Richard as a toby jug….!

I love toby jugs. My grandmother had a lot of them, in all sizes. They were proper toby jugs, of course, in three-corner hats and 18th-century clothing. In fact, everyone seemed to have at least one of them when I was growing up. Every mantelpiece sported a rotund toby. Now, of course, toby jugs aren’t…

There was room at the Blue Boar for Richard III….

Here is an article from the Leicester Mercury: “Apart from a recent council explanatory information panel tucked on its side wall above a litter bin, few passers-by would know that the modern brick box building housing a hotel and casino was the site of Leicester’s most famous inn, that once was the penultimate stop of…

More Tyrrells, this time in Oxfordshire. One family or two?

This (below) is Shotover Park in Oxfordshire, formerly part of the Wychwood royal hunting forest. It became the property of one Timothy Tyrrell in 1613, the year after the death of Henry Stuart,  Prince of Wales, whom Tyrrell had served as Master of the Royal Buckhounds. Tyrrell was further honoured with a knighthood in 1624…

A talbot hound for a Talbot knight….?

A curious point has been raised about whether or not many medieval knights chose a dog (or other animal) badge because of their family name. The main candidate to come to mind is Sir Humphrey Talbot, Marshal of Calais, who in 1475 carried a Renyngehonde (running hound) badge of a talbot, which breed may have…

Middleham has celebrated its links with Richard….

A weekend of talks and concerts was held from Friday, 30th June until Sunday, 2nd July, to celebrate Middleham’s connections with King Richard III. I hope at least some of you managed to go along and that you enjoyed it to the full.

The Kirby Muxloe brooch

The 15th century brooch found at Kirby Muxloe castle Oh, yawn. I was enjoying this Leicester Mercury article about a 15th-century ring found at Kirby Muxloe, until I read: “Richard Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, accused William [Hastings] of treason and had him taken outside, where he was beheaded on the spot.” Bah!  Humbug!…

Salvador Dali to be exhumed in paternity case….

So, a Spanish judge has ordered that Salvador Dali’s remains be exhumed in order to settle a paternity case. But here in the UK, a marble pot with a lid cannot be opened to examine the bones inside. Many of which are reputedly animal bones, not human. Oh, well, I suppose there’s some logic in…

Now available:

On Richard The Third Records Release date 22nd August 2017. A new version of the song originally featured on their album Tant le Desiree by The Legendary Ten Seconds. Featuring Ian Churchward singing, playing guitar and mandolin Lord Zarquon with the sound of the mellotron and drums David Clifford playing his Rickenbacker bass guitar Camilla…

Richard talk given in Dubrovnik….

Between 19 – 24 June this year, Professor Turi King gave a Special Plenary Lecture in Dubrovnik, Republic of Croatia at the 10th International Society for Applied Biological Sciences (ISABS) Conference in Dubrovnik, Republic of Croatia. Her subject was ‘Richard III: the resolution of a 500 year old cold case’, and provided an insight into the…

Ancient Ratae, City on the Soar

In the second century BC, in a Britain still filled with wild boar, beaver, lynx, bears and wolves, a group of people settled  near to the River Soar. The descendants of Bronze Age peoples and Neolithic farmers, they built a series of huts on the east bank of the river, their settlement extending across some…