Newbury: Site of the Second Battle of Newbury 1644 During the Civil War, between 1641 and 1651, the Second Battle of Newbury took place around this area on 27 October 1644 when the Royalists under King Charles I fought the Parliamentarians under the Earl of Essex. The King had just returned with his army from the West Country and relieved the garrison at Donnington Castle on 22 October. However the larger Parliamentarian army regrouped and attacked the Royalist strongholds at the castle, at Speen to the west, and Shaw House to the east on 27 October. The Royalist army comprised some 8,500 troops and the Parliamentarians mustered about 19,000. The ensuing skirmishes resulted in similar proportions of casualties on both sides, with the Royalists losing about 1,500 and the Parliamentarians about 2,000 men. Although the result of the battle was indecisive, the King realised that his army could not face a further battle on a second day and made an unopposed retreat to his Oxford stronghold. On the following day the Parliamentarians regained Donnington Castle, which had been their stronghold until the First Battle of Newbury, only for the Royalists to retake it on 9 November. Today the battlefield is occupied by the golf course of the Donnington Grove Country Club.