News

Battle of Fenny Bridges (1549) battlefield survey ends

19 June 2026

The Battlefields Trust led survey of the 1549 Western Rebellion battlefield at Fenny Bridges has ended without being able to confirm the location of the battlefield.

in February 2025, the Battlefields Trust, with the University of Exeter, the Devon Archaeological Society, and support from the County Archaeologist, organised a systematic metal detector survey of potential locations of the fighting during the battle of Fenny Bridges, following an approach already successfully used on numerous other battlefields.

Although there is some uncertainty as to whether firearms were used at Fenny Birdges, discovery of quantities of fallen shot or other military hardware could have indicated where fighting had taken place.

With the kind permission of local landowners, obtained with the help of locally-based archaeologist Dr Hayley Roberts of Past Participate, a team of detectorists with previous experience of working with the Battlefields Trust along with local volunteers surveyed fields to the north and south of the current bridge over the Otter over a period of two days.

A second period of fieldwork was conducted over two days in mid–May 2025 on a separate field north–west of the river, again with the generous permission of the landowners. 

In all, a little over 120 finds were recorded. Nothing was found that could definitively be linked to the battle, though some objects may be related.

One heavily corroded horseshoe of later medieval to early post-medieval date was found along with a lead musket bullet of around 12–14 bore, and two buckles/strap fittings of post medieval date. All of these could conceivably have been from the battle, though they might equally represent items lost in other day–to–day agricultural or, in the case of the single bullet, from shooting activity at a different time.

One reason for the lack of finds may have been the constant flooding of the area by the River Otter which, over the centuries, will have deposited substantial layers of silt over many of the fields investigated and may have placed artefacts from the battle beyond the range of metal detectors.  

Commenting on the project, Dr Roberts said, ‘landowner and local support was key and we are extremely grateful for all the help we received’.

She added, ‘In addition to the survey work, we ran a well–attended local meeting to explain a little about the Western Rebellion and the battle at Fenny Bridges as well what the project was hoping to achieve’.

‘This enabled us to connect with people who had found possible battle related artefacts over the years which Finds Liaison Officers from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, who were also present, could assess’.   

Simon Marsh, Research Coordinator from the Battlefields Trust also commended the partnership approach to the project.

‘The involvement of the University of Exeter, Devon Archaeological Society, and County Archaeologist opened the door to a wide range of skills, experience, contacts, and equipment that would have been unavailable had the Battlefields Trust tried to run the project on its own’, he said. 

The Western Rising of 1549 in Devon and Cornwall was sparked by the deeply unpopular introduction of the first Book of Common Prayer during the Reformation, particularly the enforcement of English language church services in areas where Cornish was predominantly spoken. The rebellion resulted in a two-month long series of skirmishes and battles between the rebels and the Royal forces led by Lord John Russell. These ranged from Fenny Bridges in East Devon to Sampford Courtenay near Okehampton, and ultimately Kingweston in Somerset.

Further details on the battlefield survey at Fenny Bridges can be found in a report published at https://www.battlefieldstrust.com/media/865.pdf.

The Battlefields Trust is hoping further archaeological work on other Western Rebellion battlefields will be possible in future.