Highcross Street
Not an imposing sight and yet this street, in the days when the English Parliament was held in Leicester, and for centuries afterwards, was the heart of town. It was called High Street then while the present High Stret was lowly Swine Market.. The High Cross, originally with five large pillars and a roof, presided over it.
Here Henry Tudor dispayed the body of Richard 3rd; last of the Plantagenets, before moving it to the Newarke and then burying it in a decent tomb in the grounds of Greyfriars Priory.
On the left hand side looking away from the present High Street, stood the Inn where King Richard 3rd left his bed when he rode off to his laet battle. The inn changed its name from The White Boar (Richard's emblem, to the Blue Boar (emblem of the Earl of Oxfors who fought on the side of Henry Tudor) after Richard's defeat The Inn was demolished in the late 19th Century to make way for a factory but we know what it looked like because it was painted in the early 19th century by John Flower.On the right hand side of the road we reach a small stone building, the town's original Grammar school. Look up and you will see a slate memorial plaque naming the people who contributed to it.
The plaque is above eye level so most people miss it.
