentarian defences of Taunton, which straddled the main road from Bristol to Devon and Cornwall. The first assault, by Royalist troops from local garrisons, initially drove Blake and his troops into the castle, before settling into a siege intended to starve the town into submission. The defenders were relieved by a force under James Holborne in December. The Royalists began the second, and bloodiest, siege in late March; in May, after five days of intense fighting, a Parliamentarian relief army led by Ralph Weldon forced a retreat. Lord Goring renewed the blockade in mid-May, after engaging Weldon's departing army and forcing it back into Taunton, but the siege was ineffective. The Parliamentarian defence tied up Goring's troops, who missed the decisive Battle of Naseby. Historians believe those troops could have tipped the battle in favour of the Royalists. (Full article...)
... that after winning the Military Medal for bravery in the First World War, the nurse Violetta Thurstan(pictured) studied weaving and ran camps where displaced Bedouin women made carpets?
Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust manages over 40 nature reserves covering nearly 810 hectares (2,000 acres) north of London, in Hertfordshire and the former county of Middlesex. It has over 21,000 members, and is one of 47 Wildlife Trusts across the UK. The Trust's activities include managing nature reserves, advising landowners on how to manage their land for wildlife, commenting on planning applications, advising planning authorities and campaigning to protect wildlife. The first preparatory meeting of what was to become the Trust was held on 16 November 1963, and the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Trust for Nature Conservation was incorporated on 9 October 1964. By 1970 it had twenty reserves and in the same year took over management of its first Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Blagrove Common. In 1987 it became the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust. Two of the Trust's nature reserves are Ramsar sites, internationally important wetland reserves; fifteen are SSSIs, and five are Local Nature Reserves. (Full list...)
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