Centuries after the slaughter, conflict returns to England's battlefields

In brilliant sunshine, under bright clouds scudding across a high blue sky, it's hard to imagine a desperate day almost 600 years ago, when two armies of men half blinded by a blizzard hacked and slashed at one another, hour after hour, until the blood-drenched snow melted and dyed every ditch, gully and stream crimson.

And yet the bone structure of Towton in Yorkshire, landscape of the bloodiest battle fought on English soil, has scarcely changed. Between the battered medieval cross where somebody has laid a red and a white rose, and the thorn tree far on the skyline, there would still be enough space on the windy plateau for two armies to spread out in lines almost a mile wide, waiting in terror or excitement for the command so murderously followed: "Give no quarter."

A report from English Heritage tomorrow will warn that Towton, along with one in five of the sites on the Register of Historic Battlefields, is regarded as at risk by experts. In most cases the threat is of development; at Towton, where the slaughter of Lancastrians led to the Yorkist Edward IV being crowned in Westminster Abbey, the threat is metal detectors stripping history from the soil, the buckles, strap ends, cap badges, scraps of armour and arrow heads which map the arc of the battle.

Audio: Maev Kennedy reports on the threat to Towton

Of all the blood shed on English soil in thousands of combats, just 43 sites have been registered. The earliest is the Battle of Maldon in Essex in 991, the most recent Sedgemoor in Somerset in 1685. Only the 43 are regarded as sufficiently important and, crucially, their sites securely identified, and surviving in recognisable form. Paul Stamper, an English Heritage historian who worked on the register and the at-risk list, says their loss would be a disaster.

Gripped

"Even people who say they have no interest, when they actually experience the sites are gripped. History becomes very real in the real landscape where people believed enough in some cause to risk their lives, where some hideous, dramatic event took place over just a few hours that often changed the course of history."

Glenn Foard, case officer at the Battlefields Trust, regards metal detectors as an even more serious threat than development. The new heritage bill proposes licences for detecting on battlefields, but there is currently no statutory protection. "If the landowner gives consent, there is absolutely nothing we can do," Foard says. "Remember that there is nothing under the ground. The only evidence is the metal in the top soil layer, which is exactly what the metal detector finds - and once that is stripped away the archaeological evidence is destroyed for ever."

Tim Sutherland, founder of the Towton Battlefield Archaeological Survey, a multidisciplinary team from Bradford University which excavated mass graves from the battle, says the site is being pillaged by illicit metal detectors, the "night hawks" dreaded by archaeologists.

"We know that bucketloads of material are being removed and sold. They've got to all the sites we've looked at before we have. They're risking nothing except a telling off for trespass if the farmer spots them. It's a disaster."

These scraps of metal, scattered without the location where they were found being recorded, could help tell the story of one appalling day, Palm Sunday 1461, when the Lancastrians made a disastrous mistake leading to unparalleled slaughter in the wars of the roses. They formed up near the cross, which may already have stood by the track from the village of Towton.

The Yorkist lines stretched across slightly higher ground at the Saxton end of the plain - with the wind at their backs. The wind carried the Yorkist arrows 150 yards beyond their estimated 400-yard range, causing carnage in the Lancastrian lines. Blinded by the snow in their faces, they could not even see their own arrows falling 40 yards short. They had no choice but to charge, blind, uphill and scrambling over heaps of their own dead. Hand to hand combat went on for 10 hours. When the Lancastrian lines finally broke, the little river Cock was so choked with corpses the living scrambled across bridges of bodies.

Although modern historians question the figure, several contemporary accounts, including those of the heralds whose gruesome job was to supply an official tally, say 28,000 died.

Horrific injuries

The skulls studied by Sutherland and his peers show horrific injuries, including square holes punched by poleaxes and slash wounds of broadswords and battleaxes, including one skull slashed open diagonally from ear to jaw.

Much of the story of the battle is still in the soil, but steadily being lost.

"In one way we're delighted that the battlefield will be declared at risk, but we also dread it," Sutherland said. "We know every time the word Towton is mentioned in print, we can expect the next horde of metal detector scavengers."

At risk

991AD Maldon, Essex The oldest battle on the register, a victory for Viking raiders who were held back from crossing a causeway by a smaller Anglo-Saxon band. The Vikings won the battle after the Saxon leader allowed them to cross and fight on the mainland. The site is now threatened by rising sea levels.

1066 Fulford, N Yorks Site of victory of the Viking Harold Hardrada against the Mercian and Northumbrian armies. Hardrada was then defeated by King Harold at Stamford Bridge, before Harold's army faced William the Conqueror at Hastings. Best preserved of the 1066 battle sites, but threatened by perimeter housing and access roads.

1643 Newbury, Berks Site of the first battle of Newbury, when a parliamentarian army marching from Gloucester to London was intercepted by the king's army. Indecisive result. The local authority plans a consultation on the impact of housing on the site.

1645 Naseby, Northants Decisive battle of the English civil war when New Model Army destroyed the forces of Charles I under Prince Rupert of the Rhine, only a third of the Royalists escaping the battlefield. Energy firm considering siting wind turbines, 135 metres high, in sight of the battlefield.

1651 Worcester The last battle of the English civil war, which forced Charles into exile. Part of the site, where Cromwell's artillery protected his bridge of boats across the river Severn, is threatened by housing.

· Source: Battlefields Trust

· This article was amended on Tuesday July 8 2008. The battle of Maldon in 991AD resulted in a victory, rather than a defeat, for the Viking raiders who were held back from crossing a causeway by a smaller Anglo-Saxon band. The Vikings won the battle after the Saxon leader allowed them to cross and fight on the mainland. This has been corrected.