The Royal Oak was the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. Charles told Samuel Pepys in 1680 that while he was hiding in the tree, a Parliamentarian soldier passed directly below it. The story was popular after the Restoration, and is remembered every year in the English traditions of Royal Oak Day.
South Staffordshire is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in Codsall. Other notable settlements include Brewood, Cheslyn Hay, Coven, Essington, Featherstone, Four Ashes, Great Wyrley, Huntington, Kinver, Landywood, Penkridge, Perton, Wedges Mills, Weston-under-Lizard and Wombourne. The district covers a largely rural area lying immediately to the west and north-west of the West Midlands conurbation.
Boscobel House is a Grade II* listed building in the parish of Boscobel in Shropshire. It has been, at various times, a farmhouse, a hunting lodge, and a holiday home; but it is most famous for its role in the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Today it is managed by English Heritage.
Chillington Hall is a Georgian country house near Brewood, Staffordshire, England, four miles northwest of Wolverhampton. It is the residence of the Giffard family. The Grade I listed house was designed by Francis Smith in 1724 and John Soane in 1785. The park and lake were landscaped by Capability Brown.
Boscobel is a civil parish in the east of Shropshire, England, on the border with Staffordshire. To the north is the Staffordshire village of Bishops Wood.
The Monarch's Way is a 625-mile (1,006 km) long-distance footpath in England that approximates the escape route taken by King Charles II in 1651 after being defeated in the Battle of Worcester. It runs from Worcester via Bristol and Yeovil to Shoreham, West Sussex.
Brewood is an ancient market town in the civil parish of Brewood and Coven, in the South Staffordshire district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. Brewood lies near the River Penk, 8 miles (13 km) north of Wolverhampton and 11 miles (18 km) south of Stafford. Brewood is about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of the county border with Shropshire.
Savernake Forest stands on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately 4,500 acres.
After the final defeat of Royalists in the English Civil War against Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army at the Battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651, the future Charles II of England was forced to flee England. With the support of a network of Royalist gentry, Charles first attempted to escape into Wales, then to Bristol disguised as a servant, then to the south coast at Charmouth. Finally, he rode east to Shoreham from where he sailed for France on 15 October 1651. During the six-week flight, he passed through numerous English counties, and at one point was forced to hide in an oak tree on the grounds of a house that was being searched by Parliamentarian soldiers. A £1000 reward had been offered for information leading to Charles's capture.
White Ladies Priory, once the Priory of St Leonard at Brewood, was an English priory of Augustinian canonesses, now in ruins, in Shropshire, in the parish of Boscobel, some eight miles (13 km) northwest of Wolverhampton, near Junction 3 of the M54 motorway. Dissolved in 1536, it became famous for its role in the escape of Charles II of England after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The name 'White Ladies' refers to the canonesses who lived there and who wore white religious habits.
Essington is a village and civil parish in South Staffordshire, England, located near the city of Wolverhampton and towns of Walsall, Bloxwich, Cannock and Brewood. The villages of Cheslyn Hay, Great Wyrley, Coven, Penkridge and Featherstone are also nearby. The village forms part of the Staffordshire/West Midlands border.
The River Penk is a small river flowing through Staffordshire, England. Its course is mainly within South Staffordshire, and it drains most of the northern part of that district, together with some adjoining areas of Cannock Chase, Stafford, Wolverhampton, and Shropshire. It flows into the River Sow, which is a tributary of the River Trent, so its waters flow ultimately into the North Sea via the Humber Estuary.
Coven is a village in the district of South Staffordshire, England, near the border with Wolverhampton. Together with Brewood it forms part of the parish of Brewood & Coven.
Colonel William Careless was a Royalist officer of the English Civil War. It has been estimated in various written sources that he was born c. 1620, however, it is more likely that he was born c. 1610. He was the second son of John Careless of Broom Hall, Brewood, Staffordshire, and his wife Ellen Fluit. He is chiefly remembered as the companion of King Charles II when the fugitive monarch hid in the Royal Oak following his defeat at the Battle of Worcester. His surname was changed to Carlos, the Spanish for Charles, by order of Charles II. He died in 1689.
Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green. Founded in the mid-12th century, it was a small, often struggling, house. It was dissolved in 1538, and a large house was built on the site in Tudor and Jacobean styles by the Giffard family of Chillington Hall. Much of this is incorporated in the present Black Ladies, a large, Grade II*-listed, private residence.
Edward Monckton was a British colonial administrator and nabob, a Whig politician, a member of parliament for 32 years, and an important Staffordshire landowner.
William Pendrill was a Roman Catholic and royalist in the English Civil War.
Brewood and Coven is a civil parish in the district of South Staffordshire, Staffordshire, England. It contains 137 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, three are listed at Grade I, the highest of the three grades, eleven are at Grade II*, the middle grade, and the others are at Grade II, the lowest grade. The parish contains the villages of Brewood, Coven, and Bishops Wood and the surrounding area. In the parish are three country houses, which are listed together with buildings in their grounds and estates. Two canals run through the parish, the Shropshire Union Canal and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal, and the listed buildings associated with these are bridges, mileposts, and an aqueduct. Most of the other listed buildings are houses and associated structures, cottages, farmhouses, farm buildings, shops and offices, the earlier of which are timber framed or have timber framed cores. The other listed buildings include churches and associated structures, monuments in a churchyard, a holy well, road bridges, a public house, a war memorial, and a telephone kiosk.
St Mary and St Chad's Church is an Anglican parish church, situated in Brewood, Staffordshire. It has been a grade I listed building since 1962.
St Mary's Church, Brewood is a Roman Catholic parish church that was designed by Augustus Pugin. It has been a grade II listed building since 1974.
