Saxton, North Yorkshire

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Barkston Ash is a small village and civil parish close to Selby in North Yorkshire, England. It was formerly known as Barkston in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Barkston Ash was a wapentake of the West Riding of Yorkshire, named after the meeting-place at the village of Barkston. It included the parishes of Birkin, Bramham cum Oglethorpe, Brayton, Drax, Kirk Fenton, Ledsham, Monk Fryston, Saxton with Scarthingwell and Sherburn-in-Elmet and parts of Brotherton, Kirkby Wharfe, Ryther, Snaith and Tadcaster.

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.

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 Sherburn in Elmet, a town in North Yorkshire in England. The church was constructed in the 12th century, from which period the nave and part of the north aisle date. It is known that there was an earlier church on the site, and the current building appears to reuse some large, Anglo-Saxon stones. The chancel was added in the 13th century, followed by the south aisle and an extension to the north aisle in the 14th century, and the south chapel in the 15th century. The clerestory dates from the 16th century, and the tower was heightened at a later date. In 1857, Anthony Salvin restored the church and added a vestry. The church was grade I listed in 1967. The church is built of Magnesian Limestone. It has a four-bay nave, with a two-bay tower, and a two-bay chancel. The tower is supported by large diagonal buttresses, added in the Victorian period. It has paired openings around the bells, and is topped by battlements. Although the porch is largely the work of Salvin, it reuses 12th century material, including zigzag carvings. Most of the nave windows are Perpendicular, while the chancel windows are lancets which date from the Victorian restoration. Inside the church, there is a round tower arch, with a round-arched window above. Between the south aisle and the chancel is an ogee arched window. There is a shell-shaped piscina in the chantry chapel. The 15th-century Janus Cross was moved from the ruins of the demolished St Mary and All Holy Angels Chapel, formerly in the churchyard, and it is now displayed in two parts. The organ was made by Brindley and Foster and dates from 1875. There is a 14th-century grave slab under the tower, and a tablet dedicated to Peter Foljambe, who died in 1668.The west window contains 15th century glass. Some bells date from 1750, and the others are Victorian. The oak pews and pulpit were installed in 1857.

The Battle of Sherburn in Elmet was an action fought towards the end of the First English Civil War. A detachment of the English Royalist army led by Lord Digby, King Charles I's Secretary of State, was making a belated attempt to reach Scotland and join forces with the Scottish Royalists. As they moved north through Yorkshire, they were pursued by a Parliamentarian force under Sydnam Poyntz. Poyntz was unaware of the Royalists' position, and the Royalists took the opportunity to ambush and attack a small Parliamentarian detachment at night in the village of Sherburn in Elmet. However, the Royalists then mistook fleeing Parliamentarians for their own men and panicked. In the ensuing flight, several hundred Royalist prisoners were taken. The Parliamentarians also captured Digby's coach, which contained much compromising correspondence.

Sherburn High School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Sherburn in Elmet in Selby, North Yorkshire, England. It has around 950 pupils aged 11 to 18 years. The current head teacher is Miriam Oakley. The school was awarded specialist Science College status in the summer of 2005 and has been recognised by the National Healthy Schools Programme for the quality of physical education and school dinners.The school does not have a gymnasium from July 2018 onwards due to a fire. The BBC reported that what they described as a "teenager girl" had been arrested in connection with the incident.Previously a community school administered by North Yorkshire County Council, in October 2019 Sherburn High School converted to academy status. The school is now sponsored by The STAR Multi Academy Trust.