War of the Roses.

Still moored at Shenton Aqueduct, Ashby Canal

After our busy day yesterday we were a bit tardy in arising this morning so it was late morning before we set off for Shenton Station. This is the southern terminus station for the Battlefield preserved railway on the old Ashby to Nuneaton railway. The line now only runs between Shenton and Shackerstone, a distance of 5 miles and ceased carrying passengers as early as 1931 but remained open as a goods only line until the Beeching closures.

The actual station building is not the original building as that had rotted away and was unsalvageable. This station building was bought by the Leicestershire City Council for £1 and dismantled it brick by brick and rebuilt it on the present site, that's dedication.

From here we walked over the battlefields to the Bosworth battlefield centre and noted the various points of the battle between King Richard III and his Plantagenet forces and Henry Tudor the exiled pretender to the crown in 1485. There are flag poles over the area marking various points of battle. It appears that Richard bought about his own demise through impatience even though he had the upper hand in regards to troop numbers. Thus ended the long running (80 years) "War of the Roses.