AVBCW: The Battle of Bullock’s Mill Part One

Or Cottaging, Dogging and Sheeping.

JP, Roo & I played a game today.

With Titley Junction finally cleared of the Welsh invaders, the local forces of Government are looking westward to Kington. If the troubled border region is to be properly secured, then the Welsh Nationalists must be ejected from this small market town.

The most logical route from Titley is to follow the railway line, which negates the need to get tangled up in the narrow and twisting country roads. However following the railway has it’s own perils, for it runs along the steep-banked valley of the River Arrow.

It is for certain that the retreating Welsh will throw forward defences somewhere across this valley, most probably near the disused Bullock’s Mill, where the railway crosses the Arrow twice in quick succession, and where there is a crossing point for the road from Lyonshall village.

The valley is steep and flanked by woodland, and no Government convoy could advance without having to force the crossing points or clear the valley slopes. Yet this is what they must do.

Hearing news that a platoon of Welsh Nationalists is throwing up defence works in the area, two Government platoons have been dispatched to see them off and reclaim the crossings for the King. However it is rumoured that Welsh reinforcements are hurrying from Kington to shore up the defences.

A show-down is imminent. Will the Arrow valley echo with the sound of ‘Land of My Fathers’, or ‘Long Live the King’?

mysterious makers appeared before the battle commenced, planted by the Welsh Nationalists…