CRAY were keen to complete our project by marking the 375th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Civil War in our area on 1 June 1648. MoD Theatre was asked to develop a child-friendly re-enactment that would conclude the story of our area in the English Civil War. This would involve teaching children at River Mill Primary School about the Battle of Stone Bridge and how it led to the final defeat of the Royalist cause in Kent. MoD brought a variety of period costumes to bring alive the story. We worked with River Mill School Dartford to re-enact events at their school fete on 2nd July.
Re-enaction of the Battle of Stone Bridge 1st June 1648
The school did not want us to use wooden swords for our re-enaction for Health and Safety reasons. This posed a bit of a problem for our storytelling as we wanted to divide children up at the fete into Roundheads and Cavalier to re-enact the Battle of Stone Bridge, Northfleet. Julie Daniel explains how we overcame this:
MoD theatre came to the rescue when we were asked not to use wooden swords for our re-enaction. Chris has great experience of working as a Children’s party entertainer so was able to bring along balloons to make Royalist red swords and Puritan blue ones. This really worked in our favour as a lot of children came along to take part as they wanted a balloon. Julie Daniel CRAY
Our research into the Records of fines on the Royalist rebels showed that many Crayford men were captured at the end of the Kentish Second Civil War rebellion after the Battle of Maidstone on 1st June 1648. They were imprisoned in All Saints Church. One of those sent into exile was Crayford’s curate Edward May, who was banned from returning to the town where he had been an actor as rector. Edward May was one of the key characters in our re-enaction at River Mill School. MoD Theatre told the story of how King Charles I was executed in 1649 after defeat in the 2nd Civil War:
We wanted to celebrate the stories of local men like Edward May. We knew many children knew about ‘The Party King’ King Charles II from Horrible Histories, but we didn’t want him to overshadow local heroes. Chris MOD Theatre
Oranges and Lemons and the Execution of King Charles I
Cray volunteers, Lotte and Brianna led children through Oranges and Lemons. We used this old children’s song from the 17th century to re-enact King Charles I’s execution after his defeat in the Second English Civil War in 1648. It was great to revive a classic English children’s game, one that is rarely seen today at River Mill.
One child who was selected through the game got to be King Charles I and one his executioner with a very inoffensive balloon axe. Lotte CRAY Volunteer
Performing to the Mayor of Dartford
The new Mayor of Dartford, Councillor Rosanna Currans was invited to see our battle re-enaction and May pole dancing at the River Mill School Fete on 2nd July. The mayor featured us on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/mayorofdartford/?locale=en_GB
On Sunday 2nd July Corinna and myself attended the River Mill School Summer Fair. Once again the school’s PTA have contributed to a lot of the equipment by holding events to raise some money. There was plenty going on around the school playground. They had a re-enactment of the battle of Stone Bridge that brought about the Death of Charles I. The children were either Roundheads or Cavaliers, the balloons the children had depicted which side they were on red or blue. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and then they danced around the Maypole. I look forward to visiting the school again on the 14th of July. Cllr Rosanna Currans Mayor of Dartford
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