Open day to celebrate search for Mortimer's Cross battle site

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An open day will be held at a church to celebrate the end of a six-year project to find an important battle site.

The project, called "Searching for the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross," aimed to find the exact location of the 1461 battle, which was part of the Wars of the Roses.

The battle, which took place on a "cold, icy day" in February 1461, was famous for the sighting of three suns in the sky, known as a "parhelion."

The event saw Yorkist heir Edward Earl of March defeat Owen Tudor, who supported the Lancastrian King Henry VI, somewhere in the Valley of the River Lugg.

Edward would soon become King Edward IV, while Owen Tudor was captured and executed in Hereford city centre.

Members of the project’s steering group and archaeologists who oversaw the six-year project will be at the open day at Kingsland Church in Herefordshire on Saturday, August 30, 2025, to celebrate.

There will be presentations, displays, and the chance to look at arms and armour from the period.

The day will also see the unveiling of the Battlefields Trust panels at the Luctonians Rugby Club and in the grounds of Kingsland Church, with members of the public invited to attend the unveiling.

The timetable for the day is as follows: unveiling of the Battlefields Trust panel at the Luctonians Rugby Club at 10am, Kingsland Church doors opening to the public at 10.45am, and presentations by members of the archaeological project between 11am and 1pm.

These will include Dr Tracy Partida talking about the landscape of the Lugg Valley, home to the site of Mortimer’s Cross, and Dr Glenn Foard discussing the search for Mortimers Cross and techniques of battlefield archaeology.

After a lunch break, the unveiling of the Kingsland Church Battlefields Trust panel will be at 2pm, followed by a talk on arms and armour in the Wars of the Roses by Adrian Durkin from 2.30pm to 3.45pm.

The event is free to attend, and light refreshments will be available within the church all day.

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