Monarch’s Way lists

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Places where Charles slept

  1. Day 1 – 3 September 1651 – Battle of Worcester day, no sleep that night
  2. Day 2 – 4 September 1651 White Ladies Priory / Spring Coppice (daytime)
  3. Day 3 – 5 September 1651 – Madeley Barn (daytime)
  4. Day 4 – 6 September 1651 – Royal Oak (daytime) / Boscobel House (night)
  5. Days 5-6 – 7-8 September 1651 – Moseley Old Hall
  6. Day 7 – 9 September 1651 – Bentley Hall
  7. Day 8 – 10 September 1651 – King’s Lodge, Long Marsden
  8. Day 9 – 11 September 1651 – The Fleece or other Inn, Cirencester
  9. Days 10-13 – 12-15 September 1651 – Old Leigh Court, near Bristol
  10. Day 14 – 16 September 1651 – Manor House or the Old House, Castle Cary
  11. Days 15-19 – 15-21 September – Trent Manor
  12. Day 20 – 22 September 1651 – The Queen’s Arms, Charmouth
  13. Day 21 – 23 September 1651 – George Inn, Broad Windsor
  14. Days 22-33 – 25 September – 5 October 1651 -Trent Manor (again)
  15. Days 34-40 – 6 October – 12 October – Heale House, Middle Woodford
  16. Day 41 – 13 October – Bury Lodge, Hambledon or adjacent King’s Cottage
  17. Day 42 – 14 October – George Inn, Brighton – either Middle Street or West Street, left early hours of 15 October to board ship
  18. Day 43 – 15 October – on board The Surprise, later renamed HMY The Great Escape

Near encounters with Cromwell’s Troops

  1. Day 1 – Rode through troops at Stourbridge town centre
  2. Day 2 – In Spring Coppice, troops passed close by
  3. Day 4 – In the Royal Oak with Captain Careless, troops passed underneath
  4. Day 7 – At Moseley Old Hall, troops arrived at the building while Charles was concealed there
  5. Day 8 – Troops avoided at King’s Lane, just outside Stratford-upon-Avon
  6. Day 21 – Charles encountered troops at the George Inn at Bridport
  7. Day 21 – Charles and party narrowly avoided troops while leaving Bridport via Lee Lane
  8. Day 21 – At Broadwindsor, Charles and Party are given quarters in the attic of the George Inn while Cromwell’s troops occupied the rest of the building
  9. Day 42 – Cromwell sympathisiers avoided near Arundel Castle
  10. Day 42 – Rode through troops at Bramber Bridge
  11. Day 43 – Troops arrive two hours after the boat sailed

George Inns and the like

  1. Pub at Abbot’s Leigh called the George
  2. We stayed at George Hotel in Castle Cary
  3. We stayed at George Hotel, Crewkerne
  4. Charmouth has a George Inn
  5. Charles paused at the George Inn Bridport
  6. Charles stopped at the George Inn Broadwindsor, aka The Castle Inn
  7. Charles paused at the George Inn, Mere
  8. There was a George Inn in Hambledon, the landlord was once Richard Nyren. It is now residential accommodation.
  9. At Wanford, there is a George & Falcon Hotel, very likely visited by Wilmot while he waited for Charles
  10. Charles paused at the George and Dragon, Houghton
  11. Charles stopped at the Old George Inn, Brighton, on the final night. It is not certain where this was.

Literary connections

  1. Tong has the supposed grave of Little Nell, from The Old Curiosity Shop.
  2. It has been suggested that the memorial verses on a tomb inside Tong Church were written by William Shakespeare.
  3. Bromsgrove is the birthplace of AE Housman, author of A Shropshire Lad.
  4. A well-known Elizabethan / Jacobean playwright was born at Stratford-upon-Avon.
  5. Bristol is the birthplace of Robert Southey, Poet Laureate 1813 – 1843.
  6. Lyme Regis, near Charmouth is the setting for The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles.
  7. Lyme Regis is also the setting for important scenes from Patience by Jane Austen.
  8. Bridport, fictionalised as Port Bredy, is the setting for Fellow-Townsmen, a short story by Thomas Hardy. Bridport is on the Hardy Way.
  9. TS Elliot’s ashes are interred at East Coker, a place which gives its name to one of his Four Quartets.
  10. John Nyren of Hambledon wrote (or perhaps just provided material for) Cricketers of my Time; arguably the most important cricket book ever.
  11. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene is set among the Brighton underworld and is one of the great Twentieth Century novels

National Landscapes (formerly AONBs) etc on the route

  1. Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site
  2. Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site
  3. The Cotswolds National Landscape
  4. The Mendips National Landscape
  5. Dorset National Landscape
  6. Cranborne Chase National Landscape
  7. South Downs National Park

Note – The Monarch’s Way books suggest that the route goes through six National Landscapes (or AONBs). As far as I can see, that is not correct, it only touches four, but it does come close to two others (Blackdown Hills and East Devon).

Some waterways on the route

  1. River Teme
  2. River Severn (Worcester, again near Madeley)
  3. Wesley Brook / River Worfe,
  4. Droitwich Canal
  5. Stourbridge Canal
  6. River Stour
  7. Staffs & Worcs Canal
  8. Shropshire Union Canal
  9. River Penk
  10. Wyrley and Essington Canal (Curly Wyrley)
  11. Walsall canal
  12. Birmingham Main Line canal
  13. Netherton Tunnel branch canal
  14. Dudley number 2 canal (part-derelict)
  15. Worcester Birmingham canal
  16. Warwickshire Avon
  17. River Windrush
  18. River Coln
  19. River Churn
  20. Thames & Severn canal (derelict)
  21. River Boyd
  22. Bristol Avon
  23. River Char
  24. River Brit
  25. River Cale
  26. Salisbury Avon
  27. River Bourne
  28. River Test
  29. River Itchen
  30. River Arun
  31. River Adur (Bramber, again Shoreham)

Some places to visit on or near the route

  1. The Commardery at Worcester
  2. Harvington Hall (Historic Houses)
  3. White Ladies Priory (ruins) (English Heritage)
  4. Boscobel House (English Heritage)
  5. Ironbridge Gorge and museums
  6. All Nation’s Inn, Madeley – one of just four home-brew houses which survived into the 1970s
  7. Pendeford Mill Nature Reserve
  8. Moseley Old Hall (NT)
  9. Old Swan Inn, Netherton – aka Ma Pardoe’s – another of the four home-brew houses which survived into the 1970s
  10. Black Country Museum
  11. Hidcote Manor (NT)
  12. Kiftsgate Court Gardens (Historic Houses)
  13. Chedworth Roman Villa (NT)
  14. Westonbirt Arboretum
  15. Bristol Floating Harbour (ferry trip recommended)
  16. Old Leigh Court (ruins)
  17. Trent Manor (not open to the public, view from outside) and Church
  18. Bishop’s Palace Garden, Wells (Historic Houses)
  19. Cadbury Castle
  20. TS Elliot memorial (East Coker)
  21. Montacute House (NT)
  22. Heale Gardens (Historic Houses)
  23. Mottisfont Abbey (NT)
  24. Old Winchester Hill
  25. Broadhalfpenny Down Cricket Field and Bat and Ball Inn, near Hambledon
  26. King’s Rest Cottage, Hambledon
  27. Goodwood Racecourse
  28. Arundel Castle (Historic Houses)
  29. Bramber Castle (ruins)
  30. St Mary’s House, Bramber
  31. Brighton Pavilion

Bold means connected to the escape

Other routes walked by our group

  1. Diamond Way
  2. Cotswold Way
  3. Gloucestershire Way
  4. Clarendon Way
  5. Three Choirs Way
  6. Mortimer Way
  7. St Kenelm’s Trail
  8. Donnington Way
  9. West Mendip Way