Olivers Battery
Olivers Battery (sometimes known as Oliver's Battery) is a
civil parish in
Hampshire,
England, of some 700 households located just to the south of the City of
Winchester. The parish was founded in 1956 on land that was formerly part of
Compton parish.
The name Olivers Battery refers to a prominent
iron age earthwork. A fine
Anglo-Saxon bowl from a burial within the Battery is on show at the
British Museum[
1]. The parish also contains a number of
bronze age burial mounds.
The Olivers Battery name dates back to the
Civil War and is specifically associated with
Oliver Cromwell's siege of Winchester in 1645. A map of 1780 refers to the area as "Cromwell's Camp" and later maps show it as "Oliver Cromwell's Battery". The ancient earthwork may well have provided a suitable campsite for the besieging Parliamentarian forces, but cannon of the period would have lacked the range to fire on Winchester Castle and city walls from the so-called battery site.
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