WILLIAM WALLACE

William Wallace

In the winter of 1297, fresh from victory over the English at Stirling, William Wallace presided over a ferocious and prolonged devastation of Northern England.

Having set up a camp, or lair, in Rothbury Forest he burnt the mill at Felton, a fortnight after Michaelmas. (About the 13th of October) He later burnt the mill at Embleton and destroyed Longhorsley church on the same day.

Wallace's prolonged invasion of England forced people to flee the countryside, for the comparative safety of the towns. The invasion did not show William Wallace in the best of lights, in this, the best documented episode in his career.

"Freedom"

Tom Church's statue of William Wallace in Stirling