Although less well known than the Battle of Marston Moor, in his "History of the Rebellion" senior Royalist advisor Clarendon considered Cheriton an equally disastrous defeat.

[2] In summer 1643, a Royalist army led by Lord Hopton invaded Hampshire and Sussex, whose Wealden iron industry was Parliament's main source of armaments.

Parliament ordered him to slip past Hopton and retake South West England, lost to the Royalists after defeat at Roundway Down the previous summer.

Forth and Hopton intended to stand on the defensive at this point, but an impetuous infantry commander, Sir Henry Bard, launched his regiment of foot against the Parliamentarian left wing horse.

[7] Defeat ended Royalist plans of retaking Sussex and Kent and allowed the Parliamentarian armies of Essex and Waller to concentrate against Oxford.

[2] The study of the battlefield has been complicated by a metal detectorist falsifying their survey methods and poor storage of the recovered artefacts (mostly musket and pistol balls).