IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Binley Road, COVENTRY, CV3 1JA

Ordnance Survey cut mark benchmark described on the Bench Mark Database at www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm87340

There is an Ordnance Survey benchmark Image on the road end of the wall running beside the nearest house

This triangular shaped park is surrounded by the busy A444, A4600 Walsgrave Road, and the A428 Binley Road.

Gosford Green is a triangular park surrounded by busy roads to the east of Coventry city centre. Once much larger, it was the place from where in 1398, King Richard II sent Thomas de Mowbray, Earl of Norfolk, and Henry Bolingbroke into exile, cancelling the trial by combat which was to have decided the fate of the two men, each of whom had accused the other of treason. The scene is portrayed at the beginning of Shakespeare's 'Richard II'. Bolingbroke later deposed Richard and was crowned Henry IV. A street to the north of Gosford Green is named King Richard Street. There are also streets named after Mowbray and Bolingbroke in the neighbourhood.

This memorial indicates the site of a non-event that changed English history. This is the site where in September 1398 a personal battle - trial by combat if you will - was to be fought between Thomas, Duke of Norfolk and Henry, Duke of Hereford, in front of King Richard II (Plantagenet). Before the contest began the King decided to cancel the contest, sending both parties into exile. The King then confiscated the lands of both protagonists. Thomas, Duke of Norfolk died in France shortly afterwards. However, Henry, Duke of Hereford became somewhat annoyed (to say the least) when he was also disinherited from his fathers estate by the King. His father just happened to be John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. Due to this slight by the King, said Henry invaded England with a small army and eventually arrested the King. Henry, also known as Henry Bolingbroke, was then, by statute of Parliament declared King. The, now, King Henry IV had the ex-King imprisoned in Pontefract Castle where he later died in suspicious circumstances. The Royal House of Lancaster now started its disastrous and bloody term of office until in 1471 it was finally destroyed by the equally bloodied House of York. It could, therefore, be argued that the second phase of the 'Hundred Years War' and the 'Wars of the Roses' started here, just east of Coventry city centre.

Ordnance Survey cut mark benchmark described on the Bench Mark Database at www.bench-marks.org.uk/bm87331

One of the major routes out of the city centre.

Coventry was surrounded by a large number of town gardens kept by townspeople in the 18th and 19th centuries, most of which have since been built over (Park Gardens in Cheylesmore are a rare survival). https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/early-allotments-town-gardens-coventry The town gardens at Gosford Green lost part of their land to a railway and what remains is now a sliver of overgrown land between Kingsway, a suburban street, and the A444 Jimmy Hill Way, built along the route of the former railway. A local voluntary group is clearing the site, rescuing surviving Victorian fruit trees and planting new ones. Visited during a heritage weekend in 2019.

There is an Ordnance Survey benchmark Image on the wall pier at the road end of the wall abutting the right hand side of #42