There was a real battle of Sowerby Bridge. It was fought on the 4th of January 1644.

A force of some 600 roundheads advanced from their garrison at Heptonstall on the advanced Cavalier outpost at Sowerby Bridge (the Cavaliers were occupying Halifax at this time).

After a furious hand-to-hand skirmish, the bridge was taken; 3 cavaliers were killed & 42 prisoners taken. The roundhead cavalry pursued the fleeing cavaliers and, overextending themselves, were counter-attacked by Cavalier Cavalry from King Cross, pursued and finally cut to pieces near Hunter Hill at a place now called Slaughter Gap.

Many of the survivors of this battle met again later that year at the Battle of Marston Moor.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Folkmonster

Source: "The Halifax Cavaliers and The Heptonstall Roundheads" by David Shires. Puritan Press, Halifax, 1993.
ISBN 0 9521528 0 0