Unfortunately I haven’t (yet?) got an eye witness report from any friend, who attended the open day at the dig in Leicester yesterday.  However, I found this post by Jonathan Calder on the Liberal England site, who has been posting about the dig regularly.  Enjoy!

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III

We are grateful to Sally Henshaw of the Midlands East Branch of the Richard III Society, who has kindly supplied us with the above photo, which she took through the barriers at the beginning of the dig.

Great news from Leicester:  archaeologists have found an area of paving, made up of re-used medieval tiles.  This is thought to be the garden of Robert Herrick.  Robert Herrick, alderman and sometime mayor of Leicester, bought the site of the Greyfriars after the dissolution.  Christopher Wren, the father of the architect who built for instance St Paul’s Cathedral, recorded that there was a stone pillar in Herrick’s formal garden with the inscription “Here lies the body of Richard III sometime King of England“.  It is assumed that the stone pillar was on the spot where the choir of the Greyfriars church had been.

The third trench meanwhile revealed large fragments of window tracery as well as bits of lead, as it would have been used in stained glass windows.  The archaeologists think that this might have come from the east window of the church, behind the high altar – which means near the choir, where Richard III was known to be buried.  This is really getting exciting.  To quote Richard Buckley, the lead archaeologist of the project:

Having overcome the major hurdle of finding the church, I am now confident that we are within touching distance of finding the choir – a real turning point in the project and a stage which, at the outset, I never really thought we might reach.

There is more good news.  Although the dig was supposed to finish on Friday, it has now been extended for at least another week, as the prospect of major discoveries becomes more and more likely.

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III

The University of Leicester has confirmed that the church of the Franciscan Friary has been found.  The initial two trenches revealed tiled passageway floors, which are at right angles from each other.  This led the archaeologists to believe that these are remains of the cloister of the friary.  A cloister is a rectangular open space, which is surrounded by covered walkways, so that the monks would remain dry whilst walking around it.  One of the sides of the cloister would often be alongside a church.

On the third side of the cloister remains of a large, one and half metres thick wall were found, which the archaeologists thought could be the south wall of the church itself.  The third trench established that this wall continues and also found remains of a second wall approx. 7.5 metres to the north.   The space in between the two walls has a mortar floor, which was probably originally tiled.  These remains have been confirmed to be of the church.  As lead archaeologist Richard Buckley announced:

The next step – which may include extending the trenches – will seek to gain more information on the church in the hope that we can identify the location of the choir and high altar. Finding the choir is especially important as this is where Richard III is recorded as having been buried.

He admitted that before the dig started he was not all that confident whether they would even be able to find the Greyfriars, as their first trenches could easily have missed the remains, or any remains might have been destroyed by later building activity in the area.  It is certainly not only the team that is excited “by the prospect of further discoveries over the next week or so which may take us closer to our goal”.  I am surely not the only one who checks every morning whether there have been any new developments!

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III

Staying in the Upper Hunter Valley to dog and cat sit, while my daughter and her family went skiing, I had of course remembered Richard all day on Wednesday, August 22.  That evening I turned on the television for the Gruen Planet programme, and enjoyed half an hour of Stephen Fry and QI beforehand.

Imagine my joy when it turned out to be all about Shakespeare (and most Ricardians of my acquaintance know my love of the Bard and his work, if not his interpretation of English history). Then came the question:  “How would you describe Richard III?”  Long pause until someone ventured “Hunchback”.  My hackles rose, as did those of the dogs who happily never before seen me glowering.

However, all was well.  Stephen Fry – bless him – said that was how Shakespeare described him, because he was a villain in the play, but there was no proof he was deformed and in fact was actually a very different person, a good king, law-maker etc.

Cue for me to stand and cheer to major consternation on the part of Gus and Jack who soon realised it was a case of ‘mad grandmother disease’.

I suspect it was an ages old repeat, but with speed and minuscule type size of the credits at the end of the programme, I couldn’t check when the programme was made. But how wonderful to have good things said about King Richard on the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth.

Loyaulte me lie

Photograph of Stephen Fry obtained through Wikimedia Commons (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stephen_Fry_cropped.jpg)

P.S.  Stephen Fry’s knowledge about Richard III is small surprise:  His alma mater is Queens’ College, Cambridge, of which Richard was a major benefactor.  The college honours his memory and the college gift shop sells bags with his boar emblem.

Queens’ College shopping bag (© Dorothea Preis)

Tags: Cambridge, Media, Richard III, Shakespeare

The interest in the dig at the Greyfriars site in Leicester has been unprecedented, not only locally or nationally, but also internationally (our website is a point in case).   In response to this interest the University of Leicester, together with the Richard III Society and Leicester City Council, have arranged an open day for Saturday, 8 September 2012.  The site will be open to the public between 11.00 and 14.00, admission is free and no advance booking is needed.  The search team and Richard III Society member Philippa Langley will be there to show visitors around the site.

Unfortunately for us in Australia it is a tad far to organise a trip to Leicester at such short notice (not to mention the expenses).  However, if any of our readers, and we know we have readers from all over the world, should be able to visit the open day, please do not hesitate to contact us, we would love an eye witness report!

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III

Work at the dig in Leicester did not stop over the weekend.  A third trench, running in a north-south direction, has been dug.  This trench is in the car park of a former school, which is adjacent to the Leicester City Council Social Services car park.  However, I couldn’t help wondering when I saw the photo on the latest news update by the University of Leicester, whether the part of the church, where Richard III was buried, would not possibly turn out to be underneath the building.

Whether Richard’s remains are found or not, the insights the archaeologists gain on the Greyfriars site are fascinating.  At this stage, I am not sure what the plans for the site are, once the dig has been concluded.

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III

Sheriff Hutton Castle was one of Richard’s main bases in the north and as Lord of the North, he often stayed at the castle.  In 1484 he established there a royal household for his nephew Edward, Earl of Warwick, the son of George of Clarence, in the care of John, Earl of Lincoln, another of Richard’s nephews, the son of his sister Elizabeth. They were later joined by Edward IV’s daughters as well as Richard’s own illegitimate son, John of Gloucester.[1]

On 20/21st October 2012, the town is planning a weekend of talks, music and drama to reveal more of the story of Richard III, his wife Anne Neville and their son Edward of Middleham, Prince of Wales.

On the Saturday evening there will be a concert performance of words and music by the York Waits, playing medieval music on period instruments, and  Deborah Catterall, renowned singer of period music.

The Sunday will start with a morning service of thanksgiving for Richard III and his family.  Presumably this will take place in the local church, St Helen and the Holy Cross.  In the church, there is a small alabaster chest tomb with the monument of a child, dated to the 15th century.  It has often been thought that this is the coffin of Richard’s only legitimate child, Edward of Middleham [2] (and indeed the local website claims that it is).   However, a careful analysis of the style of the monument makes this unlikely.[3]

The service is followed by a demonstration by the Towton Battlefield Society and the Frei Companie.  In the afternoon, there will be presentations. Our friend, Helen Cox of the Richard III Society, will speak on Ricardian connections – she is the author of The Battle of Wakefield Revisited and Walk Wakefield 1460. Professor Anthony Pollard will speak on the Nevilles in Yorkshire.

And for all your shopping needs there will be Ricardian stalls all over the weekend.

For more info and how to book tickets, visit The Press.

Bibliography:

1.    ‘Sheriff Hutton Castle – Acquired 29 June 1471’, The Richard III Foundation.  URL:  http://www.richard111.com/sheriff_hutton_castle__.htm Date accessed: 26 May 2010

2.    Jane Crean, ‘The Sheriff Hutton Monument:  Part 1’, Ricardian Bulletin (September 2009), pp. 37-39

3.    Jane Crean, ‘The Sheriff Hutton Monument: Part 2’, Ricardian Bulletin (December 2009), pp. 39-41

Tags: Richard III, Sheriff Hutton, Yorkshire

As every morning I couldn’t wait today to visit the news update on the Greyfriars project in Leicester.  I was especially curious what the press conference yesterday would have brought.  So here is the latest:

Richard Buckley, the archaeologist leading the dig, stated that “Progress in our search for the body of King Richard III is exceeding our expectations. The first week could not have gone better.”

A part of a wall was found, which could have belonged to the church, but also medieval window tracery, fragments glazed floor tiles as well as of a stained glass window, which might have come from the cloisters walk.  According to the BBC, Richard Buckley concluded that

The dimensions of the walls and the association with certain building materials and tiled floors suggests we are looking at a religious house and a high status medieval building.

One of the walls in particular is getting on for two metres thick and it’s on an east-west orientation, so as far as we can tell, and its still early days yet, it might be one of the walls of the Greyfriars church and if that is the case, we are on the right track.

As at the start of the dig the archaeologists were not even sure, where exactly the friary might have been, this is certainly a find exceeding any expectations.

I have been interested in medieval ceramics for some time, so for me the floor tile fragment was of particular interest.  It is of a type which was limited to high-status buildings and was one of the indications that the discovered remains are those of the church.  A photo of the tile fragment on the page of the University of Leicester.

The team is planning to dig a contingency trench over the weekend to confirm that they have indeed found the church, which would give them a clearer understanding of where to look for Richard’s body.

However, even if the body of the king were not found, the dig is a tremendous boost for our understanding of the historic Leicester.  And as for Richard, it seems to help in publicizing a more balanced viewpoint of Richard III, as a recent article in the Catholic Herald in spite of certain shortcomings shows.

In the Southern hemisphere today marks the first day of spring (though present temperatures could have fooled me).   Maybe the winter of our discontent is over in more ways than the one Shakespeare thought.

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III