On Friday 28 March, the day before the 564th anniversary of the battle, my wife and I decided to take a drive out to the battlefield of Towton. Neither of us had ever been there before, even though it is no more than a half hour drive from our house in Wakefield. I guess that this is largely down to my lack of knowledge and interest in the period until relatively recently, when I added to the already embarrassingly large lead (and now plastic) pile of shame, with a load of Perry plastic Wars of the Roses figures.
It turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable visit. The weather conditions were not as snowy and wintery as during the actual battle, but the wind was, to put it mildly, bracing!! We started as one should, at the pub: The Crooked Billet on the ouskirts of the village of Saxton, which lay just to the south of the battlefield and was occupied by the Yorkist troops on the eve of battle. After a very pleasant lunch, we ventured outside to begin the tour.
A map of the battle on the wall of the Crooked Billet, who also supplied us with an excellent guide to the battlefield.
The inside of St Mary's Chapel, opposite the Crooked Billet. This was, in all likelihood used as shelter by Yorkist troops on the eve of the battle. It is a very small 14th Century chapel, which used to form part of a larger manor house complex, which no longer exists. On the inside it seems to have barely changed apart from the quotations from scripture on the boards mounted on the walls, which are believed to be 18th Century; the benches are thought to be medieval. It is a really atmospheric place and well worth a look.
Here it is from the outside.
As luck would have it, there is a small layby next door to the battlefield where a few cars can pull over. Other than a couple of dog walkers it was empty and we were able to park up right next to where we needed to be. The actual battlefield is on the right hand side of the road from Saxton to Towton (B1217), the cross and the battlefield tour on the left; the main part of the battlefield walk actually covers the retreat of the Lancastrian army, rather than the battle itself, but is nevertheless very interesting. There really is no substitute for walking the ground and subsequent readings of accounts of the battle made far more sense after the walk.
This memorial is known as Dacre's Cross and has served as a landmark for many years.
The various information boards scattered along the walk provide a good deal of information on the battle, weapons and participants. The whole project was developed over a period of some years by the local landowners, Towton Battlefield Trust, The Royal Armouries and Natural England.
This photo was taken from a point that would have been between the vanguards of both armies, looking south towards the Yorkist lines. The lone hawthorn tree (not the original!!) marks their right flank.
Here we have a view looking north towards the Lancastrian lines. Although appearing quite flat, the ground actually undulates considerably, often obscuring or blocking altogether a view of the enemy.
More battlefield information boards. The information is, of course limited and fairly basic, but still gives a good background to the story.
A view of Renshaw Woods to the north-west and the slopes down to the Cock Beck. We were both struck by the difficulty of this ground and found it all too easy to imagine how a defeated, panicked and routing force would have struggled to make their escape, particularly in the wintery conditions on the day.
As the battlefield walk continues north and then north-east, you get a great view of the ground over which the defeated Lancastrians sought to make their escape.
The ground near the so-called Bridge of Bodies is particularly difficult. The Cock Beck is actually very narrow, but the sides are steep and the water is pretty deep. It must have been a formidable obstacle.
At the end of walk you suddenly come upon the village of Towton. Fugitives that made it this far, would have continued along the Old London Road to Tadcaster, where many more were caught and cut down.
So, there we are. I am only just beginning to find out about this fascinating period and look forward to making a start on the collection before too long. It really was an interesting day out and the battlefield is well worth a visit. There is a fairly small area to be covered and 2-3 hours should be enough, although with very nice pubs in both Saxton and Towton, you could make it last a bit longer!
For those interested in the Wars of the Roses I can heartily recommend the 7th Son's fantastic Youtube channel, which includes a large number of videos on the conflict, including some really enjoyable battle reports. 7th Son - YouTube
More recently The Saxon Dog, aka Dave Andrews has started a new sub blog called The White Swan, which chronicles his rapidly growing and very beautiful WOTR 28mm figure collection: Saxon Dog: The Wihte Swan
