The Royal Oak, Monmouth

The Royal Oak
The Royal Oak at 134 Hereford Road
Alternative names	The Oak
General information
Type	Public House
Address	134 Hereford Road
Town or city	Monmouth
Country	Wales
Coordinates	51°49′38″N 2°42′45″W / 51.827163°N 2.712429°W / 51.827163; -2.712429Coordinates: 51°49′38″N 2°42′45″W / 51.827163°N 2.712429°W / 51.827163; -2.712429
Landlord	Doug & Judith Morris
Website
www.royaloakmonmouth.co.uk

The Royal Oak is a family-run public house on the northern outskirts of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is in the historic Hereford Road neighbourhood. Proprietors of The Royal Oak during the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries included William Sheriff, George Bird, Elijah Symonds, George Parry, and John Holder. Public houses first appeared in Wales three centuries ago and historically served as the social centres of British towns. They were often named after trees, with "The Royal Oak" a common title for a pub. The Royal Oak continues to be involved with the local community, its owners providing support to the Rotary Club of Monmouth and the Monmouth Women's Festival.

History

The Royal Oak, a public house in Monmouth, is located at 134 Hereford Road, north of Highfield Road.^[1][2][3] It is across the street from The Mount, a neighbourhood of larger residences on the west side of Hereford Road.^[3][4] The facilities of the family-run pub include a function room and balcony in addition to the kitchen, bar, and restaurant.^[5] Other amenities offered are an indoor skittles lane, camping, and ample garden space, which includes a children's play area.^[6][7] The location of the pub permits appreciation of the Wye Valley, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.^[7][8] The current proprietors are Douglas and Judith Morris.^[9]

Public houses first appeared in Wales in the early eighteenth century. The proprietors sold beer from their homes, making their front rooms available to their working-class customers.^[10] For more than two centuries, pubs served as the social centres of towns. By the mid nineteenth century, Wales had numerous public houses, even in smaller communities. Monmouth was remarkable for a ratio of one public house for every 85 residents of the town.^[10] As time passed, the beer houses started to have formal names, often displayed on signs outside the buildings. The name "The Royal Oak" was a common title for a pub.^[10]

The Royal Oak's building dates from the eighteenth century.^[11] At the turn of the nineteenth century, author Charles Heath indicated that The Royal Oak was located within one of the four parochial wards in the town of Monmouth, the Wye Bridge Ward, the others being Castle Bailey Ward, Monnow Street Ward, and Over Monnow Ward.^[12] Local history related to the pub includes that of a policeman by the name of William Fuller who fought and arrested two horse thieves without any assistance. He succeeded in getting both the men and the horses to the police station and was promoted to sergeant. In the mid nineteenth century, the Bird family ran the pub.^[11] However, in 1841, it was William Sheriff, born around 1781, who was innkeeper of The Royal Oak. He resided there with his wife Elizabeth.^[13] In 1846,^[14] and 1851, then-widowed William Sheriff, a native of Leominster, Herefordshire, England, was recorded as the innkeeper of The Royal Oak. His son-in-law George Bird, who resided with Sheriff, was a farmer.^[15] Ten years later, in 1861, George Bird, a native of Llangarron, Herefordshire, was the innkeeper of the pub. Born around 1817, he was eight years younger than his wife Sarah, the former proprietor's daughter.^[16] Bird was still the innkeeper of the public house in 1871.^[17] While the pub was specified by name in the description of District 1 in the 1881 census of Monmouth, it was not specified in the census enumeration. Widowed Sarah Bird, a native of Monmouth, was recorded as a publican's wife that year on Hereford Road.^[18]

Elijah Symonds, born around 1856 in Gloucester, Gloucestershire, was the innkeeper of the Royal Oak Inn in 1891. He resided on Hereford Road with his wife Dorcas and children.^[19] In 1901, Kelly's Directory of Monmouthshire indicated that George Parry was the proprietor of The Royal Oak public house on Hereford Road.^[20] In the census of that year, Parry, a native of Flintshire, Wales, was recorded as living at The Royal Oak with his family, his occupation listed as publican.^[21] By 1923, the pub's proprietor was John T. Holder.^[22] The pub is one of the "last" in Wales because of the proximity of the premises to the English border; the honor of being the "last in Wales" has been claimed by The Mayhill Hotel.^[11]

Community involvement

Sign in front of The Royal Oak at 134 Hereford Road, Monmouth, Wales

Public houses have traditionally been meeting places for community groups. In 1874, a women's friendly society was meeting at the Royal Oak. The group was entitled the "Royal Oak Inn Female Friendly Society." Its stated mission was the financing of the burials of the members and their husbands. This was accomplished by the regular collection of membership fees and dues.^[23] There also appeared to be a "sick and funeral fund" based at the Royal Oak Inn in 1901.^[24]

The Rotary Club of Monmouth meets on a weekly basis at The Royal Oak on Hereford Road.^[25] On 19 October 2011, the public house hosted a club meeting that was open to the community. The guest speaker Tim Williams had been featured on the BBC Two reality television show Dragons' Den.^[26][27] Williams, who with his business partner Tom Hogan successfully pitched their business venture, related his experience on the television show. He and his partner had survived the negotiation process with two of the Dragons. He also updated the audience on the status of the product that he and his partner had pitched, an electronic graffiti wall.^[26][27] The entrepreneurs, both former students of the Monmouth Comprehensive School, developed their digital graffiti wall YrWall through their company Lumacoustics Limited. The evening at The Royal Oak represented an opportunity for local residents to learn about the Monmouth Rotary Club and its philanthropic activities.^[26][27][28] In March 2012, the Monmouth Rotary Club created its own version of Dragons' Den when it put together an event to which sixteen local charitable organisations had been invited. Representatives of each charity gave a presentation on their activities and how the club's philanthropy and business expertise might benefit them.^[29] At the conclusion of the event, each charity was presented with a £100 cheque. The inspiration behind the evening's activities was the Rotary's wish to become more familiar with local charities that could benefit from the club's support.^[29]

The Royal Oak was a sponsor of the March 2012 Monmouth Women's Festival.^[30] The mission statement of the festival indicates that its intent is the recognition of International Women's Day by scheduling events, increasing awareness of women's issues, and acknowledging their achievements.^[31] Events were scheduled over a period of more than two weeks in March 2012, at a variety of venues, such as the Monmouth Museum, Shire Hall, The Grange, and the Monmouth School.^[32] In addition, the Royal Oak was the site of a February 2012 meeting to plan Monmouth's summer events.^[33]

Today, the name of a public house such as "The Royal Oak" can indicate the whereabouts of a "veteran" tree, a tree that is greater than five hundred years old. In the autumn of 2005, volunteers acting on behalf of the Gwent Wildlife Trust began to hunt down and register old trees.^[34] More than 350 of the veteran trees were found in south Wales. Among the clues the volunteers employed in their search were local pubs, as they were often named after trees.^[34]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pubs in Monmouth.

• Official website