THE ROYAL OAK - THE TRUTH REVEALED!

Photo: Maureen Condra

This Diary entry is a follow up to: THE ROYAL OAK, circa 1900

                                                        LAST REMNANTS OF THE ROYAL OAK circa 2012

UPDATED 9th APRIL 2015 (PLEASE SCROLL DOWN THE PAGE)

The last piece in the jigsaw, as supplied by Malcolm Hough, finally vindicates Trevor Williams in his assertion that the still extant wall behind the site of Niddrie's former bus garage was, indeed, part of the Royal Oak - Ed.

by Dave Roberts

Our convoluted theories about the Royal Oak in Lewin Street (see previous Diary entries - links above) came down, in the end, to a simple truth - that The Royal Oak ended its days not as a public house, but as a private house, sandwiched in between the White Horse and, at first that three storeyed house with the steep steps and, later, Niddries new building.

The red herring, and the thing that threw all our calculations out, was Trevor Williams' assertion that one of the walls of the former pub still existed at the rear of the old Niddries site. There was no way we could make the 'footprint' of the pub fit where it was supposed to if we placed one of the walls of the pub so far back and so far to the left of the site.

In one of our earlier entries mention was made of Maureen Condra, nee Hitchen, who now lives in America and is an avid reader of the Middlewich Diary. 

Maureen sent us the above photograph a couple of years ago, explaining that it showed her former home at 40 Lewin Street.

Obviously Maureen's family home and the erstwhile Royal Oak are one and the same building. It had obviously ceased to be a pub and been converted into a private house many years before.

So that is the reason no one could remember a Lewin Street pub being demolished in the 1950s.

Maureen writes:

We occupied the whole house. The right hand side with the single chimney was where my bedroom was. My brother Jimmy and sister Margaret were born there, as was my daughter Leona, with the assistance of Dr Brown and Nurse Benger*. I remember it as if it was yesterday. And, yes, the new building on the left was being built by Niddries. I left in 1958 and came back for a visit in 1960 and my family were living in George VI Avenue. The photograph was taken while the pavement was being repaired.

* One of the town's well-known and well-respected District Nurses. Geraldine Williams says she remembers Nurse Benger, along with others including Nurse Adamson.

So Malcolm Hough and Trevor Williams were obviously quite right when they said that the building was demolished at the same time as Niddries was built, but it was many years after it had ceased to be a pub.

I wonder if the thorny problem of the remains behind the site of Niddries garage can be solved with a little lateral thinking? Are those remains perhaps part of a retaining wall at the rear of the pub's yard, or maybe the last remnants of an outhouse of some kind? The pub's yard may have extended behind those adjacent buildings.

UPDATE: 9th APRIL 2015

Actually Malcolm Hough and Trevor Williams have the final word on this  Royal Oak enigma, with virtually no lateral thinking needed.

Malcolm writes:

Hi Dave,

 I have only just read your edited article on the Royal Oak. I like it very much. Nice to see other people interested. Trevor Williams may have been right about the remnants of the pub though. Take a look at the attached image. It shows the footprint of the pub on the 1909 O.S. map, it is the reversed [Z] shape [yellow]. The left-hand side does go back a fair way. It looked a large building in those days.

 The White Horse [blue]; looks like there were three buildings there in those days. Maybe that’s how the car-park came about, after the demolition of the first two buildings or part of. 

 Regards

Malc

Photocapture: Malcolm Hough

So we can consider Trevor Williams vindicated!

As for the Royal Oak and the White Horse being immediately adjacent to one another, as we've explained before, this was by no means unusual at one time. Malcolm Hough has kindly sent us a list of pubs and beer houses in the town in 1860 and we can see that the two establishments did indeed flourish side by side.

As time went on, however, it may well have been that there was not enough trade for both pubs, and this could explain why the Royal Oak became a private house, leaving the White Horse to cater for all the local drinkers.

Many thanks to everyone who has enthusiastically joined us in solving another little Middlewich mystery!

• HOTELS, INNS, TAVERNS & LICENSEES IN MIDDLEWICH 1860

BLACK BEAR: MARY DEAN. PEPPER ST

BRASS HEAD: THOMAS WARBURTON. KINDERTON ST

BULL’S HEAD: SAMUEL BURGESS. KINDERTON ST

CARBINEER: SARAH BAILEY. HIGH TOWN

CHESHIRE CHEESE: JOHN WALTON. NEWTON

GOLDEN LION: SAMUEL PERCIVAL. NEWTON

GRAPES: GILBERT EGERTON. LEWIN ST

HORSE & JOCKEY: JOHN MAULKIN LOWER ST

KING’S ARMS: FRANCIS EARL. HIGH TOWN

NAVIGATION: JAMES OAKS. KINDERTON ST

RED COW: ROBERT MILLS. WHEELOCK ST

RED LION: WILLIAM WOODWARD. NEWTON

ROSE & CROWN: JAMES ELLISON. LEWIN ST

ROYAL OAK: JOHN LUNT. LEWIN ST

SPREAD EAGLE: FRED WHITTAKER. HIGH TOWN

TALBOT: CATHERINE BOLSHAW. KINDERTON ST

WHEAT SHEAF: JOHN LEECH. LOWER ST

WHITE BEAR: THOMAS BARRATT. WHEELOCK ST

WHITE HORSE: JOHN HOLFORD. LEWIN ST

WHITE LION: WILLIAM EGERTON. WHEELOCK ST

BEER HOUSES

NEWTON BREWERY: WILLIAM BRAITHWAITE. WEBB’S LANE

PLOUGH: FRED DALE. LEADSMITHY ST

ROBIN HOOD: JOHN HURST. NEWTON

KINDERTON ARMS: EDWARD LOWE. BOOTH LANE

JUNCTION: WILLIAM SIMON OAKS. BROOKS LANE

KINGS LOCK: WILLIAM OAKS. NEWTON

LORD HOOD: NO RECORD. PEPPER ST

PAUL FRY & RING ‘O’ BELLS WERE CLOSED PREVIOUS TO 1860

First published 19th January 2015
Re-published (with amendments) 9th April 2015)
Re-published 18th January 2018
Re-published 15th January 2019