The Naseby Battlefield Project has exciting plans to create immersive and engaging experiences for those who wish to visit us in person as well as for those who want to experience it from their home or school or academic institution.
This section outlines information about the tours we run, what is in the pipeline for Naseby’s Digital Platform and some links to additional assets and sources of information we think you will find useful.
Tours – Public
We operate a series of public group tours as well as several bespoke tours.
The best way to truly understand a battle is to walk in the footsteps of those who took part. Our tours follow those footsteps and give you unique access. The Naseby Battlefield Project offers public tours of Naseby Battlefield eight times a year. These tours are often enriched by friends and supporting reenactor groups bringing key-aspects of the story to life on the actual battlefield. You will be surprised who you might meet.
The prices for public tours start at £25.00 per person and if numbers permit, we will run more than one tour on the same day. For this price we include our specially commissioned, and highly rated Battlefield Maps & Interpretation Booklets – which are exclusive to Battlefield Tourists. To make sure that these are available we ask for you to pre-book the Battlefield Tours. We are sorry but we cannot accept visitors on the day.
We limit our group sizes to around 20 people [hopefully sharing as few as 5 cars to minimise local disruption].
Please note: the full tour lasts about 4 hours, and will take you across the entire battlefield, and extends to several miles. Public Tours offer some seats in a shared mini-bus, but some of you might prefer to use your own cars. Either way we will need vehicles to get across the whole battlefield.
Dates for the tours vary each year, but they are usually on the closest weekend to the anniversary of the battle [14th June], and also the half-yearly anniversary [14th December]. To keep up to date with Naseby Battlefield Project news and battlefield tour dates, Facebook or email us at enquiries@naseby.com
Saturday 11 May 2024
Public Tour
Saturday 8 June 2024
Public Tour
Friday 14 June 2024
Public Tour
Saturday 20 July 2024
Public Tour
Saturday 28 September 2024
Public Tour
Saturday 7 December 2024
Public Tour
That was an exceptionally enjoyable, and thoroughly informative ‘Naseby Battlefield Tour’. Thank you for such an exquisitely beautiful day. It was a masterpiece
Excellent – Great balance of information, pace of delivery, variation, and sense of humour.
You have made a battle come alive and with just the right degree of humour. It was such an enjoyable morning thank you… perhaps I might come again sometime to pick up all the bits I missed!
I would DEFINITELY, 100% recommend this tour to others, as well as any bespoke tours provided by Naseby1645. I’m so extremely glad I made the trip from Anglesey, North Wales, it was more than worthwhile. THANK YOU SO MUCH
I particularly enjoyed viewing the weaponry and armour discussion as I felt it helped to give a better understanding of the period, the challenges presented by the battle and the resources available. Viewpoints gave a good view of the battle and having the maps made it so much better
Tours – Bespoke
Your opportunity to define what you would like in a tour. We will then seek out the right guide for you and your group and arrange privileged access to all the right places.
The Royalist Tour
A battlefield tour with a Royalist perspective on the battle.
The Parliament Tour
A battlefield Tour with a Parliamentary viewpoint.
Leadership for Business
A tour focusing on how business can learn from the battle
War Games & Strategy
A deep-dive into the tactics & strategy from both sides.
The Naseby Battlefield Project offers bespoke tours of the battlefield for individuals, groups and organisations of all types; including businesses, schools, universities, veteran groups, and the armed forces. Our tours are drawn from our experiences as members of the Armed Forces or from our academic or business careers, and our knowledge of the battlefield itself.
Tours typically take four hours and we recommend mornings for the experience to reflect the actual timings of the battle itself. We know that people will need to travel to get here and therefore afternoons are also possible for a bespoke tour.
The ideal number for groups is between 10-20 people. We do arrange tours for individuals or small groups just let us know below and we will help. The minimum price of a Bespoke Tour is £250.00 for a group up to ten, with each additional person above ten costing £25.00 up to a group limit of twenty. Our specially commissioned, and highly rated Battlefield Maps and Interpretation Booklets are included in the tour price. To make sure that these are available for you on the day, numbers should be confirmed when booking the tour.
Please note: As the battlefield extends for several miles, this is a self- drive tour and you will require transport to complete the full tour. You should also wear stout footwear as we will be walking to specific points of interest across fields and open countryside.
For further details on walks and talks please email your interest to enquiries@naseby.com
I wish to thank you and your entire team for both days with the flexibility and desire to help with our professional development as warfighters. You and your team showed a passion for the battle and our nations' shared history that was infectious for our two groups. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with you and the rest of the trust to do this staff ride for the next crop of our folks.
LT COL
Some of our children attended a (well timed!) Battle of Naseby weekend with their families which added to their enthusiasm. The children who went loved it and said they would love to go to another one in the future to learn more. We were also lucky enough to have Mark Linnell visit our school to share his wisdom and expertise in the topic. The children were captivated by the information and were excited to go out onto the field and re-enact part of the battle! Learning through actions really helped them remember all the details of the armies and the movements on the day of the Battle
Joanna Foster
A small group of our Sixth Form historians were lucky enough to be treated to a guided tour of the Naseby battlefield by Mark Linnell and Jon Courtney-Thompson. Without a doubt the battlefield tour provoked pupils and teachers alike to consider the battle in new ways. No longer was Naseby merely another step towards Charles’ defeat and trial. It had become to us a moment of uncertain outcome, of high drama, and of intense human cost – none of which could ever be truly understood without walking the ground in the company of experts.
For all of them, the significance of Naseby was nothing new: the role of the irredeemable destruction of the king’s forces and the political significance of his captured letters were clear milestones in the path to his downfall. Yet, in many respects, the result of the battle was taken as read: after all, it is well known that the New Model Army triumphed that day. To walk the battlefield, in the company of our knowledgeable guides, was to challenge that assumption: to understand how the combination of leadership, resources and terrain came together to create that result. Across the course of our afternoon visit the day’s fighting unfolded before us, as Mark and Jon plotted troop movements across the landscape and explained the logic behind the military decisions of the battle. In doing so, the inevitably of the result dissolved in a series of demonstrations of the significance of placement, skill, and individual decision-making – further illuminated by Jon’s demonstration of the weaponry of the day. Perhaps most compelling was to trace the action through maps showing the fall of shot. Not only to plot the action across the terrain, but also to realise – with a chill – the bloody business of killing which once overtook what are now the peaceful corners of picturesque Northants fields.
Jonathan Allard
The British Army uses the Battlefield Study as a training tool where an appropriate battlefield is examined to see what lessons can be learnt for the modern army. You may think that surely a more modern battlefield, for example the breakout from Normandy in the summer of 1944, would provide more relevant lessons than a battle 350 years ago. And you would right. However, the logistical and cost implications means that a BS to Normandy is usually limited to about thirty people. Conducting a BS in the UK means that an entire battalion could, over several days, experience a BS, rather than a smaller party going overseas”. Naseby proved to be ideal for this purpose.
Maj Paul Knight
Naseby’s Digital Platform
We hope you have enjoyed learning about the Battle of Naseby on our website.
Check back regularly as we update, add new content and develop our visitor offerings. If you have any thoughts on features you would like to see then get in touch via our social media channels.
Further information and Resources
Below are some additional details on:
Key Players in the Battle that have been referenced throughout the site.
And some links that we think you will find useful and interesting:
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dan-snows-history-hit/id1042631089?i=1000474155749
Charles I Reconsidered
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dan-snows-history-hit/id1042631089?i=1000488793507
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/not-just-the-tudors/id1564113869?i=1000574952780
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000549118553
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000549231952
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000496889242
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000522440596
British Civil War Project.
Some books you may find of interest:
The Stranger Prince. Margaret Irwin
Prince Rupert – The Last Cavalier. Charles Spencer
Killers of the King. Charles Spencer
The New Model Army – Agent of Revolution. Ian Gentles
Naseby – The Decisive Campaign. Glenn Foard
White King. Leanda de Lisle
Key Players
The Royalist Army
King Charles I
Commanded the Royalist’s forces despite his inexperience. His most notable success had been the defeat of the Earl of Essex’s army at Lostwithiel in the autumn of 1644.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
A cavalry commander of flair and courage, who had served in the Thirty Years’ War.
Despite initial success, Rupert was defeated at Marston Moor. With his brother Prince Maurice he was regarded as a great but impetuous cavalry commander.
Sir Jacob Astley
Commanded the infantry at Naseby. After the battle he continued to fight on, surrendering the last Royalist field army at Stow-on-the-Wold in 1646.
Sir Marmaduke Langdale
A Catholic Yorkshireman, he was another outstanding cavalry commander who had fought in all the major engagements in the North of England.
The New Model Army [Parliament]
Sir Thomas Fairfax
Fought for the Parliamentarian Northern Army up to Marston Moor.
On the creation of the New Model Army in 1645, Sir Thomas was appointed Captain General. The first major engagement of this highly disciplined force was the Battle of Naseby.
Oliver Cromwell
A brilliant cavalry commander with the Eastern Association, notably at Marston Moor in 1644.
Appointed Lieutenant-General in the New Model Army at Fairfax’s request, although he should have been debarred as an MP. He commanded the cavalry at Naseby
Henry Ireton
Served under Cromwell earlier in the war and was appointed his second in command at Naseby, commanding the left wing. He later married Cromwell’s daughter.
Philip Skippon
Commanded the London Trained Bands and defied the King and the Royalist Army at Turnham Green in November 1642. He commanded the infantry at Naseby.
How you can get involved
There are numerous ways that you can help us continue the valuable work of
educating and inspiring as many as possible about the enduring importance of what happened over 2 hours at Naseby. you can
also continue to expand your understanding of the battle and its ongoing consequences by sharing our latest findings and news.