Letter: Cross purposes

Your picture of the Battle of Stirling Bridge (12 February) is familiar - English troops are falling into the River Forth from a collapsed central section of the bridge.

However, your label saying that "Warenne (the English commander] has bridge destroyed to prevent a Scots pursuit" is the first time I have seen that suggestion. All other sources that I know of say that a Scottish carpenter prepared part of the bridge and hid under it until, at a signal from Wallace, he pulled out a pin and the collapse occurred, so dividing the English army into two parts. According to a book by David Ross, his name was John Wright, later known as Pin Wright.

If the destruction had been on the orders of Warenne, it seems unlikely that it would have been done in a way that threw English troops into the water.

DAVID STEVENSON

Blacket Place

Edinburgh