Hidden away in Shropshire on an unclassified road, lies a building that played an important part in one of the most famous parts of British history.
Boscobel House may not sound very familiar to you, but I bet the name the ‘Royal Oak’ rings a bell? The Royal Oak is one of the most common names of a British public house next to that of The Crown and the Red Lion. It is the events that occurred at Boscobel House that the name derives from.
In 1649 King Charles I was beheaded as part of the English Civil War and England was declared a commonwealth. It is a little known fact that due to the beheading of Charles I when our present Prince Charles becomes our monarch he will most likely to use his middle name and will be crowned King George VII.
Charles I had a son also called Charles who had fled the country and was hiding first in France and then in Holland. In 1650 he decided to try and regain his fathers throne and on the 23rd of June he arrived in Scotland. Shortly after being crowned in Scotland he began his journey south and on reaching Worcester he was proclaimed “King of Great Britain, France and Ireland”.
On hearing that King Charles II was gathering troops and preparing for battle, Oliver Cromwell and the commonwealth army reached Worcester as soon as they could and the fighting began…
By night time on the 3rd of September Charles and his army were defeated and he had no choice but to retreat. At some point during his retreat Charles was recommended Boscobel House as a suitable hiding place.
Not long after arriving at Boscobel House Charles decided to head towards Wales but unfortunately he did not succeed as despite his disguise there were too many troops out looking for him so he returned once more to Boscobel House.
After getting some nourishment from the house, unlike his previous visit he decided not to hide in the house but instead he hid up a large oak tree in the surrounding wood and good job he did! Late one night as Charles hid up the oak tree, soldiers could be heard walking and talking down below. Who knows what would have been going through Charles’ mind? No doubt the commonwealth soldiers would have been talking about the unspeakable things that they were going to do to him should they capture him.
Some time later, Charles left Boscobel House and headed towards Worcester as he begun his journey back to France where he remained in exile until 1660.
Boscobel House & The Royal Oak Tree (as it had now become known), soon became famous and people from far and wide came to visit. Sadly these visitors became over enthusiastic about the Royal Oak and begun to take small parts of it to make trinkets and keepsakes (such as snuff boxes toys and even a garden bench/seat)!
The damage of the tree was such that it had to be cropped and a brick wall built around it to protect it from any further damage.
Sadly the damage to the tree still continued and in 1706 it had begun to die. It was noticed at the time than an acorn from the Royal Oak had grown in to a sapling right next to the dying tree and it is this tree that stands there today!
If you take a look at my photographs you will see that since the storms in recent years, it is no longer in very good shape, in fact just like the original Royal Oak it is now dying.
Keeping up with tradition an acorn from this tree was grown in to a sapling and was recently planted nearby by HRH Prince Charles so that the Royal Oak shall live on for generations to come.
Boscobel House has remained relatively unchanged over the years so when you take a tour round it today not much has changed and is a fantastic place to visit. You can even see some of the hiding places that were built in to the house including one under the latrine (to hide the smell of a person from any sniffer dogs), there is also another hiding place you can see in the attic room where smelly cheeses were once stored.
