The Black Arrow: A Tale of the Two Roses Black Arrow" appeared in "Young Folks" (October 1883): The Battle of Shoreby, a fictitious battle that is the main event of Book 5, is modelled after the First Battle of St Albans in the Wars of the Roses. This battle in history as in the novel was a victory for the House of York. The presence of an abbey church in Shoreby is reminiscent of the abbey church of Tewkesbury to which the Lancastrians fled for sanctuary after the battle on 4 May 1471. In the "prologue" Stevenson intimates that the Tunstall of "The Black Arrow" is a real place:
Wars of the Roses (air race) pretty well together” while Harold Blackburn admitted they had a geographical advantage over their Lancashire rivals. The silver trophy donated by the Yorkshire Evening News was presented to Dr. Christie who in turn awarded it to Harold Blackburn. A return match in Lancashire was mooted for later in October 1913 with further plans for making the Wars of the Roses air race an annual event. Neither of these came to fruition. Wars of the Roses (air race) The Wars of the Roses was an air race organized by the Yorkshire Evening News between the Yorkshire-built Blackburn Type I monoplane and