There is a point of some historical moment connected with the action at Dintingdale which is worth notice. Edward IV. was at Pontefract on the 27th of March, and prepared to pass the Aire at Ferrybridge, or both at that place and at Castleford. Lord Clifford, with a body of light cavalry under his command, {114a} left the main army of Lancastrians, either on the night of the 27th, or sufficiently early on the morning of the 28th, to surprise and defeat the body of Yorkists posted under the command of Lord Fitzwalter {114b} at Ferrybridge, at daybreak; and Lord Fitzwalter, unaware of the approach of the enemy, hearing a disturbance and uproar, went from his bed armed only with a poleaxe, and lost his life {115a} in the conflict. The Yorkists then passed the Aire at Castleford (only three miles distant) in great force, in hopes of cutting off the troops under Lord Clifford, who then retreated from Ferrybridge; and the Yorkists either intercepted or overtook him, slew him, and defeated and destroyed nearly all his forces, at Dintingdale. As Dintingdale is only one mile and a half from Towton, and little more than half a mile from Saxton, the Yorkists would never have hazarded an action with so large a body of cavalry as we must suppose that Lord Clifford had with him, in a place so close to the main army of the Lancastrians, unless the Yorkists were in great force there, or were within reach of certain support from their advancing main army. From those circumstances, and from the fact of the distance from Castleford to Saxton being but short, it appears very probable that by the middle or early in the afternoon of the 28th, the Yorkists had advanced to the village of Saxton, and perhaps to Dintingdale, and occupied the neighbourhood of those places in considerable force. Dr. Whitaker states {115b} that Lord Clifford, according to the tradition of the family, was tumbled into a pit, with a promiscuous heap of dead bodies. From the appearance of the road and the neighbouring country, it seems almost certain that, in 1461, the great north road from Ferrybridge to Tadcaster, turned off from the present Ferrybridge road, {116a} and passed through the village of Saxton, and then proceeded by the public road before mentioned through Towton; and if so, when the Yorkists advanced towards Towton, they would find the Lancastrian army lying like a lion in their path.