Our booking confirmation advised the coach would depart at ‘09.15 sharp!’ – and it did. Less than three hours later the ladies of the W.I. were welcoming us for lunch. After a very pleasant lunch a short coach journey brought us to Leicester cathedral where we were greeted by our guides for the afternoon, Jane and Virginia. Separated into two groups we started our tour. Our first stop was inside the cathedral to see the memorial stone to King Richard.

Departing the cathedral we saw the medieval Guildhall and then ‘Wygston’s house’, the best preserved medieval house in Leicester. At our next site of interest, where King Richard stayed on his journey to Bosworth, we had to be content with a drawing of the fine building that once stood there. On this site now stands a public house, the King Richard III, and a café called the Blue Boar.

We viewed the remains of the Roman Jewry Wall and baths, and St Nicholas church, which has pieces of Roman masonry in its tower, and arrived at Bow Bridge at 14.30 and joined the other guided tour group for our plaque unveiling. Phil Stone gave a short speech explaining why we were there. Benjamin Broadbent, in 1856, had presented a plaque to the city, which was installed on the former site of the Austin friars. It states that ‘near this spot lie the remains of Richard III, last of the Plantagenets’, rumour being that, during the reformation, King Richard’s bone had been thrown into the river Soar. Our new plaque was to set the record straight and state the modern belief that Richard’s remains probably still lie at the Greyfriars. Phil introduced Christopher Broadbent, great-great-grandson of Benjamin, who had kindly agreed to unveil the new plaque. Christopher gave a short speech and in time-honoured fashion cut the cord for the unveiling. A round of applause was followed by Phil’s thanks to Christopher and all those who had contributed to making the plaque installation possible. Amongst these were Barbara Howard, representing the current occupiers of the building on which the plaque is fixed, our guides, and Sally Henshaw and other members of the local branch. Thanks went to Elizabeth Nokes for organising the visit, and to John Ashdown-Hill for his contribution to organising and co-ordinating the day’s events and for putting up the plaque and the curtains.

Whilst at Bow bridge we read the panels at each end that relate the story of Richard’s spur striking the bridge and the prophecy that where his spur had struck so would his head. In the centre is King Richard’s coat of arms flanked by two white boars. Via the West bridge we walked to Castle gardens where we gazed at the statue of King Richard, sponsored by the Society, and unveiled on 31 July 1980 by Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester.

Next, on to St Mary de Castro, which was founded in the twelfth century. Here, in the early fifteenth century Henry VI, as a boy of five, was knighted. Across the green, where Catesby was beheaded after the battle of Bosworth, is situated the castle hall where Richard is known to have stayed. Since 1695 this hall has had a brick frontage, though much of the medieval interior remains.

Onward to the Hawthorn building of de Montfort University where, by pre-arrangement, we gained admittance to see the, sadly few, remains of the Collegiate Church of the Annunciation of our Lady of the Newarke. This church, founded in 1354 by Henry Plantagenet, first Duke of Lancaster, fourth Lancastrian Earl of Leicester, was where the mortal remains of King Richard III were publicly displayed for two days following the battle of Bosworth.

Our final venue was the former site of the Greyfriars, where it is believed the bones of King Richard still lie. There is a beautiful large tree in this typical utilitarian car park and it was to this tree that we gravitated and where we dreamed of the day that the car park is excavated. It is not a fit resting place for a man who was King; a man and a King who died too young. Here our guided tour ended.

Time for afternoon tea and on to the service in commemoration of King Richard III and all who fell at the battle of Bosworth.

St Martin’s church has been used by Christians for at least 900 years. In 1927 it was endowed with cathedral status and is now known as Leicester St Martin’s Cathedral. Much is now Victorian reconstruction though the original fourteenth-century north porch remains. The Precentor, the Reverend Canon Dr Stephen Foster, resplendent in embroidered cope, warmly welcomed us all (about sixty in number). In his address Dr Foster advised that this was his first dealing with the Richard III Society and that we would be truly welcome to come again. Following John Ashdown-Hill’s reading, in Latin, of an extract from the prayer of Richard III, Gwen Millan, Carolyn West and Margaret York each collected from the front of the altar a wreath and laid them on the memorial stone to King Richard. These three wreaths, made by member Ruth Green, laid on behalf of the Canada branch, the Australasian branches and the main Society in the UK, joined the lone wreath, already in position, given by members of the East Midlands branch. Our service concluded with the rousing hymn ‘Thine be the glory’.

Dave Perry

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