Devizes pensioner Phil Hancock wants to see a memorial raised to the 600 or so troops who died at the Battle of Roundway more than 350 years ago.

Mr Hancock is convinced that the 600 Parliamentarian troops, many of them cavalry, who died in the Bloody Ditch on July 13 1643, are buried in an ancient chalk pit close to the site of the battle.

Mr Hancock, 85, from Park View, Devizes, has been investigating the mystery of the whereabouts of the bodies for nearly three years.

He said: “I read in the Wiltshire Archaeological Society magazine an article dated June 1950 by Mr J M Prest, who said that bones had been found in a chalk pit on the slopes of Roundway.

“But no further research has been done on this, so it whetted my curiosity.”

Mr Hancock devoted his time to the research, much of it undertaken in Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes.

Mr Hancock discovered that the bones were found at a chalk pit owned at the time of the battle by William Gaby. The Battle of Roundway was won by the Royalists under Sir Ralph Hopton.

The chalk pit is at Bagdon Hill, close to the battlefield which is bounded by Roundway Hill, Morgan’s Hill, King’s Play Hill and Roughridge Hill.

Despite attacking up the hill, the Cavaliers (Royalists) soon had the Roundheads (Parliamentarians) in full flight. They pursued them for three miles across the open down towards the semi-precipitous drop of 300ft at Bloody Ditch. Sir John Byron reported that many of them broke their own and their horses’ necks.

Bloody Ditch is only a short distance across Oliver’s Castle from the chalk pit.

Mr Hancock said: “I have been researching this ten-acre chalk pit for the past three years. My findings give good indication that they are buried in the chalk pit.

“One mound is 100 feet long and 50 feet wide. There are some 60 yew trees planted. Some mark the graves.”

Yew trees are frequently evidence of mourning.

Mr Hancock said: “There is very little up at Roundway to say there was such a decisive and historic battle fought there.”

Local historian Dr Lorna Haycock, who assisted Mr Hancock in his researches, said: “Mr Hancock’s theory seems pretty feasible but we would need to have a thorough investigation first.”