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Visit Market Bosworth and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:
Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, was an important market town in the Middle Ages but is now a quiet place, more village than town. It is well worth exploring since it has some pretty thatched cottages and a famous Hall and school. For about 300 years Market Bosworth was associated with the Dixie family, the first of whom, Sir Wolstan Dixie, bought the Hall with the fortune he had inherited from his namesake who was Lord Mayor of London in the time of Elizabeth I. In 1601 he refounded the Tudor grammar school in the market place. There young Samuel Johnson — uncouth, shabby and sullen — taught as second master, or usher, and officiated as a kind of domestic chaplain to Sir Wolstan and said grace at his table. Boswell says of him at this time: “the dull sameness of his existance . . . was as unvaried as the note of a cuckow: and he did not know whether it was more disagreeable for him to teach, or the boys to learn, the grammar rules.” The Hall is a fine piece of English Renaissance of the time of Queen Anne, very much like Hampton Court, in red brick and white stone. The mainly 14th- and 15th-century Church of St Peter is set amid trees and has many memorials to the Dixie family and a lovely peal of bells.
Market Bosworth is associated with the Battle of Bosworth, which ended the Wars of the Roses on 22 August 1485, but the battle actually took place on Redmoor Plain between Shenton, Sutton Cheney and Stoke Golding. Alongside Shenton station is a farm-house, behind which is King Dick's Well on Ambien Hill protected by a little wall. Here it is said King Richard took his last drink before going into battle with his crown over his visor, crying “I live a king: if I die, I die a king.” At the Sutton Cheney end of Bosworth Park is a spinney called King Dick's Clump where Richard is supposed to have raised his standard for the last time. Near it is the site of the Duke of Norfolk's camp, still known as Dickon's Nook after the note the duke found affixed to his tent, warning him: “Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold! For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold!” And near Stoke Golding is Crown Hill, the traditional site of the “coronation” of Henry Tudor, when Sir Reginald Bray is said to have found the crown fallen from the dead Richard's head in a thorn bush and to have placed it over the helmet of the new king.
About 2 miles South on the A447 is the little village of Cadeby, once considered to be the perfect village and easily passed unseen amid its trees. On the secondary road North from the centre of Market Bosworth is the oddly named Barton-in-the-Beans, a reminder of Roman times when the land was cultivated exclusively for beans, a staple food. And about 8 miles East on the B582 is the castle of Kirby Muxloe, which was built by Lord Hastings, who obtained “licence to crenellate” in 1472. The building of the moated “fortified home” was begun in 1480 but was brought rapidly to a close in 1484 following the execution of Lord Hastings in London the previous summer.
Nearby cities: Leicester
Nearby towns: Ashby-de-la-zouch, Coalville, Hinckley, Nuneaton, Tamworth
Nearby villages: Appleby Magna, Aston Flamville, Atherstone, Austrey, Bagworth, Barlestone, Barwell, Caldecote, Chilcote, Congerstone, Croft, Dadlington, Desford, Donisthorpe, Elmesthorpe, Heather, Higham on the Hill, Hugglescote, Ibstock, Kirby Muxloe, Kirkby Mallory, Mancetter, Markfield, Measham, Newbold Verdon, Newtown Limford, Newtown Linford, Norton juxta Twycros, Nuneaton, Oldbury, Orton-on-the-Hill, Packington, Ratcliffe, Ravenstone, Sapcote, Shackerstone, Sharnford, Sheepy, Shenton, Sibson, Snarestone, Stoke Golding, Stoney Stanton, Thurlaston, Twycross, Warton, Whitherley, Whittington
Have you decided to visit Market Bosworth or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:
- a Market Bosworth bed and breakfast (a Market Bosworth B&B or Market Bosworth b and b)
- a Market Bosworth guesthouse
- a Market Bosworth hotel (or motel)
- a Market Bosworth self-catering establishment, or
- other Market Bosworth accommodation
Accommodation in Market Bosworth:
Find availability in a Market Bosworth bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.