Stoke Golding - History

History

Stoke Golding's unique historical claim to fame, is that in 1485 the people of the village witnessed the rural coronation of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. After his defeat of King Richard III, last of the Plantagenets at the Battle of Bosworth Field marking the end of the Wars of the Roses and heralded the accession to the throne of three Tudor Kings and two Queens. So doing Stoke Golding claims to be the "Birthplace of the Tudor Dynasty".

After Henry Tudor was victorious over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworthfield, which took place in the healthy marshland known as the Redemore between Stoke Golding, Dadlington, Shenton and Sutton Cheney. Henry's entourage retired to hilly ground near the village of Stoke Golding. Here the impromptu coronation of King Henry VII was performed with a circlet by tradition retrieved from a nearby thorn bush. This area became known as Crown Hill and Crownhill Field.

Historical local accounts of the Battle of Bosworth field tell of the villagers climbing on to the battlements of the church of St Margaret of Antioch to view the bloody battle on 22 August 1485.

The window sills of the Church show grooves which legend has it were caused by the soldiers sharpening their swords and axes on the eve of the battle.

After the fighting large pits were dug around Stoke Golding and the villages of Dadlington and Fenny Drayton, the nearest villages to the complete site of the battlefield, for the burial of the dead.

King Henry VII then rewarded some of his followers and Knighted the more senior of his supporters.