A new boar painting at Barnard Castle….

  According to this article “….A painting depicting the emblem of the last Plantagenet king of England has been put on display in Barnard Castle as part of efforts to tidy up a historic alleyway….The artwork features the boar of Richard III and has been mounted in Star Yard to highlight the connection between Barnard…

A PERIOD DEPICTION OF EDWARD IV & ELIZABETH WOODVILLE

Recently I came across these two roundels from a late medieval manuscript, held in the John Rylands Library, which depict Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville seated on thrones, crowned and holding their sceptres. These two miniatures are extremely colourful even after the intervening 500 + years and hold lots of interesting details, including, in the…

THE BOARS OF BARNARD CASTLE

Many of us have visited Barnard Castle, one of the prime residences of Richard III when he was Duke of Gloucester, and gazed up at the eroded carving of a boar on the ceiling of the ruinous chamber that has a large window overlooking the river. (Richard clearly liked a scenic view!) However, there are…

THE LOST CHAPEL OF THE PRINCE BISHOPS

Once upon a time, in the 13th century, in the grounds of Auckland Castle, there stood a mighty northern chapel that was almost as large as St George’s at Windsor and bigger than St Stephen’s Chapel at Westminster. The Prince-Archbishop Antony Bek was its founder, a man so powerful it was said by some that…

Victory in Barnard Castle’s own Battle of the Roses….!

Well, at last, the white roses are blooming beautifully at Amen Corner in Barnard Castle, and well worth the waiting they are too. A great achievement by all concerned with the local Battle of the Roses, and a just victory. To read more, go to the the Teesdale Mercury.

Thomas More and the Removal Men

Thomas More’s detailed and heart-wrenching account of the murders of Edward IV’s sons is well known, and is usually either accepted or dismissed in toto so it would probably be useful to pause at this point to remind ourselves exactly what it was that Thomas More claimed had happened to the boys and why opinions…

More on More

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”(Marmion, Sir Walter Scott) We all know that there was some deception in Thomas More‘s “History“, but how much? In Cairo, they think that the whole first half of his narrative is the gospel truth but the second half is an invention –…

Edward IV and…Richard III….?

  I really can’t imagine why anyone would carve Richard III (above right) looking like this. To me it’s just a head. I can more accept the image on the left as being Edward IV. Both are figures on corbels at either end of the chancel arch in St Mary’s Church, Barnard Castle. Richard was…

To put up a sign or not to put up a sign, that is the question….

  Here’s a tricky one. We need signs to direct us to places, in this case the Bowes Museum and “antiques quarter” in Barnard Castle. But putting up such a sign will interfere with a view of the famous Market Cross. So…should there be a sign or not? To read more, go to this Teesdale…

Barnard Castle’s historic church with Richard III connections….

    A 900-YEAR-OLD church {pingback to 19 July} has been designated as one the country’s most significant. Here is the opening paragraph of the link below:- “….The grade I-listed St Mary’s Parish Church, in Barnard Castle, is one of 350 out of 16,0000 to be classified as being a ‘major parish church’ by the…