VIDEO: Richard III's Blue Boar Inn reconstructed as 3D model by Leicester University

It is believed to be where Richard III spent his penultimate night before he was killed at Bosworth.

Now, more than 170 years after Leicester's Blue Boar Inn was demolished, university researchers say they have produced an accurate model of the building.

The University of Leicester experts were able to make a reconstruction of the building following the discovery of a notebook in a private collection containing a survey of the timber-framed inn.

The notes, by architect Henry Goddard, are thought to have been compiled shortly before the inn was demolished in 1836 and were discovered at the family's Leicestershire home where they had remained untouched for decades.

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The university used the drawings to create a computer model, which was turned into a scale model using a 3D printer.

They hope the model will eventually go on display to the public.

The 15th century Blue Boar stood in Highcross Street – partly on the site now occupied by a Travelodge.

Richard Buckley, co-director of archaeological services, at the university said: "This is another piece of the Richard III story and that's why it's so exciting.

"The Blue Boar was one of medieval Leicester's principal inns – a place where aristocrats and wealthy merchants would stay when moving around the country. It was the grand hotel of its time.

"It's where Richard III is believed to have stayed on his way to Bosworth from Nottingham.

"He is said to have come down to Leicester on August 20 and stayed the night in a large first-floor chamber.

"Legend has it Richard didn't like sleeping in strange beds, so had his own brought down from Nottingham in knock-down form so it could be put together at the inn.

"His death meant he never returned to claim it, so the bed became a tourist haunt and may have eventually ended up in the collections of the county museum service at Donington le Heath Manor House."

Until now, the only evidence for what the inn looked like was a pair of engravings made by Leicestershire artist John Flower in 1826.

The notebooks contained extensive measurements of a large timber-frame building which Richard immediately recognised as the Blue Boar Inn.

He said: "What was thrilling about it was that the drawings were so detailed. They showed how the building was put together in feet and inches."

Richard asked Steffan Davies, an architect with experience in historic building drawings, to make a computer plan.

This was then passed to the university's physics and astronomy department and converted into a scale model using a 3D printer.

It shows fireplaces and the chamber in which Richard III was said to have stayed .

It is still not known whether the bones found underneath a city centre car park in August are those of the king.

Results of DNA tests are expected next month.