March 6th at the Museum and Art Gallery in Worcester, and the premiere of the video of Prince Arthur’s funeral procession. Friday May 3rd 2002 saw the re-enactment through the streets of Worcester of the funeral procession for Arthur, Henry VII’s heir, which in 1502 had taken six days to travel from Ludlow to his final resting place in Worcester Cathedral.

The premiere was well attended by those people who took part in the procession or helped to organise the event, together with a few members of the public who had enjoyed the spectacle. Pat and Margaret, our distinguished monks, appear in the twenty minute video. So also does Ralph, caught by the camera watching the impressive procession.

The procession and funeral service in the cathedral are accompanied by a commentary which caused dismayed howls from some of the audience! Though the unintentional humour made the mistakes easier to bear. Henry Tudor landed on August 8th 1483 and so took two years to march to Bosworth, where he defeated King Richard III on August 18th 1485!

I was assured it wasn’t all part of a Lancastrian plot but I have my doubts. Tickenhill Palace also got moved from near Bewdley closer to Ludlow. The video was produced in Kempsey so I could easily have been consulted on the commentary! Apart from that and the shortness of the video, for £9.99 it’s an excellent souvenir of a special occasion, and a copy can be borrowed from our branch library.

I’ve written to the cathedral listing all the mistakes in case they ever need to produce some more. A copy of my letter has been passed to the script-writer, and kept on file in case any more copies are produced.