Richard III

One of the main points of interest on this trip has been the visit to Leicester to view the car park where Richard III's remains were found. It took 527 years but his missing grave was finally discovered in a council car park.

The small out-building which covers the space in the carpark where his grave was found.

The search started in 2004 and the Museum finally opened in July 2014. It is quite an amazing story and is very well presented as you move through the building. Various audio and video items tell the story of his claiming of the crown and then losing his life at the battle of Bosworth Field. This was the end of the Plantagenet reign and the start of the Tudor. There is no doubt that the skeleton found is his and the way he died in battle has been determined from the injuries to his skull.

Amazingly, the first trench they dug uncovered his leg bones but it wasn't until further evidence was uncovered in other trenches that the archaeologists could definitely say it was him. The scoliosis bend in his spine and corroborating DNA match with a known relative proved it was him without a doubt.

His final resting place is now in the centre of Leicester Cathedral under a magnificent piece of Limestone.

We then proceeded to visit various other sites with related historical interest. These are mainly places surrounding  the story of Richard's death and subsequent public display of his body. This was to ensure Henry Tudor could prove he had killed the king and now claim the crown.

It was on this walk around the centre of town that Miriam tripped on some uneven paving stones and crashed to the ground! She was pretty shaken up with a badly bruised cheek, chest, thigh and wrist. Her glasses also ended up a bit mangled with one arm pointing out at a right-angle. We managed to find a local optometrist who straightened the side and the only damage left is scratching on one lens, her actual bruises and bruised pride!

After a bite to eat to recover her composure, we set off to find the Jewry Wall which is another tall piece of Roman bathhouse wall similar to the one at Wroxeter. The associated museum is probably the best collection of Roman finds we have ever seen. The most impressive was a pottery urn containing over 7,000 roman coins. None of these had been cleaned up and most of them had congealed into a solid coppery mass. This was discovered by ploughing purely by accident. The poor bugger who hid this hoard obviously didn't live long enough to go back and retrieve it.

We also saw a flat roof tile, many of which have animal prints on them, but this one had three very distinct toddler's footprints. To make the tiles, the Romans would lay them out in the sun to dry. Obviously this kid had a good time walking on them!