PRO BONO: BATTLE OF EVESHAM 2015 LTD

Speaking at the tenth anniversary celebration for the Evesham Market Town Partnership MP Peter Luff urged local business and organisations to support the 750th anniversary of the death of Simon de Montfort at the Battle of Evesham on August 4^th 1265 and the town in general to celebrate and exploit its past as one key to its future.  Earl Simon was a charismatic and complex figure. A man of contradictions, he was forthright and enigmatic, chivalrous, yet dictatorial, an able military strategist who also cultivated the friendship and guidance of some of Western Europe’s foremost religious leaders. His significance was so great that the 700th anniversary of his death was celebrated by the Speaker of the House of Commons and of the Archbishop of Canterbury visiting Evesham to dedicate a new, simple and dignified, memorial to him in Abbey Park, on the site of the high altar of the former Evesham Abbey at the spot where Earl Simon’s remains were originally interred after the battle.  By his death at Evesham Simon de Montfort brought Evesham to the centre of our national history and that is why I am organising a programme of events to celebrate the 750th anniversary of his death.  The events that are being set up each have their stakeholders who are responsible, among other things, for obtaining the necessary consents and finance.  A year of festivities is designed to run alongside Evesham, drawing in visitors and boosting the town centre.  We have provided directors for the limited company set up to organise and publicise events and to advise local businesses on how to capitalise on the boost these events will give to the local economy.