HOMEFRONT
ON the battlefield with bosworth heritage centre this summer
The events of 22 August 1485, where Richard III was killed in battle and the Tudor dynasty began, are all on full display at the Bosworth Battlefield Heritage Centre.
Located near Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, the heritage centre resides on Ambion Hill, where part of Richard’s army camped the night before the battle. An external trail includes a memorial sundial to commemorate the fallen from the three armies of Richard, Henry Tudor and Thomas, Lord Stanley. Two war banners of Henry
Tudor (subsequently Henry VII) and Richard, standing side by side next to the sundial, embodies the centre’s motto of ‘Two Kingsone Day’, which aims to tell a balanced story of the events of 1485.
In 2005, after years of debate around the actual location of the battlefield, Leicestershire County Council started a multidisciplinary survey to find the scene of the action. After five years of searching, a number of cannon balls of varying calibres were found over a wide area of low-lying ground over a kilometre southwest of the heritage centre.
As well as the internationally important artillery evidence, small scatterings of other metal objects from the battle were also found. These included a small, silver gilt badge depicting a Ricardian boar, which was found adjacent to a medieval marsh. This may have been lost during the final struggle between Richard and Henry Tudor.
The rediscovered battlefield covers a large area of private land, across which runs several long guided walks. These include Dadlington, where the slain were buried, and Stoke Golding, where Henry Tudor was crowned after the battle. Shorter guided walks are available every weekend and during the school holidays, and can be booked for group visits.
The hands-on exhibition at the heritage centre places Bosworth in the context of the Wars of the Roses and covers what happened during the battle and its aftermath. One gallery tells how the battlefield was lost and found, displaying objects found in the survey and from the English Civil War, which included a skirmish “on the very field where King Richard was slain”.
The heritage centre’s biggest historical event is the ‘Bosworth Medieval Festival’ (18 and 19 August 2018, 9.30am – 5.30pm), which includes jousting, artillery displays, living history camps, a medieval market, author talks, fighting demonstrations and the re-enactment of two ‘Battles of Bosworth’.
One version shows how Richard might have won the battle, followed by an interactive debate looking at what might have happened next and how today’s society may have been different if Richard had been the victor.