Bloxham Lower Sixth Historians took part in a History trip over the Half Term holiday
During the Half Term holidays, a group of Lower Sixth historians went on a two day Wars of the Roses study tour, including site visits in Oxfordshire, Yorkshire and Warwickshire.
The trip started at Edgecote Battlefield, north of Banbury, before we moved on to Sandal Castle in Yorkshire, where Richard Duke of York and his son Edmund of Rutland were killed by Lancastrian forces in 1460. This was followed by an extended visit to York, where we saw the remains of York Castle, as well as Henry Tudor’s Rose Window in York Minster. The following day saw us carry out an extended battlefield walk at Towton, the sight of Britain’s bloodiest battle in which contemporary chroniclers estimate there were up to 20,000 fatalities in just one day’s worth of fighting. We then finished with a trip to Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, the Lancastrian seat of power and the focal point of Henry VI’s Lancastrian government in the period 1456 to 1460.
Visiting some of the prominent sites from the conflict and the regional power bases of the key individuals involved helped to illustrate to students just how divided the country was during this period, the sheer distances that the troops had to travel and the difficulties of winning decisive victories. We would like to extend our thanks to Mr Batten for his guiding at Edgehill, and Dr Dunford for joining us on the trip.
To view an album of photos taken during the trip, please click here.