A bit of chaos and bedlam in Leicester Friday 27th June

Gloomy skies greeted us this morning, and lucky I had our bags in the room, cause it was time to rug up a gain.  We understand now why the people all make the most of sunny days, cause you never know when they will end!

We got stuck in a traffic jam into the city.  Trouble is when there are diversion signs, Heidi does not know where to go next.  The cause?  a semi trailer who couldn't fit down the narrow streets, road works, and three double decker buses stuck, and the passengers having to walk into town in the rain.

But if we thought that was bad, the whole place was a shambles.  Only we didn't know why.

We found the Cathedral where my Herrick grandparents were buried, actually in their own chapel.  St Katherine's Chapel.

 The guide was quite excited to have some descendants visit.  So she also showed me King Richard III's tomb.

Well he is not buried in the tomb, rather his bones which were discovered when some rebuilding was being carried out, are stored in the University.  But he is to be re-buried and she showed me the waiting tomb.

It was a bit of a thrill to once again be standing next to my ancestor's, in the church that they married and possibly were baptised, and then buried in.  Makes it all sort of seem real.

And we learnt an amazing fact.  The Herricks had a bit of a mansion in the area across from the cathedral, called Greyfriers, and that was where Richard was buried after the battle.  In fact, the Herricks had a monument in their garden signifying that the King was buried there!  Unfortunately the mansion and the monument have disappeared.   Another King Charles is also buried there.

She told us to go into the Guildhall next door, as John Herrick was a Mayor, and she thought his painting was there.  But unfortunately one was in the British Museum, and the other stored for safe keeping.

The Guildhall is a very old building, but the Mayor's chair remains.  John Herrick was an ironmonger, and his brother was a goldsmith to the King, so they were well connected in Royal circles.

Mayor's Chair

Complete with glockenspiel

The lady there explained that when Richard, who was not well liked, lost the battle, his body was bought back to Leicester, and they decided to bury him somewhere where the ordinary folk could not get access to him, and then put the slab in the Cathedral.  Out of sight, out of mind!

Outside into torrential rain, and we came across all the works being done, and realised it was all for new buildings to house a Richard III visitor attraction.  It was nothing short of a mess.

One of I guess many statues that will adorn the site.

At the moment it is a complete mess!

 One of the workmen asked me if it look rather nice, as I  struggled to hold umbrella and take a photo on the tablet.  I told him it looked a "bloody" mess, but I guess that they would be making heaps of money from my cousin.  He was a bit taken back, really he said, yep 24th cousin.  But that is quite interesting cause Henry IV also is my 24th cousin.

Then he told me how the remains were discovered, in fact they were in a glass covered coffin, but he was missing his feet.   Our next port of call was the Boswell Battle fields where the famous battle was won/lost depending on whom you are barracking for.

Mind you King Richard went off to war with 24000 troops, and Henry IV had 2000.  Now they might not have known it at the time, but these two were related, and are cousins.  And Richard was killed and lost the battle.  So the Red roses won over the White roses!  And everyone was happy.

The fields, subject to huge archaeological finds

For the time being I will focus on Richard.  

Richard

Henry

I found it interesting that many of Richard's loyal supporters where his family members, including my La Zouche family.  I guess all the noble people had a limited number of suitors to choose from especially when they often had 4 or 5 wives or husbands.

The display was rather good, and once again the focus was on making history easy to learn and understand for school kids.  Mind you I don't know how much they retain, cause there sure is a lot of history.

Herrick's garden is the burial site.  Wonder which side he was for? 

This was my ancestor's castle, it was next stop on the list but this is a very old painting of what it looked like

Poor Richard, when they uncovered the skeleton, they were able to distinguish how he died, copped a few arrows in the head, but the look of it, and his horse had got bogged in the mud.

The tomb for the victor and his wife, is in Westminster Abbey.

So lots more to research on this family line.  I find it so interesting and am amazed at how much can be found.  

By the time we got to Ashby la Zouche it was bucketing down.  Unfortunately all we managed were some photos of the castle, we couldn't walk around the grounds.

On the way back we passed through Woodhouse, and I remembered it was the home of the Herricks, now this one really impressed us.  All around our driving route today we have passed some amazing country homes.  The country side is so beautiful and the lifestyle seems idyllic, I wonder how it would have been all those centuries ago?

Gatehouse

Beaumanor Hall, ancestral home of the Herrick family, was used as a listening station during the war. The Hall is now owned by Leicestershire County Council and is used as an educational base with outdoor activities.The oldest part of the village is the church, which is believed to date back to the 17th century. This is evident on the side of the church near to where the Herrick family are buried, as a large number of indentations show where arrows were sharpened for hunting. The village was originally linear; however, the army barracks created a more nucleated village with more modern housing than the typical Georgian architecture seen throughout.