Today is the 563 anniversary of the Battle of Wakefield which led to the death of the ‘heir’ to the throne, Richard Duke of York. The many theories regarding why Richard engaged the Lancastrian army when so outnumbered are many and varied, and are covered in our tours of Sandal Castle which will re-commence in 2024. On the 18th May 2024 we will be covering this topic and how Shakespeare’s portrayal of the Wars of the Roses may have differed from the reality, in a tour which will form part of the Wakefield Wordfest weekend. More details of this festival in the New Year. In the meantime, we wish all our readers a very Happy New Year.

Thank you to everyone who came to our talk today at Pontefract Castle on “Yorkshire in the Civil Wars 1642-49”. We really do appreciate so many of you turning out in the run up to Christmas and we hope you found the talk both interesting and enjoyable. We already have all our talks for 2024 in the calendar with the first being held at Pontefract Castle on Sunday 14th April and entitled “A Yorkist Civil War – The Wars of the Roses 1461 – 71′. We look forward to seeing you again then but in the meantime may we wish everyone who comes to our talks and reads our website a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.