St Leonard’s Church Beoley celebrated its history and its association with King Richard III and the battle of Bosworth in a two day event at the end of September.

Ralph Richardson and his friends did a magnificent job guiding visitors round the church, after gathering together information about its history, and its association with the Sheldons, Catholicism, Bosworth and tapestry making. There were even newspaper reports of the murder of the local policeman who is buried in the churchyard.

The Sheldon Chapel naturally housed the Richard III Society display on Bosworth, lent to the branch by Geoffrey Wheeler, and also a special guest. Michael K. Jones came along on both days to sell and sign copies of his latest book “Bosworth: Psychology of a Battle” (see Book Reviews page 6), in honour of William Sheldon’s participation in the battle, defending our king. I had a fascinating chat with him about the book and fervently recommend it as essential reading for all Ricardians.

Ralph had put his copy of the Sheldon portrait of Richard III on William’s tomb, together with a bouquet of white roses. On display were copies of the article about the portrait which appeared in “Dickon Independent” issue 44, pages 2 - 12. The same article with more illustrations also appeared in the Ricardian Register, Spring 2002, pages 4 - 9 (in our branch library).

I came away with two signed books as Ralph had written a new church guide for the event.

It was wonderful to see the original processional cross on display, which came from Bordesley Abbey at the dissolution of the monasteries. This now belongs to Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in Redditch, and Beoley manages with its reproduction cross made in the 1960's. The original looks like the cross found on Bosworth battlefield, with white roses on the reverse of the roundels. So maybe William Sheldon gave the original cross to the abbey, sometime between 1470 and 1485.

Pam Benstead

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