Sunday 13 November 2011

Stoke Golding

Stoke Golding is a village and civil parish in the Hinckley and Bosworth district of Leicestershire, England, which lies in the heart of England, in South West Leicestershire, close to the Warwickshire county border. According to the 2001 census the total population was 1,721, living in just over 700 houses. The village is 16 miles from the City of Leicester, about three miles north-west of the market town of Hinckley, and 4 miles along scenic country lanes from the village of Fenny Drayton, the birth place and childhood home of George Fox (the founder of the worldwide Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) movement). Stoke Golding has an impressive Grade 1 listed Saxon church, that of St Margaret of Antioch, a Church of England church in the Diocese of Leicester. The church is roughly in the centre of the village, and is a good example of the churches of that period of time. The primary school children (4 years to 11 years) of Stoke Golding and nearby villages mostly attend the well respected St Margret's Church of England Primary School that is located next to the church within the village. The village is bordered on one side by the Ashby Canal, well used for recreational purposes. There is a Methodist church in the village that was first opened in 1857. Three pubs and The Stoke Golding Club have regular entertainment.

History

Stoke Golding's unique historical claim to fame, is that in 1485 the people of the village witnessed the rural coronation of Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch. After his defeat of King Richard III, last of the Plantagenets at the Battle of Bosworth Field marking the end of the Wars of the Roses and heralded the accession to the throne of three Tudor Kings and two Queens. So doing Stoke Golding claims to be the "Birthplace of the Tudor Dynasty". After Henry Tudor was victorious over Richard III at the Battle of Bosworthfield, which took place in the healthy marshland known as the Redemore between Stoke Golding, Dadlington, Shenton, and Sutton Cheney. Henry's entourage retired to hilly ground near the village of Stoke Golding. Here the impromptu coronation of King Henry VII was performed with a circlet by tradition retrieved from a nearby thornbush. This area became known as Crown Hill and Crownhill Field. Historical local accounts of the Battle of Bosworth field tell of the villagers climbing on to the battlements of the church of St Margaret of Antioch to view the bloody battle on the 22nd August 1485. The window sills of the Church show grooves which legend has it were caused by the soldiers sharpening their swords and axes on the eve of the battle. After the fighting large pits were dug around Stoke Golding and the villages of Dadlington and Fenny Drayton, the nearest villages to the complete site of the battlefield, for the burial of the dead. King Henry VII then reward some of his followers and Knighting the more senior of his supporters.
The claim to the birthplace of the Tudors is also claimed by Penmynydd on Anglesey.

Notable people

  • Sir Henry Firebrace
  • Martine Croxall - English journalist and television news presenter.

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