Civil War re-enactment group Sealed Knot visits Northborough, near Market Deeping, in tribute to Oliver Cromwell’s widow Elizabeth

History was brought to life as a village was transported back to the 17th century.

Civil War re-enactment society The Sealed Knot and the Cromwell Museum put on displays in Northborough at the weekend (September 23 and 24) to pay tribute to Oliver Cromwell’s wife, Elizabeth, who is buried in the village.

The village has links with Oliver Cromwell who became Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland after leading parliamentary forces to victory in the English Civil Wars.

His daughter Bettie was married to Sir John Claypole, of Northborough Manor, and after the deaths of both he and Bettie in 1658, Cromwell’s widow Elizabeth lived at the manor with her son-in-law until her own death seven years later.

Clare Strak, one of the organisers, said: “If you have got someone like Elizabeth Cromwell who lived in the village even just for a short time, you know they lived through a very momentous part of history.

“It is helpful to remember what life was like for women. Everyone knows about her husband but they don’t know much about her.

“She was a rock and someone he depended on constantly.”

On the Saturday, Colonel John Pickering’s Regiment of Foote performed a salute at the manor and marched along Church Street to St Andrew’s Church to lay a wreath at Elizabeth’s burial place.

The Sealed Knot group was then stationed at Northborough Primary School where they put on military displays and showed what life was like for soldiers hundreds of years ago.

Clare said: “It was a lovely weekend, we hardly could have asked for more.”

She added: “History has a lot to teach us.”

The event raised more than £3,000 which will go towards restoring Northborough’s 12th-century church.

It has a long list of repair jobs and is in desperate need of money, according to Clare.

Photos were taken by Mercury photographer Chris Lowndes.