Market Bosworth - History

History

Building work at the old Cattle Market and other sites have revealed evidence of settlement on the hill since the Bronze Age. Remains of a Roman villa have been found on the east side of Barton Road. Bosworth as an Anglo-Saxon village dates from the 8th century.

Prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066, there were two manors at Bosworth one belonging to an Anglo-Saxon knight named Fernot, and some sokemen. Following the Norman conquest, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, both the Anglo-Saxon manors and the village were part of the lands awarded by William the Conqueror to a Count of Meulan from Normandy, Robert de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Leicester. Subsequently the village passed as a marriage dowry to the English branch of the French House of Harcourt.

King Edward I gave a royal charter to Sir William Harcourt allowing a market to be held every Wednesday. The village took the name Market Bosworth from 12 May 1285, and on this day became a "Town" by common definition. The two oldest buildings in Bosworth, St. Peter's church and the Red Lion pub, were built during the 14th Century.

The Battle of Bosworth took place to south of the town in 1485 as the final battle in the Wars of the Roses between the House of Lancaster and the House of York. In 1509 the manor passed from the Harcourts to the Grey family.

In 1554, following the beheading of Lady Jane Grey, the manor of Bosworth was among lands confiscated in the name of Mary I of England and her husband Philip II of Spain. They awarded the manor to the Catholic nobleman Edward Hastings. In 1567, his heirs sold it to Sir Wolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor of London, who never lived in Bosworth. The first Dixie to live in Bosworth was his grand-nephew, Sir Wolstan Dixie of Appleby Magna, who moved to the town in 1608. He started construction of a manor house and park, as well as establishing the free Dixie Grammar School. The modern hall, Bosworth Hall, was the work of Sir Beaumont Dixie, 2nd Baronet (1629–1692).

In 1885 the 11th Baronet 'Beau' Dixie was forced to auction Bosworth Hall to pay his gambling debts. It was bought by Lady Agnes Tollemache, whose husband Charles Tollemache Scott enlarged the estate, planted woodlands and rebuilt the lodges and farms. Lady Agnes' daughter sold the estate in 1913.

The War Memorial in the town square honors 19 local men who died in the First World War, and 11 men dead in the Second World War.