A1-The Great North Road
“Cast off their country's coats to haste their speed away:
Which `Loose-coat Field' is called e'en to this day.” Michael Drayton: Polyolbion, xxii. 1611
Not a great deal is known about the Battle of Losecoat Field. It seems that a rebellion arose in Lincolnshire under Lord Welles. Edward IV (the Yorkist king) took Lord Welles into custody, first pardoned him, and then executed him. Edward and his army marched north to Stamford to put down the rebellion. He found that the rebels were camped at Horn Field, 5 miles up the Great North Road, under Lord Welles's son Sir Robert Welles, awaiting reinforcements from Warwick and Clarence (Lancastrians). Edward attacked immediately, leaving no time for the rebels to be reinforced. According to one account 10000 men died but others say there was hardly a skirmish. The rebels, fleeing, …cast off their country’s coats to haste their speed away and hence gave to the place its name of Losecoat Field. Sir Robert Welles was captured and beheaded, but not before he made a confession implicating Warwick and Clarence in the rebellion. Edward IV retained control of London and eastern England. Warwick and Clarence fled to France. Actually it was much later that Horn Field became called Losecoat Field and the word Losecote also means a free-range pigsty. Just down the road is Tickencote, or in Anglo-Saxon Tyccen-cote which means Goat’s home. Take your choice. Either way there’s not much to see now. The field is on the east side of the A1 at SK973116. There was a milestone here, five miles from Stamford. Armstrong's 1776 map marks a "Five Mile Cross". Access is easy from the old road running alongside the new A1 but there is not so much as a brown sign. Go under the A1 to look at a wood called Bloody Oaks but don’t expect any blood, or even oaks. There was a beer brewed by Hanby of Wem in Shropshire, called Battle of Losecoat Field, ABV 4.3% . I’ve no idea why.
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2001, 2002, 2005