Presenting, Preserving and Researching Battlefields
With winter behind us, our focus is firmly on the year ahead, beginning with our Anniversary weekend which this year features our signature conference on Saturday 4 May. We’re running the event in partnership with the Battlefields Trust and linking to our annual anniversary walk on Sunday 5 May. Full details of the programme, together with a booking tool, appear on a dedicated page on this website. The theme of the Conference will be ‘Presenting, Preserving and Researching Battlefields – Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, with the aim of looking beyond the history of the Battle itself to explore how battlefields, including our own, can be brought to life to ensure their relevance to historians and non-historians alike. The event coincides nicely with the publication of Graham Turner’s new book full of his Wars of the Roses paintings, and Graham will be just one of the speakers to be joining us.
Bookings are open now, so please come and join us – you can book for just the Saturday conference, or a full weekend of activities with our anniversary walk on Sunday. Each day costs just £15.00, with a discount to £12.50 for Society members.
We’re also well into banner painting season, repairing, retouching and replacing our stock to ensure that our display throughout the summer will be as colourful and vibrant as ever. There’s always a welcome for anyone wanting to join our Monday afternoon painting sessions at Elizabeth Wyatt House, with jobs for every level of artistic skill.
Our project to erect a new sculpture in the Abbey grounds, commemorating the role of Queen Margaret of Anjou in the Battle of Tewkesbury, has also reached an exciting stage. The planning application has been submitted, representing a major step towards turning the work so far into reality. We’re not yet sure of the timescale for completion, but what seemed like just an idea a few years ago is now becoming very tangible. We’re also working on the creation of a permanent display in the foyer of the Abbey offices and Touching Souls Café to bring our work to the attention of more visitors to the Town.