I passed Towton Battle Field on my way to York early in June but unfortunately there wasn’t enough time to go back and visit. It would have made an interesting follow up to my Flodden Field Battle Trail posts. But anyway I digress so back to the search for the Towton Rose.

From the Shropshire Star:

A Shropshire-based world expert on roses is embarking on a Holy Grail-type quest to find a variety of plant associated with the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil – and which has not been seen for over 70 years.

Peter Boyd, curator at Shrewsbury Museums, is appealing to people across the country to search high and low in their gardens for the Towton Rose – which featured pink and red markings on its petals.

The rose allegedly grew in its hundreds on the graves of the fallen at the famous Battle of Towton during the Wars of the Roses just a few miles from York.

More than 28,000 Lancastrians and Yorkists fell at the spot in 1461, reputedly the bloodiest battle in English history.  The rose is only purported to have bloomed on the soils where the blood of dead is supposed to have been spilled, according to legend and poetry.

Mr Boyd said: “The Towton rose was identified in the 19th century as a form of the native Scots Rose (Rosa spinosissima), also known as the Burnet Rose.  There is no doubt that it did exist but it is said that it has not been seen for over 70 years.

“At this particular site at Towton, there were these flowers which had pink and red markings that people said was from the blood of the fallen.  Of course, that is non-sense but it makes a romantic tale.

“Because this rose was common on the battlefield, people went to collect bits of it as souvenirs and local people even sold them.  But just after the Second World War, local farmers got so fed up of people coming onto their land that they went out with their men and dug all the remaining plants up.

“It might still survive on the site but I have been there and had a pretty thorough search and we certainly didn’t find any.”

Mr Boyd is being joined in his quest for the rose by author Peter Algar, from Leeds, who wrote the book The Shepherd Lord, set during the aftermath of Towton.

“Day trippers from Leeds and Bradford area and further afield were known to visit Towton to pick up souvenirs of the rose” said Mr Algar.

“Maybe someone has one in their garden elsewhere in Britain?”

If anyone can help in the quest, they can visit www.theshepherdlord.com or www.peterboyd.com.

Article by Russell Roberts

You can follow the quest on George Algar’s Blog, hopefully it will be successful, I shall certainly be keeping my eye on it and if any of you just happen to see one…