News

Sculpture trail at Bosworth battlefield underway

14 November 2023

A joint project between Hinckley and Bosworth Council and Leicestershire County Council to create a sculpture trail commemorating the battle of Bosworth (1485) has commenced installation work.

The trail involves five sculptures which will be linked by public footpaths to tell the story of the battle. They are planned to be located at St James’ churchyard Sutton Cheney (The Calm Before the Storm), on Bosworth battlefield behind the royalist lines, just off Fenn Lanes (The Storm Breaks), at St Margarets’ churchyard, Stoke Golding, (The New Order), at St James’ churchyard Dadlingon (The Healing), and at the Bosworth battlefield visitors centre (Piecing Together the Past).

Pre installation archaeological work for The Storm Breaks has now been completed by the University of Leicester and preparatory work for the sculpture’s foundations are underway.

At Dadlington agreement has been reached with the Church of England on The Healing and work on the pathway and sculpture foundations is due to commence in the next few weeks. Planning is also underway for the installation of foundations for the Piecing Together the Past sculpture.

At Stoke Golding, the project has worked with the church to find a new location for The New Order sculpture, which is now due to be located in an outside area on one side of the main door.

Reflecting on the progress that has been made, Martin Peters, Bosworth 1485 Project Director and Chief Executive Officer of Leicestershire Promotions Ltd said:

‘As always, it is thanks to local people and stakeholders that these huge steps forward have been able to happen. After many years of planning and consultation it is amazing to finally see the grounds works starting and the sculptures being cast, carved and created.’

The Battlefields Trust was consulted on plans for the sculpture trail in 2019. Since then it has been a supporter of the project and been involved in discussions between the project and Historic England about minimising the limited impact from the sculptures on the battlefield heritage.