Dacre's Cross

The Battle of Towton took place on 29 March 1461 during the Wars of the Roses, near Towton in North Yorkshire, and "has the dubious distinction of being probably the largest and bloodiest battle on English soil". Fought for ten hours between an estimated 50,000 soldiers in a snowstorm on Palm Sunday, the Yorkist army achieved a decisive victory over their Lancastrian opponents. As a result, Edward IV deposed the Lancastrian Henry VI and secured the English throne. Henry VI succeeded his father Henry V when he was nine months old in 1422, but was a weak, ineffectual and mentally unsound ruler, which encouraged the nobles to scheme for control over him. The situation deteriorated in the 1450s into a civil war between his Beaufort relatives and Queen Margaret of Anjou on one side, with those of his cousin Richard, Duke of York, on the other. In October 1460, Parliament passed the Act of Accord naming York as Henry's successor, but neither the queen nor her Lancastrian allies would accept the disinheritance of her son, Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales. They raised a large army, who defeated and killed York and his second son Edmund at Wakefield in December. Financed by the City of London, York's son and heir, Edward, found enough backing to denounce Henry and declare himself king. The Battle of Towton was to affirm the victor's right through force of arms to rule over England. On reaching the battlefield, the Yorkists found themselves heavily outnumbered, since part of their force under the Duke of Norfolk had yet to arrive. The Yorkist leader Lord Fauconberg turned the tables by ordering his archers to take advantage of the strong wind to outrange their enemies. The one-sided missile exchange, with Lancastrian arrows falling short of the Yorkist ranks, provoked the Lancastrians into abandoning their defensive positions. The ensuing hand-to-hand combat lasted hours, exhausting the combatants. The arrival of Norfolk's men reinvigorated the Yorkists and, encouraged by Edward, they routed their foes. Many Lancastrians were killed while fleeing; some trampled one another and others drowned in the rivers, which are said to have run red with blood for several days. Several high-ranking prisoners were also executed. The strength of the House of Lancaster was severely reduced as a result of this battle. Henry fled the country and many of his most powerful followers were dead or in exile after the engagement, leaving a new king, Edward IV, to rule England. In 1929 the Towton Cross was erected on the battlefield to commemorate the event. Various archaeological remains and mass graves related to the battle have been found in the area centuries after the engagement.

Towton Hall is a mansion, a home, near the village of Towton in North Yorkshire, England. The building, known to been built as a residence in the seventeenth century and renovated and expanded since, is also believed to include the remnants of Richard III’s commemorative chantry chapel, which was built after the Battle of Towton. The commemorative chantry chapel at the Towton Battlefield was built to remember the victory of the House of York in the battle of Towton in the years after the 1461 battle. Many male skeletons of the soldiers were discovered beneath the floor of the dining room of Towton Hall.

Saxton with Scarthingwell is a civil parish just south of Tadcaster in North Yorkshire, England. The parish contains the villages of Saxton and Scarthingwell, with two churches and the remains of a castle. Historically the area was a township, however it has been its own civil parish since 1866. Although the main part of the Battle of Towton was fought to the north out of the parish, some of the dead were interred in the parish, and at least one minor skirmish was fought within the parish boundaries.

Towton is a small village and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England. It was historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire until 1974.

All Saints' Church is the parish church of Saxton, North Yorkshire, a village in England. The church was built in the 11th century, initially serving as a chapel of ease in the parish of All Saints' Church, Sherburn in Elmet. The nave and chancel survive from this period. A south chapel was added in the 14th century, followed by a tower in the early 15th century. The church was restored in 1867, the work including the addition of a vestry, and was again restored in 1907. It was grade I listed in 1967. The church consists of a nave with a chapel to the south, a chancel with a north vestry, and a west tower. The tower has two stages, a chamfered plinth, a narrow round-arched south door, a three-light west window with a hood mould, a clock face, two-light bell openings with hood moulds, a corbel table, and an embattled parapet with corner pinnacles. The south doorway is Norman, and has a round arch, and shafts with waterleaf capitals. At the east end are three stepped lancet windows. Inside, there is a Mediaeval octagonal stone font on a 19th-century base, an aumbry dating from about 1180, four 17th-century tombstones, three of which are set into the wall, and two late-18th century memorials. In the churchyard is the tomb of Ralph, Lord Dacre, who died at the Battle of Towton in 1461. The tomb is made of limestone, and has an oblong plan, measuring about 1.75 metres (5 ft 9 in) by 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) and is about 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) in height. It is plain, and has weathered coats of arms on the sides and ends. It is grade II listed.

Saxton is a village in North Yorkshire, England, 14 miles (23 km) south-west of York and 12 miles (19 km) east of Leeds. The resident population is about 250. The closest town is Tadcaster.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception is a historic church in Scarthingwell, in North Yorkshire, in England. The church was constructed in 1854 to a design by John Bownas and William Atkinson. It was commissioned by Edward William Hawke-Harvey, 4th Baron Hawke, as a private chapel for his seat, Scarthingwell Hall. It was the first church in England to be dedicated to the immaculate conception. The hall was demolished in 1960, but the chapel survived as a Roman Catholic church. It was Grade II listed in 1988. The church is in the Norman style, built of limestone, with a slate roof. It has a nave with a chancel in the form of an apse. The west end is gabled, and houses four niches. There is also a small stone turret at the west end. The nave has four tall windows, each with two lights, while the chancel has seven lancet windows. Inside, there is highly decorative plasterwork and a wooden gallery at the west end, reached by a staircase, which originally housed the family pew, but now contains an organ.

St Mary's Church, Lead, is a redundant Anglican chapel standing in an isolated position in fields some 0.75 miles (1.2 km) to the west of the village of Saxton, North Yorkshire, England. Though technically a chapel, it is generally referred to as a church. It is managed by The Churches Conservation Trust, and is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building. The chapel stands close to the site of the battle of Towton of 1461, which was part of the Wars of the Roses. In the 1930s it was saved from neglect by a local group of ramblers, and is known locally as the Ramblers' Church.

Stutton railway station was a railway station in Stutton, North Yorkshire, on the Harrogate to Church Fenton Line. The station opened on 10 August 1847 and closed to passenger traffic on 30 June 1905. It remained open to goods traffic until it closed completely on 6 July 1964.The two-storey brick and sandstone station building was designed by George Townsend Andrews in the form of two side-by-side railway cottages. It was built on the up platform and is now used as a private residence. The roof of its single-storey northern extension was extended as a narrow canopy over the platform. The goods yard consisted only of one siding and a headshunt and had a cattle dock. A wooden signal box stood at the northern end of the station next to the level crossing with Weedling Gate. It was pulled down towards the end of the 1960s. Since the village that was served by the station was rather small, and Tadcaster station very close, passenger numbers remained low, causing the early closure to regular passenger services. Only chartered holiday trains occasionally called at Stutton afterwards.

Lead is a civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is located 4 miles (6 km) south west of Tadcaster. The parish consists of several scattered farms. There is no village in the parish. No public roads enter the parish, although the B1217 road runs just outside the parish. Access is by private roads or by public footpaths. The population was estimated at only 40 in 2015. The parish shares a grouped parish council with Saxton with Scarthingwell.

Stutton is a small village in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, a mile south-west of Tadcaster. It lies in the valley of the Cock Beck which discharges into the River Wharfe one mile to the east of the village. It is in the parliamentary constituency of Selby, the civil parish of Stutton with Hazlewood and ecclesiastical parish of Tadcaster.

Holy Trinity Church is an Anglican church in Barkston Ash, a village in North Yorkshire, in England. Until the mid 19th century, the village did not have a place of worship, but instead fell into the parish of All Saints' Church, Sherburn in Elmet. In 1869, the vicar of Sherburn was licensed to officiate in a house in the village, but he was unable to administer the sacraments there, and so a dedicated chapel-of-ease was constructed, to a design by William Bakewell. The foundation stone was laid on 13 October 1873, with more land acquired the following year. The building was completed in about 1880. A pipe organ was installed in 1907, and electricity came to the church in 1939. In 1974, the chapel was consecrated as a church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, although it remained in the parish of Sherburn.