Royal Oak (2) - sign, 178 Union Street, Oldham
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Royal Oak (2) - sign, 178 Union Street, Oldham by P L Chadwick as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
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Royal Oak (2) - sign, 178 Union Street, Oldham
Image: © P L Chadwick Taken: 28 Oct 2017
Many public houses & inns in England are named the Royal Oak, to celebrate the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. The significance of the oak being that, before the restoration, the future King Charles II spent most of one day, hiding in an oak tree from Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian troops. His birthday of May 29th was still celebrated by many people up to the end of the 19th century. Therefore many pubs continued to be given the name of Royal Oak, even when they were opened a hundred or two hundred years later. Today, for better or worse, the day has lost its significance, probably because the 29th May ceased to be a public holiday some time in the 1850's. This particular pub has only been here since the early 1900's but possibly it replaced an older pub of the same name. Image Image
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Image Location
Latitude
53.541777
Longitude
-2.10529