[Illustration: BATTLE OF WHALLEY, APRIL, 1643.]
About a mile from Whalley on the high road to Padiham a bye-road turns up the hill to the left; after passing a further turn to Sabden it leaves on the right hand a farm house called Easterley, crosses Sabden Brook, skirts the grounds of Read Hall, and descends again to join the main road. There seems no doubt that in this now secluded and very beautiful lane, the decisive encounter of the Civil War in Lancashire began.[102] The Parliamentarian troops awaited the royalist advance just above Read Hall, hiding their musketeers behind the stone walls on either side of the lane. Presently they saw the advance guards descending the hill by Easterley to the Brook. As the royalists mounted again out of the hollow they were surprised by a well-directed volley which threw them into disorder; and the Parliamentarians followed up their advantage so well that the royalists broke and fled back towards Whalley pursued by the Parliamentarian foot. Tyldesley himself was with the advance guard and joined in the flight. Gaining confidence as they proceeded, Shuttleworth's men pressed the royalists hard, and by the time they had reached Whalley the retreat had become a rout. The royalists remaining in Whalley, being taken by surprise, were not able to make any stand, but joined the flying troops, who were now pursued along the way they had come through Langho towards the River Ribble. The chase extended over about five miles; and the Parliamentarian troops as they followed found the country strewn with arms which the royalists had cast away in their flight. The Earl of Derby himself with difficulty maintained some sort of order in the rearguard. Arrived at Salesbury, horse and foot plunged into the water without waiting for the boats, and waded the river up to their necks. Once across they were safe from attack, but the flight continued to Preston, and Derby did not draw rein until he reached Penwortham Hall near Preston, where he stayed the night.[103]
This was the most remarkable victory of the war in Lancashire, and it was decisive. The royalists had been successful at Warrington; and on this occasion their army must have outnumbered their opponents by at least four to one. The Parliamentarians were quite unprepared, and in all probability if Derby had advanced directly on Padiham the result would have been very different. As it was the defeat showed the real weakness of the royalist cause in Lancashire. The Earl of Derby left the county a few weeks later to join the Queen in Yorkshire; and he never led an army in Lancashire again until the ill-fated expedition of 1651. After this the supremacy of the Parliamentary cause was never in real doubt.