WE HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR A WHILE
HISTORY
The Royal Oak, Chapel Ash – A Living Piece of Wolverhampton History
On the corner of Compton Road in Chapel Ash stands The Royal Oak, a landmark that has been part of Wolverhampton life for nearly two centuries. Its story is woven into the city’s history – from funeral carriages to FA Cup finals – and today it remains one of Wolverhampton’s most loved community pubs.
From Carriages to Casks
The tale begins in the early 1800s when Samuel Taylor, born in Tettenhall in 1805, ran both an undertaker’s business and an alehouse from what was then 1 Albert Place. In 1845 he became the first recorded landlord of The Royal Oak, serving the public for 20 years until his death in 1865 – making him still the longest-serving licensee in the pub’s history.
After Taylor, a succession of colourful characters followed, including Elizabeth Jones, who somehow found time to run the pub while raising 13 children (including three sets of twins!). Later, James Turley, landlord from 1910–1923, not only steered the pub through the First World War but also served as an air gunner in the RAF.
Rebuilt for a New Era
By the 1920s, The Oak had grown from a simple two-up-two-down with stables into the red-brick Victorian landmark we know today, redesigned by local architect Joseph D. Wood. Its striking curved frontage, terracotta detail, and lofty chimneys remain a Chapel Ash icon.
The Second World War brought its own stories – Wilfred Shaw, landlord from 1935–1948, famously moved his family into the wine cellar for safety during bombing raids.
The Football Connection
Perhaps the most famous landlord of all was Maurice Woodward, who kept The Oak between the wars. Woodward wasn’t just a publican – he also played for Wolverhampton Wanderers and lined up in the 1921 FA Cup Final at Stamford Bridge. Wolves lost 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur, but Woodward’s place in history – and in Oak folklore – was sealed.
The Oak Today
Through all its landlords – including Dutchman Arie Hoogen in the 1960s and Ivor Gethin with his famous “pie and a pint” deal – The Royal Oak has remained a cornerstone of Chapel Ash life. Since 2006, Sue and Keith Fullwood and now their daughter Emma and her husband Terry Cole have carried on the tradition, re-establishing the pub as a true community hub.
Today The Oak is known not just for match days and music, but also for its charity work, festivals, and warm Black Country welcome. With its proud history and thriving present, The Royal Oak is a pub that continues to be mighty – rooted in the past, but firmly alive in the heart of Wolverhampton today.
FAMOUS PUBLICAN
The storyof Maurice Woodward.
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He was born in Enderby in 1891, and played local football there before joining
Leicester Fosse as a centre-half in August 1912. Hampered by an ankle injury he only played two games for the Fosse. He signed for
Southern League Southend United in July 1914, but war broke out before he could play for them. When the First World War broke out, league football continued for the whole of the following season. Footballers came in for much criticism for ‘not doing their bit’. This led to the
‘Footballers’ Battalion’ (otherwise known as the 17th Middlesex Battalion)being created in December 1914 at a meeting at Fulham Town Hall. Quite soon professional footballers with connections to over 70 clubs, including Leicester Fosse, signed up. The Battalion was brought up to strength (about 1,000) by amateur players, officials and football fans eager to serve alongside their favorite players.
In November 1915, Maurice went to France with the Footballers’ Battalion where he served under Bradford City’s England international Major Frank Buckley, who later became a famous manager at Wolverhampton Wanderers. The battalion first saw serious action on the Somme, losing over 500 officers and men between 25July and 11 August 1916. On 24th July 1916, the day before his Battalion’s serious involvement in the battle, (which had already been raging for three weeks), Maurice, by now a sergeant, played for a team of NCOs against a team from ‘B’ Company. One of the players in the‘B’ Company team was Joe Mercer, the father of the famous player Joe Mercer,who later managed Manchester City against Leicester City in the 1969 FA Cup Final. The following day the Footballers’ Battalion moved up to the front with a fighting
strength of 38 officers and 872 men. They occupied some recently captured German trenches astride the Montuban-Carnoy Road, relieving the 10th Royal Welch Fusiliers. The trenches had been badly damaged by British guns prior to their capture, and were littered with the bodies and body parts of many dead German soldiers, together with many dead horses. Soon afterwards, the Battalion was involved in an assault on Delville Wood and Longueval. Over the next eighteen days, the Battalion lost over 500 officers and men. In 2010 a memorial to the Footballers Battalion was erected in this area (above). Four months later, the Battalion suffered another 300 casualties at Redan Ridge and
462 more at Oppy Wood, near Vimy Ridge, the following spring. Maurice was wounded twice during the war but survived and rejoined Southend United before joining Second Division Wolverhampton Wanders in April 1920 for a fee of£700. He was badly troubled by sciatica, but he was fit to play for Wolves in the 1921 FA Cup Final at Stamford Bridge against a Tottenham Hotspur side which contained his former Fosse team mate Tommy Clay as well as Jimmy Seed, the brother of Leicester Fosse’s Angus Seed, another member of the Footballers’ Battalion .
Tottenham Hotspur won the Final 1-0, their goal coming after the ball bounced off Maurice’s thigh into the path of the Spurs winger Dimmock whose 25 yard shot skimmed offthe very muddy surface before sailing over the Wolves goalkeeper into the net. His sciatica and a knee injury kept Maurice out for most of the following season. He was transferred to Bristol Rovers but was never able to play for them. Whilst
playing for Wolves, Maurice lived in Nuneaton and played as a batsman for Chilvers Coton Cricket Club alongside ‘Billy’ Barratt the Leicester City
full-back. In later life, Maurice kept the Old Bush Inn at Wall Heath nearWolverhampton and Royal Oak at Chapel ash .He died on February 17th 1950 at West Bromwich General Hospital.
Publican and undertaker who was killed at work
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Black Country Bugle
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16 Oct 2019
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By DAVID COOPER
TAKE a straw poll amongst customers at the Royal Oak in Wolverhampton to gauge their needs and expectations, and chances are a funeral service is unlikely to feature.
Step back 174 years though, and enterprising landlord Samuel Taylor believed in providing a “public bar to burial” service from the back yard of the striking Victorian hostelry on Compton Road.
Digging
Thanks to many dedicated hours of research by current Oak publican Terry Cole, digging deep into the historic wealth of Wolverhampton City Archives, some intriguing glimpses of life through the door of a quintessential community public house have been revealed.
Beginning life as number one Albert Place in the early 1800s (the address probably relates to the row of adjacent terraced dwellings which was later demolished) the 1891 census records the Royal Oak as 48 Compton Road, at which time the building was a simple twoup and two-down alehouse with stables and stores.
Today, the brick-built stables and coach yard entrance from which Samuel Taylor ran his undertaker’s business are clearly visible at the side of the pub on the corner of Compton Road and Clarendon Street.
Sadly, his death in 1865 was caused by one of the horses he liveried at the pub’s stables. Whilst testing a new horse coupled to an open-topped fourwheeled landau, the creature bolted, wrecking the carriage and severely injuring his wife and the family’s servant.
Samuel died a few weeks later, leading to the sale of the funeral business. In the auctioneer’s catalogue of Messrs Skidmore & Barnett, apart from what are described as two valuable hearses with ostrich plumes, two
mourning coaches and six horses, the undertaker’s assets also included a quantity of horse manure.
By 1866 the name above the door tells that the stewardship of the pub was in the hands of a Mrs Elizabeth Patience Jones who in total contrast to delivering souls to the cemetery, spent time between serving ales and porter to give birth to seven sons and six daughters during a period of eighteen years. Remarkably including three sets of twins.
Forty years and nine landlords later, James Turley, a member of the wellestablished Wolverhampton business which today trades in office furniture from Newhampton Road, served the local Compton Road and Chapel Ash community with the pub having undergone a transformation. Local Architect John D. Wood contracted by Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (later renamed Marston’s) provided a splendid landmark building in red brick with stone and terracotta embellishments, much favoured by Victorian town planners, made all the more striking by lofty chimney stacks and a proud curved tower-like street corner elevation, with mock cupola.
It was a period of radical change for the public house. Whilst hitherto the local had been the one place of the working man’s recreation where he could enjoy a social glass and gossip with his mates, breweries were addressing a transformation of simple ale-swilling premises, with a new emphasis on social issues in pleasant surroundings. Some offered refreshments and entertainment, with larger pubs even having assembly rooms and dance floors.
Rebuilding
Original plans for the 1906 rebuilding of The Oak carefully preserved in Wolverhampton City Archives reflect the changing community role of the local boozer, with new facilities such as a smoke room, coffee room and an upstairs book club room.
Climbing the staircase customers would have been impressed by an enormous, spectacular stained-glass window. Skillfully set within the dramatic colourful glazing is a decorative scene of the royal oak tree in which history tells us the future King Charles II of England hid from Cromwell’s roundheads in 1651 following his army’s routing in the Civil War battle of Worcester.
A short walk from the pub, a public pleasure park of the late 1800s known as the Molineux Grounds, which featured an ice rink, cycling track and boating lake, was to eventually become the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC.
The first match, played in 1889, saw a crowd of 4,000 enjoy a 2-0 win for the home side over Notts County. It’s a safe bet that the proximity of the Royal Oak to the ground will have attracted the Gold and Black fans for a preand post-match glass or two, which is certainly the case today on home match days – the difference being a ground capacity of 31,700.
Turn the pages back to 1923 and thirsty fans would certainly have recognized the man pulling the pints. It was none other than Maurice Woodward, publican and Wolves player who was included in the team of the FA Cup Final of 1921, against Tottenham Hotspur staged at Stamford Bridge.
Wolves were subjected to a one-nil defeat. No guessing the post-match mood in The Oak on that afternoon? There is probably no sensible comparison with then and now transfer fees. Sponsorship and televised sport were a thing of the future. For the record Wolves paid £700 to welcome Woodward to Molineux in 1921. He ended his stewardship of the pub after twelve years in 1935.
Woodward and Turley both served in France in the Great War. Woodward was wounded twice, seeing action as a member of the Footballer’s Battalion (otherwise known as the 17th Middlesex Battalion) which had been formed to combat critics of players not doing their bit as league football carried on during the war.
More than 70 clubs signed up to the voluntary call-to-arms, along with fans eager to serve alongside their idols. On arrival in France, Woodward served under Major Frank Buckley who later went on to become manager of Wolves.
Despite the front-line horrors of trench warfare, football became a vital recreation during lulls in the conflict, with Woodward – by then a sergeant – fielding a team of Noncommissioned Officers versus a squad from B company which included Joe Mercer, the father of the player of the same name who later managed Manchester City.
Air Gunner
For James Turley, publican from 1910 – 1923, his military service took the precarious rank of aircraft gunner with 226 squadron based at Taranto Pizzone, Southern Italy. Flying in the legendary de Havilland DH9 single engine, two-seater, open cockpit bi-plane, Turley sat behind the pilot, armed with a Lewis machine gun. He was tasked with containing the threat of enemy naval forces and the destruction of enemy communication lines.
The aircraft carried 460 lbs. of bombs. Of American design, the Lewis gun was manufactured by Birmingham Small Arms at their factory in Armoury Road, Small Heath. Later known as BSA, the firm became popular worldwide for cycles and motorcycles, and a lesser known range of motorcars.
Popular
Statistically, millions of people live within easy distance of a Royal Oak. The Pubsgalor guide reckons there are 467 Royal Oaks in the UK – the most popular pub name being the Red Lion.
Of a trawl of several internet listings some place the Royal Oak in second place, with The Crown taking third slot, but how many regular pub-goers know the history behind the name? Fact or fiction, in the West Midlands it is English Heritage-owned Boscobel House close to the village of Bishops Wood, 9 miles north west of Wolverhampton that claims to have in a nearby field a magnificent oak which is a direct decedent of the original which concealed the fleeing prince.
So, what of the future for The Oak? Heritage experts at the Centre of Urban and Regional Studies at Birmingham University conclude that a large number, perhaps the majority, of Victorian city pubs were on a street corner. There is no precise explanation for this, beyond the idea that a pub on a corner will perhaps attract more custom. Add to this the dedication of current landlord Terry and wife Emma to provide good honest Black Country hospitality with the attraction of live music and seasonal festivals, and The Oak should continue to be mighty.