"It wouldn't happen today," says former councillor and 'Royalist governor of Maidstone’, David Pickett, looking back at the time he surrendered to Parliamentarian troops after a fierce battle in the County Town.

As much as the recent coronation of Charles III might have engendered a resurgence in royalism, he's not talking about the result of the Battle of Maidstone, when Royalist forces were defeated in the Second English Civil War, 375 years ago on June 1 1648.

Mr Pickett's simply talking about the fact ‘health and safety’ would have stopped the reenactment he arranged in Maidstone town centre, back in 2008.

The event took place on the 350th anniversary of the battle, and thousands packed the streets to watch Parliamentary troops, or Roundheads, fight their way up Gabriel's Hill under fire from Royalist musketeers, past Wimpy and onto Burger King, before forcing a surrender at M&S in Week Street and capturing the town’s governor at pike-point.

The battle itself saw a 4000 strong Parliamentary force overwhelm 2000 Royalist soldiers, forcing the town's defenders back through the streets of Maidstone to St Faith's Church amidst torrential weather conditions – but David resorted to employing about a 100 participants for the reenactment, playing the role of Royalist governor Sir Gamaliel Dudley himself.

The idea for the 2008 event sprung to mind after David first moved to the town in 1995 as a shopkeeper, first running Imperial Pine furniture and picture shop and later Gamleys toy shop.

A member of the English Civil War Society, he read into Maidstone's history and found out about the battle, which few people he spoke to seemed to have heard of.

"I spoke to Bill Moss the town centre manager, and Mandy Hare who was in charge of the Hazlitt Theatre, and suggested a reenactment," he recalled.

"I said do you know there's an anniversary coming up, we ought to be doing something about it - it happened in the streets of Maidstone and the town centre, and it could put Maidstone on the map.

"Firstly we got some regiments from the English Civil War Society to come down and put people in charge to look at the street.

The English Civil War Society couldn't do it but the Sealed Knott took it on. They came and camped in Mote Park and then we reenacted the battle from the bottom of Gabriel's Hill."

In the battle itself, fierce fighting took place earlier at All Saints Church, where musket ball marks, and gouges in the stone work from the melee, are still evident to this day - but the decisive Parliamentarian advance then began on Gabriel's Hill.

Royalist musketeers, positioned in shops and houses on the street tried to repel the advancing troops, while a barricade and cannons were positioned at the top of the hill.

But the Roundheads eventually forced their way through the barricade, and the fighting spilled out into the top of the high street, at what is now, perhaps ironically, called Jubilee Square.

"The crowd loved it," added David. "They thought it was a marvellous to see a bit of Maidstone history reenacted. People were in all sorts of vantage points, on top of telephone boxes and things.

"The fighting in Jubilee Square was the most exciting bit, where everyone could see the major part of the battle, and the Parliamentarians took the barricade, and then there was me looking distraught and having to surrender the town.

"They wouldn't think about doing it these days. We were dealing with real black powder and real muskets - you have to know what you're doing. They're not firing a ball of course, but you're using black powder in the same style they would have in the 17th Century."

Back in 1648 the Royalists were pushed back along Week Street, and down Earl Street (then called Bullocke Lane), and right down a street that subsequently became known as Havock Lane – ‘havock' being an ancient military command to unleash devastation on a retreating or defeated force - before fleeing to the safety of St Faith's Church.

Havock Lane is sadly no more, now lying underneath Fremlin Walk – although the Royal Albion pub still includes Havock Lane in its address – and to simplify matters the battle reenactors of 2008 decided to take a direct route down Week Street to St Faith's Church. But even that proved complicated.

"The town was packed with people watching, so we had a problem," said David. "We were supposed to advance down Week Street and up to St Faiths but because of the amount of people we couldn't get up the top of Week Street.

"Because of the crowd we were stuck, so we tried getting some of the pikemen to push the crowd back - not in a nasty way, they just put their pikes across their chest and tried to open up the crowd, but we couldn't get far. So we got to M&S and I surrendered there."

"It was super, really exciting," he says, looking back on the day. "It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I was glad we had done something in Maidstone that was historically accurate and we had reenacted it so many years after to the day.

"I would like to do it again but I don't think we will,” he added. “I think things have moved on and health and safety would preclude most of it. The fact we did it on the spot and on the day made it special.

"A lot of people got involved - the museum were involved and had a table-top exhibition the battle, with Sealed Knott members camped outside to give it a 17thC feel."

“I’ve been reading up on it all recently, and it must have been quite a battle. It’s underrated. It’s a bit like the Alamo.”

Now retired from his former profession and council role, David still plays an active role in the English Civil War Society, which he joined in 1973, although he admits "I don't run up hills like I used to carrying a pike."

As for his alter ego, Sir Gamaliel Dudley, little is known of his exact fate, although presumably he was among the 1300 Royalist men who surrendered at St Faith's Church, and were spared death by Parliamentarian leader Sir Thomas Fairfax, having acquitted themselves well in a gallant fight.