Contents
Places where Charles slept
- Day 1 – Battle of Worcester day, no sleep that night
- Day 2 – White Ladies Priory / Spring Coppice (daytime)
- Day 3 – Madeley Barn (daytime)
- Day 4 – Royal Oak (daytime) / Boscobel House (night)
- Days 5-6 – Moseley Old Hall
- Day 7 – Bentley Hall
- Day 8 – King’s Lodge, Long Marsden
- Day 9 – The Fleece or other Inn, Cirencester
- Days 10-13 – Old Leigh Court, near Bristol
- Day 14 – Manor House or the Old House, Castle Cary
- Days 15-19, also 22-33 – Trent Manor
- Day 20 – The Queen’s Arms, Charmouth
- Day 21 – George Inn, Broad Windsor
- Days 34-40 – Heale House, Middle Woodford
- Day 41 – Bury Lodge, Hambledon or adjacent King’s Cottage
- Day 42 – George Inn, Brighton – either Middle Street or West Street
- Day 43 – on board The Surprise, later renamed HMY The Great Escape
Near encounters with Cromwell’s Troops
- Day 1 – Rode through troops at Stourbridge town centre
- Day 2 – In Spring Coppice, troops passed close by
- Day 4 – In the Royal Oak with Captain Careless, troops passed underneath
- Day 7 – At Moseley Old Hall, troops arrived at the building while Charles was concealed there
- Day 8 – Troops avoided at King’s Lane, just outside Stratford-upon-Avon
- Day 21 – Charles encountered troops at the George Inn at Bridport
- Day 21 – Charles and party narrowly avoided troops while leaving Bridport via Lee Lane
- 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
- Day 42 – Cromwell sympathisiers avoided near Arundel Castle
- Day 42 – Rode through troops at Bramber Bridge
- Day 43 – Troops arrive two hours after the boat sailed
George Inns and the like
- Pub at Abbot’s Leigh called the George
- We stayed at George Hotel in Castle Cary
- We stayed at George Hotel, Crewkerne
- Charmouth has a George Inn
- Charles paused at the George Inn Bridport
- Charles stopped at the George Inn Broadwindsor, aka The Castle Inn
- Charles paused at the George Inn, Mere
- There was a George Inn in Hambledon, the landlord was once Richard Nyren. It is now residential accommodation.
- At Wanford, there is a George & Falcon Hotel, very likely visited by Wilmot while he waited for Charles
- Charles paused at the George and Dragon, Houghton
- Charles stopped at the Old George Inn, Brighton, on the final night. It is not certain where this was.
Literary connections
- Tong has the supposed grave of Little Nell, from The Old Curiosity Shop.
- It has been suggested that the memorial verses on a tomb inside Tong Church were written by William Shakespeare.
- Bromsgrove is the birthplace of AE Housman, author of A Shropshire Lad.
- A well-known Elizabethan / Jacobean playwright was born at Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Bristol is the birthplace of Robert Southey, Poet Laureate 1813 – 1843.
- Lyme Regis, near Charmouth is the setting for The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles.
- Lyme Regis is also the setting for important scenes from Patience by Jane Austen.
- Bridport, fictionalised as Port Bredy, is the setting for Fellow-Townsmen, a short story by Thomas Hardy. Bridport is on the Hardy Way.
- TS Elliot’s ashes are interred at East Coker, a place which gives its name to one of his Four Quartets.
- John Nyren of Hambledon wrote (or perhaps just provided material for) Cricketers of my Time; arguably the most important cricket book ever.
- Brighton Rock by Graham Greene is set among the Brighton underworld and is one of the great Twentieth Century novels
Areas of Natural Beauty etc on the route
- Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site
- Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site
- The Cotswolds Area of Natural Beauty
- The Mendips Area of Natural Beauty
- Dorset Area of Natural Beauty
- Cranborne Chase Area of Natural Beauty
- South Downs National Park
Note – The Monarch’s Way books suggest that the route goes through six 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
- River Teme
- River Severn (Worcester, again near Madeley)
- Wesley Brook / River Worfe,
- Droitwich Canal
- Stourbridge Canal
- River Stour
- Staffs & Worcs Canal
- Shropshire Union Canal
- River Penk
- Wyrley and Essington Canal (Curly Wyrley)
- Walsall canal
- Birmingham Main Line canal
- Netherton Tunnel branch canal
- Dudley number 2 canal (part-derelict)
- Worcester Birmingham canal
- Warwickshire Avon
- River Windrush
- River Coln
- River Churn
- Thames & Severn canal (derelict)
- River Boyd
- Bristol Avon
- River Char
- River Brit
- River Cale
- Salisbury Avon
- River Bourne
- River Test
- River Itchen
- River Arun
- River Adur (Bramber, again Shoreham)
Some places to visit on or near the route
- The Commardery at Worcester
- Harvington Hall (Historic Houses)
- White Ladies Priory (ruins) (English Heritage)
- Boscobel House (English Heritage)
- Ironbridge Gorge and museums
- All Nation’s Inn, Madeley – one of just four home-brew houses which survived into the 1970s
- Pendeford Mill Nature Reserve
- Moseley Old Hall (NT)
- Old Swan Inn, Netherton – aka Ma Pardoe’s – another of the four home-brew houses which survived into the 1970s
- Black Country Museum
- Hidcote Manor (NT)
- Kiftsgate Court Gardens (Historic Houses)
- Chedworth Roman Villa (NT)
- Westonbirt Arboretum
- Bristol Floating Harbour (ferry trip recommended)
- Old Leigh Court (ruins)
- Trent Manor (not open to the public, view from outside) and Church
- Bishop’s Palace Garden, Wells (Historic Houses)
- Cadbury Castle
- TS Elliot memorial (East Coker)
- Montacute House (NT)
- Heale Gardens (Historic Houses)
- Mottisfont Abbey (NT)
- Old Winchester Hill
- Broadhalfpenny Down Cricket Field and Bat and Ball Inn, near Hambledon
- King’s Rest Cottage, Hambledon
- Goodwood Racecourse
- Arundel Castle (Historic Houses)
- Bramber Castle (ruins)
- St Mary’s House, Bramber
- Brighton Pavilion
Bold means connected to the escape