The main sight in Old Minster is Minster Lovell Hall, a 15th-century riverside manor house that fell into ruins after being abandoned in 1747. You can pass through the vaulted porch to peek past blackened walls into the roofless great hall, the interior courtyard and the crumbling tower, while the wind whistles eerily through the gaping windows. To get here, walk through the church gardens at the eastern end of Old Minster.
Richard III stayed here in 1483. The house’s owner Viscount Francis Lovell fought alongside him at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, then joined Lambert Simnel’s failed rebellion after Richard’s defeat and death. Lovell subsequently disappeared, but the 1708 discovery of a skeleton inside a secret vault in the house prompted (unlikely) speculation that he died while in hiding.
