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SJ2207 : Royal Oak, WelshpoolSJ2207 : Royal Oak Hotel information notice, Welshpool

Gwesty'r Dderwen Frenhinol

According to Richard Haslam's Pevsner guide of 1979 "the Royal Oak Hotel represents the Late Georgian tradition, with its carefully proportioned red brick, three storeys, tripartite windows, and a good iron sign bracket."

A bilingual notice forming part of the town trail tells us that "It did not become Royal until the 19th century when Queen Victoria visited Powis Castle." A royal visit did in fact take place in 1832, when the future Queen (then a 13-year-old Princess and heir presumptive to the throne) stayed at Powis Castle with her mother, the Duchess of Kent.

The hotel's own website tells us that "Past speculation that this was the occasion on which the inn first became known as the Royal Oak is now confirmed as incorrect." A booklet available on the site "collates the more recently-found, incontrovertible evidence that earlier references to the name Oak Inn were merely short forms, and that the inn’s full name has been the Royal Oak since at least 1724" (more than a century before Victoria's visit).

Royal Oak, symbolising the strength of the monarchy, became a popular name for inns from the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, recalling the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester in 1651 when he hid in an oak tree at Boscobel in SJ8308 on the border of Shropshire and Staffordshire; thus it was a particular favourite throughout the west Midland counties and the neighbouring Welsh borderlands. The Herbert Earls of Powis were staunch Royalists and were rewarded for their loyalty by both Charles II and James II, so it is understandable that they should have chosen this name for the principal hostelry in their home town.