Useful Links
Useful Links
The Richard III Society Education Website
The Education website of the Richard III Society is intended to provide an introduction to the life and times of Richard III for learners of any age. This site includes details of our essay prize for sixth formers and our annual online conference for schools in which leading academics share how they use key sources for this period.
Education Website
Ricardian Churches Restoration Fund
According to historical record, Richard III was a deeply pious man and there are a number of churches that can claim a Ricardian connection either as direct beneficiaries from his largesse or because he is known to have worshipped in them.
For many years, the Richard III Society has raised money for its causes – aiding the restoration of historic buildings, beautifying Ricardian sites, erecting monuments, etc. In 1975, the Ricardian Churches Restoration Fund, or RCRF was founded, its guiding light for many years being the late Joyce Melhuish. Since its inception, the RCRF has received no money from the Society but has raised all its funds through members and the general public. For the most part, this has been by the sale of craft work made by the members. To date, the fund has made donations totalling well in excess of £30,000.
Any church that has a connection with Richard III is entitled to call upon the Fund for assistance, although obviously the amount that can be given is limited and very much dependent upon what is in the coffers at the time of asking.
Five Churches qualify for ‘Grade One’ membership of the RCRF – Fotheringhay, Middleham, Sheriff Hutton, Barnard Castle, and Sutton Cheney.
Other Churches which have benefitted from the RCRF include – Lead Chapel, Towton; Wingfield; Great St Helen’s, Bishopsgate, London; York Minster; King’s College Chapel, Cambridge.
For further information, please email Miss Elizabeth Nokes at e.m.nokes@gmail.com.
The Society's Memorial Window at Middleham courtesy of Phil Stone
The alabaster tomb at Sheriff Hutton courtesy of Amanda Geary
The Society Research Blog
A blog run by the Richard III Society’s Research Committee to share news of research into the life and times of Richard III.
The Missing Princes Project
Following years of intensive research by Philippa Langley and her international team, she reveals the findings of The Missing Princes Project. Using police cold case methodology, it places the most enduring of mysteries about what happened to the ‘Princes in the Tower’ under a forensic microscope, unearthing an astonishing untold story of survival and uncovering remarkable new archival discoveries of proof of life. It is the first time that police cold case investigation analysis has been applied to a centuries-old historical mystery, leaving no stone unturned, and the results are extraordinary, rewriting history.
The Yorkist History Trust
During the quincentenary celebrations of Richard III’s reign, the Richard III Society established a Trust with charitable status to take over much of the Society’s academic publishing and some of its research activities. It is a separate entity from the Society but retains close links with its parent body. The Richard III and Yorkist History Trust (later renamed The Yorkist History Trust) was formally constituted in October 1985 in order to ‘further education, learning, and research related to the history of late medieval England (and in particular the life and reign of King Richard III) and to disseminate the results of such education, learning and research’.
The Trustees’ principal duties are to commission new publications and see them through to publication, and to assess applications from scholars and publishers for financial assistance towards their own research and the expenses of publication. Many of their publications have been editions of fifteenth-century texts.
Anyone working on or researching late medieval England in all its forms is eligible to apply for a grant or submit a proposal for a volume. The Trust welcomes applications from PGRs and ECRs as well as established academics and independent researchers. For further details and how to apply, and for a list of the Trust’s publications, please visit the Trust’s website.
The Friends of Fotheringhay Church
Fotheringhay Church has, over the years, become the principal ecclesiastical establishment associated with the Richard III Society and close links have been forged between the parish and the Society. The church has also been the beneficiary of a number of gifts from the Society and the Ricardian Churches Restoration Fund (RCRF).
The parish of Fotheringhay is much too small to support such a large building and especially one that is in need of renovation so, in 1997, when the Friends of Fotheringhay Church was formed, it had two main objectives, to raise money and to publicise the church. It is probably fair to say that it has been more successful with the second of these than the first. However, funds have been raised for various needs, including restoration work on the tower; the clearing of the room over the porch, and the installation of a window containing medieval coloured glass; and the cleaning of the Decalogue panels behind the altar.
The Membership fee for the Friends of Fotheringhay Church is very modest and all members are made very welcome. The AGM continues to take place in November, sometimes in the church and sometimes in the village hall. Each year there is a speaker, and the topics are varied, though an attempt is made to alternate between subjects suited to devotees of Mary, Queen of Scots, and those of Richard III.
For further information contact Diane and Robert Stewart, Willow House, 28 Fotheringhay, PE8 5HZ
Fotheringhay Church
Barley Hall
In recent years, Barley Hall has become a familiar feature of the historic city of York. What is not so well known is that it is probably one of the most exciting historical projects in the country. The timber-framed house, which has its origins in the fourteenth century, was rediscovered in 1987 behind a layer of brick cladding and the additions of many centuries.
Originally the building, now known as Barley Hall, was a monastic town house for the Augustinian Priors of Nostell in the fourteenth and fifteenth century. For members of the Richard III Society the most important tenant, and the one around whom the reconstruction of the hall was done, was Alderman Snawsell, Lord Mayor of York in 1468, Master of the Royal Mint in York and MP for the City in 1470. He visited Prince Edward at Middleham in July 1483, together with his fellow aldermen, to present gifts, and he attended the investiture of King Richard’s son, Edward, as Prince of Wales in the Minster in September 1483.
Barley Hall was purchased by York Archaeological Trust (YAT) and excavations took place, together with research into documentary evidence. It was then decided by the YAT to restore the hall, as accurately as possible, to its late 15th century form when it belonged to William Snawsell. As representatives of the Richard III Society, Peter & Carolyn Hammond and Lynda Pidgeon became trustees of the charitable trust established to oversee the project and fund raising by the Society paid for several medieval household items to be purchased for the interior. One of the major achievements was the completion of the great hall. By a rather curious quirk, the hall, which is at the heart of this building is bordered by a public right of way that was the original screen passage and which now separates this historic building at the ground-floor level. The passage is presently the link between Stonegate and Swinegate through Grape Lane. The passage end of the hall is glass-faced thus providing a unique and unexpected glimpse into the past for passers-by. Other rooms that have been completed include the buttery, the pantry and the first-floor parlour.
The Hall is run by the YAT and is open on most days of the year,
Barley Hall, 2 Coffee Yard, off Stonegate, York YO1 8AR
Tel: 01904 615505
Barley Hall
The Great Hall
The Battlefields Trust
The Battlefields Trust is a registered charity dedicated to the protection, promotion and interpretation of Britain’s battlefields. The Society has often worked alongside the Battlefields Trust, including in opposing building on Bosworth Battlefield. We are currently working on a joint project (along with other interested parties) to produce a database of memorials of the Wars of the Roses.
The Mortimer History Society
A Society for those interested in the medieval Mortimers and the history of the Welsh Marches. Richard III’s paternal grandmother was Anne Mortimer and it was through her descent from Edward III that the Yorkists owed their claim to the throne. In 2019 the Richard III Society and Mortimer History Society held a joint conference at Ludlow on ‘The Mortimer Inheritance: Key to the Yorkist Crown’. Lectures from this and many of their other conferences are available on the society website.
Graham Turner
Graham Turner is well known for his medieval paintings, with originals – and prints reproduced from them – gracing the walls of many an historian or re-enactor’s home, while a selection of the numerous books he has illustrated on the turbulent period can usually be found in their libraries. Graham Turner has very kindly allowed the Society to reproduce many of his paintings on this website.
He has always had a fascination for our medieval past, but it has now developed well beyond the castles and knights in shining armour of his childhood. His first romanticised view of the medieval ‘Knight Errant’ was exhibited in 1992 and later published by a leading print publisher. However, as interest in Graham’s historical work blossomed and his knowledge increased, he quickly found his attention focusing more on the reality of this turbulent period rather than the chivalrous ideal.
However, he has now taken his research that bit further. Believing that there is no substitute for first hand experience, Graham has joined ‘Destrier’ and wearing a complete suit of replica 15th century armour, is now jousting himself.
After 18 months of training, he took part in his first two tournaments in June 2004 and concluded his first jousting season very successfully with victories at the Herstmonceux Medieval Festival. 2005 saw him competing in English Heritage’s Knights Tournament series.
On 29th June 2013, Graham’s painting of King Richard III was unveiled at Bosworth Battlefield and Heritage Centre. The painting incorporates all the latest information about the king’s appearance following the discovery of his remains in 2012.
Joust by Graham Turner
A Taste of Loyalty
A Taste of Loyalty is a proof of concept for a feature film, Loyalty, based on the novel of that name by former Society Chairman Matthew Lewis. The vision of the team behind it is not simply to challenge existing stereotypes about Richard III but also to produce a film about the Middle Ages that is ‘created with historians, not around them’ in which ‘every decision from armour construction to battle choreography, reflects research, expertise and deep respect for the era.’
atasteofloyalty.co.uk facebook.com/p/A-Taste-of-Loyalty-Short-Film