Pub sign photo study – The Royal Oak – Strines, Derbyshire

Tweet

Royal Oak pubs take their name from King Charles 2nd taking refuge for several days in an oak tree right above the republican Roundhead forces of Oliver Cromwell’s regime who kept him from his throne. Charles had lost the 1651 battle Of Worcester and had to run for his life, hiding in the tree and other places until he could get safely out of the country to France. Charles would return to the throne freely in the 1660 Restoration. The Strines sign captures the drama of his tree-bound hiding place superbly.