Colonel John Birch – Ingliando

On this day, Sir Henry Lingen, commander of the royalist garrison billeted at Goodrich Castle in Herefordshire during the English Civil War, was forced to surrender and abandon his stronghold. The castle had resisted the siege of the Parlamentarian commander, Colonel John Birch, since the beginning of June, but with the arrival of Roaring Meg, further resistance had become impossible. Roaring Meg was an enormous cannon capable of firing a hollow iron ball filled with gunpowder and weighing 85 kg which Birch is said to have ordered from a local blacksmith in a forge near the castle. The colonel concentrated his assault on the north-west tower (the Lady Tower), seen as one of the castle’s weak points, where the canon proved very effective at punching holes in the massive walls. Tradition has it that as the garrison left the castle after surrendering, the Parliamentarians played a tune on makeshift instruments, later known as ‘Sir Harry Lingen’s Fancy’.