The English Civil War was a vicious contest between the roundheads, led by Oliver Cromwell,

and the royalists who backed King Charles I. The first and bloodiest battle of the war was fought on a field called

Edge Hill on October 23, 1642. The battlefield of Edge Hill was just seven miles outside the

English town of Banbury. It was here that two armies, each 20,000 strong, fought bitterly for hours, leaving 4,000 soldiers

dead on the field. Neither side actually won the battle, although both sides claimed victory.

The result of the battle was simply that the roundheads were not able to stop the Royalists

on their march towards London.

The battle was over, but 4,000 dead men still wanted to have their say.

Two months after the event, on Saturday morning, Christmas Eve, 1642, the armies met again to continue the battle.

But these were not the soldiers of Charles I and Cromwell.

These were phantom armies, drums beating, muskets, firing, horses, neighing and cannons

roaring all in the skies over the battlefield.

Several shepherds and other country folk were the first witnesses to this ghostly reenactment.

They stood rooted to the spot in terror for three hours while the phantom battle raged

above them.

When the armies vanished, the witnesses raced to the nearby town of Kinnetton to find

William Wood, the magistrate,

and a minister, Samuel Marshall, just to be on the safe side. Wood and Marshall listened

to the incredible story, but they wanted to see this phenomenon for themselves. That night,

the night of Christmas, the two men went to the Edge Hill battlefield, accompanied

by the original witnesses plus most of the townspeople.

Half an hour after they got there, the spectral battle started up just as fiercely as the

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