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L6th Historians Relive Bosworth's Battles

History Sixth Form


Beth Edmiston kindly sent us this excellent report on the recent L6th History visit to Bosworth Battlefield:

'Once we had been introduced to the Bosworth heritage centre and country park, we began the mile walk exploring the discoveries of what is known to be the battlefield that marked the beginning of the great Tudor dynasty. Before we set off we chose particular members of the group to play the key figures in the Battle. We had the King, Richard III (Jack Nash), his opposition, Henry Tudor (Jake Morton), his mother, Margaret Beaufort (Hannah Davies) and, her husband, Lord Stanley (Ali Hijazie). Once we had established our actors, we embarked upon our way around the world-renowned battlefield.

Our guide led us round, informing us about key events in the battle and major discoveries that have been made as recently as 2012. She told us about the procedure that went into ascertaining the true location of the battle and the amazing discoveries found in the mud of the battlefield. The archaeologists, scientists and historians involved discovered cannonballs and boar badges that Richard gave to all his knights. As we made our way round, we were able to see examples of weaponry used and how effective they were. One of the most fascinating things was ‘The Memorial Sundial’. The memorial commemorates the thousands of fallen men from both the Battle of Bosworth and the Wars of the Roses.

After a lunch break and an opportunity to warm up, we visited the award winning Exhibition galleries. The galleries assisted us in visualising the battle, as, throughout the exhibition, we were able to listen to example stories of a mercenary’s wife, a soldier, Lord Stanley and a child witness. As we progressed through the exhibition we were able to see the type of weaponry they would have used, how heavy it was to carry and the process of loading and firing the weapons. We were then given the opportunity to dress up in the armour that each army would have worn, which turned out to be extremely heavy. Once we had watched the video of the battle, we then went on to learn about the aftermath and the recent discoveries, before finally voting for who was the better monarch, Richard or Henry? (I chose Henry).

Visiting Bosworth was a fantastic experience as it helped bring our history lessons to life. We were able to visualise the battle and were given a first hand experience of the key events of the battle and what it would have been like to be fighting for either Henry or Richard. It was fascinating to learn about the process of finding the true battlefield and also about the discovery of Richard’s skeleton in Leicester in 2012. I am very grateful to our guide, Pat Moore, for helping us to understand the battle in greater detail and for giving us an insight into the history of the Battle of Bosworth.'

We were delighted to be joined by our Harrismith Secondary School visitors on this visit. Their two week stay finishes today and we wish them an excellent journey home. We will undoubtedly see coverage of their visit in the next issue of The Lion later this term.



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