A BARNOLDSWICK battle re-enactor will be marching across Yorkshire in the footsteps of men from 500 years ago.

Wesley Perriman, 33, vice-chairman of Red Wyvern Society, will be raising money for The Battlefield Trust by completing a three-day hike in the same uniform as soldiers from the Battle of Towton would have worn.

The petrol-station worker will be wearing nothing but wool and linen clothing, leather lace boots and a wicker sack as he travels from Skipton Castle on a 45-mile journey across the Yorkshire countryside to the village of Towton.

The Battle of Towton was fought on March 29, 1461, during the English Wars of the Roses, near the village of Towton in Yorkshire. It is known as being one of the largest battles to take place in England.

The Wars of the Roses concluded in 1485 when Lancastrian Henry Tudor, later to become Henry VII, triumphed over Richard of York at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

Mr Perriman — who has a nine-month-old son, Edmund — said he wanted to get people back in touch with English history and the trip would be the perfect way to celebrate the 555th anniversary of the battle.

He said: “Men from across Lancashire and Yorkshire will have left their homes and families and made this trek to fight in what has been called

the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought on English soil.

“Some 75,000 men, slightly more than the population of Burnley, fought and 28,000 died, which is more than twice the population of Barnoldswick dead, and in just one day.”

The Battlefield Trust fights to protect historic battlefields across the UK and Mr Perriman will be joined by James Hodgson, a historian from Preston.

Mr Perriman said: “It will be good to do this sort of challenge although I am not sure we are as fit as the soldiers were back then.

“And we do not have a massive bloodbath of a battle in thick snow to look forward to at the end of the walk.

"They did not have the kinds of dehydrated foods we take now when backpacking, so our provisions will weigh more.

"But the one modern thing I am not giving up is a jumbo pack of blister plasters.”

The pair will set off from the gates of Skipton Castle at 10am on Friday and plan to arrive in the village

of Towton, near Tadcaster, in late afternoon on Sunday.

Anyone who wishes to donate to The Battlefield Trust can do so at justgiving.com/RedWyverns.