Distance: 8.5 miles

Difficulty of the terrain: medium

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox

Walk predominetly along quiet lanes across the rolling countryside of the Shropshire – Staffordshire borderlands to Boscobel House. This is where the future Charles II hid in the days after the Battle of Worcester in 1651, including for a time in an oak tree. Descendents of this tree still stand.

The Story

The Walk

Getting Back

Future King Charlie in the Oak Tree

Whilst I have a natural sympathy for those who ended up deciding that they had to get rid of their supercilious, duplicitous, and ultimately immensely stupid monarch, I feel distinctly as if I do not have a dog in the arguments around the Civil Wars that took place in the British Iles during the mid-17th Century.

Fundamentally, whilst it is possible to sympathise with those caught up in it, an the discern some longer run trends, the causes of the war and why people thought and acted as they did are now obscure to us, because the worldview of north western Europeans in the first half of the 17th Century is utterly alien to us.

In many ways Charles I’s brand of centralising, rationalising, absolutism was arguably a “modernising” project. Likewise it is hard for atheist, agnostic or even religious people in the early 21st Century, to get their heads around the genuine religious, theological and other faith concerns that animated many of the fieriest combatants and propagandists.

Of course, it could be said, and I’d broadly agree with this, that this makes the wars during the period even more fascinating. There is undoubtedly truth in the old canard that capitalist modernity was borne out of its tumult, though perhaps not in as clear acut and dried fashion, as some mid-20th Century historians thought.

One of the best known and most dramatic stories from the conflict is that of the future Charles II’s flight across, and eventual successful escape from England, after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The high point of this drama is when the young future king, barely out of his teens, hid out in an oak tree in the remote Shropshire – Staffordshire borderlands.

The West Midlands with its tradition of Catholic and high church sympathies amongst the middle to upper sections of the landed elite was a relatively good region for Charles to hide out in following the defeat of his army. Eventually after being surreptitiously ferried around mid-Shropshire, spending time at Boscobel House where he hid in the infamous oak tree, Charles headed for the south coast where he escaped.

Boscobel House and the oak tree (which no longer stands, though trees grown from cuttings taken from it reputedly still do) became an important part of the British royal family’s myth about itself following the restoration. The oak tree and adjacent house featured heavily in the story the king himself told about his escape after he was returned to the throne, with the scene often being depicted in royalist propaganda. Indeed the creation of this myth proved the oak tree’s undoing, as souvenir hunters picking and hacking at it, had killed it off by the 1720s.

Today Boscobel House and several royal oaks (many planted for royal jubilees and similar occasions) are managed by English Heritage. The site remains an important location for royalists. There was a prominent plaque placed at the site by the local parish council to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, visible when I visited, giving a sense of how important the site and its story remains for the royal family’s ongoing validity.

Indeed, into the 20th Century, well over 250 years after the events of 1651 occurred, “Royal Oak Day” was still celebrated across the UK on the 29th May. These days there is a wide degree of variance in its celebration and it has been largely eclipsed by the Whitsun Bank Holiday, but there are still local customs around the date that are celebrated, especially in smaller towns and villages.

The story of the future king’s escape remains in the popular consciousness, however. I recall a taxi driver in south west Worcestershire, evidently very much “a King’s man” relating the story to me at length. So it seems likely that Boscobel House and its oak tree’s will persist in the national myth for at least as long as we continue to be ruled over by descendants of the House of Stuart.

The Walk

Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the gpx. from Dropbox

I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.

This walk to Boscobel House begins at Albrighton Railway Station.

If disembarking the train from the westbound side served by trains coming up from the West Midlands conurbation exit onto the station forecourt. If coming from the earthbound direction served by trains from Shrewsbury and Telford cross over the railway bridge and exit onto the forecourt.

Walk down the station’s quite long forecourt until you reach a road lined with houses that leads westwards into the village.

Albrighton is just over 7 miles from Wolverhampton and aided by its frequent train service down the centre of the Black Country to Birmingham, is firmly ensconced in the West Midlands conurbation’s commuter belt. It is the most easterly settlement of any size in Shropshire, sat to the south of a little chunk of the county that protrudes into Staffordshire.

Once at the village road turn left.

Walk under the railway bridge and continue a short distance until you reach the main road that bypasses Albrighton from the north east.

At this main road you will see a lane on the far side more or less immediately adjacent to where you are stood.

Cross over the road and turn left down this lane.

Head left down this lane for several hundred metres.

Presently you come to a series of farm buildings on either side of the lane.

Here at a junction you take a right turn.

The lane steadily winds round across fields and through woodlands.

Soon you reach an open expanse of fields and a further t-junction.

Turn right here and walk past a series of scattered houses.

After these properties you approach a bridge across the M50.

Below you as you cross cars and lorries wizz past travelling between Telford and the M6 and vica-versa.

On the other side of the motorway you continue along the road.

You make steady quick progress along lanes which when I walked the route were very quiet. Whilst there were a few other people out walking the only vehicles I saw were two cars and a Shropshire Council dustcart.

The road zig-zags across the landscape between patches of woodland and more open fields.

Generally this section of the route is pretty easy to follow and I found that I was making good time.

Presently after walking through a section with a stone wall, after a curve to the left in the lane, you approach a cluster of houses.

Here turn right and walk past the houses heading slightly uphill.

At around this point you cross the county boundary between Shropshire and Staffordshire.

After several minutes walking the lane you are on joins a larger road.

Turn left here and begin walking along the road.

I found that this road was also comparatively quiet and that there are generally good grass verges for when cars go past. However, it was significantly busier with fast moving vehicles.

Having walked along the road for several minutes passing a farm on your right the road gently, but perceptibly begins sloping down into a valley.

On the other side you climb up past some woodland in what is one of the steepest sections of the walk, but not especially difficult.

Once over the brow of the hill you are fairly close to Boscobel House and the Royal Oak.

Keep on walking along the road.

Presently on your right you come to a red metal barrier at the entrance into a field.

Peering through here to your left you can see the top of the white washed Boscobel House. Whilst across the field you can see the current Royal Oak, descended from a cutting from the original that the future Charles II hid in 370 years ago.

Beyond the historical site the hills of western Shropshire stand against the horizon.

Continuing on your way you pass by a dark green hedge and a sign pointing in the direction of Boscobel House.

Coming soon to a lane running off the road to your left which you should turn down.

The lane to the front of the property where you can get access to the site.

It was closed when I walked the route in February, but I could get a good sense for the site and its situation nonetheless.

Once you are ready to leave Boscobel House and the Royal Oak start walking down the lane.

This leads steadily downhill offering great views across the central Shropshire lowlands towards the hills beyond.

The road twists and turns as it runs steadily downwards. This experience gives you a sense of how relatively high up Boscobel House is.

Presently after walking down the lane for some time you come to a stand of trees with a couple of rough parking bays, all of which were occupied on the day I visited.

When you reach this copse turn right and follow a path through a metal gate into the trees.

The trees host the remains of the church of Whiteladies Priory. Having been dissolved in the late 1530s by Charles II’s distinct ancestor Henry VIII, only the ruins of the order’s church remained. Interestingly Charles II hid in the ruins for a time prior to somebody suggesting that he might prefer to hideout in the relative comfort of Boscobel House instead…

Walking through the woodland you soon come to the remains of the Priory Church which can be accessed by a gate off to your left.

You can also get a fairly good view of the most impressive surviving part of the 12th and 13th Century structure – a great arch – from the path itself.

The path you are walking on is the Monarch’s Way which crisscrosses a vast swathe of western central and southern England, taking in the route that Charles II reportedly took before fleeing to France after his army was routed at the Battle of Worcester.

Keep on walking through the copse.

The copse presently opens out into a grassy field.

Follow the path along the side of the hedge up a short, steep slope.

Once at the top farm buildings are visible in the distance. Walk onwards towards these structures.

Head down a fence enclosed path towards the farmyard.

The path leads round into the farmyard

Once in the farmyard weathered signs point the way that you should walk around its edge.

The impression I got was that the farm was essentially derelict. The house and the barns appeared to be largely empty, though not entirely untended. The overall vibe was a little bit uncanny, even spooky, so I didn’t linger.

After the farmyard, walk down the farm’s driveway a short distance.

The drive takes a sharp left halfway down.

A little further on there is a fork in the lane.

Here turn left and walk downhill along an unpaved track.

Keep walking along this track for some distance.

When I walked the route in February I found this section by far the muddiest of the walk.

Presently the track takes on the characteristics of a green lane with trees overhanging the path.

Soon, having passed over a small brook, you come to a footpath sign.

Here, head left leaving the track to walk across a field.

Walk across the open hedge, following the well defined, but generally not muddy footpath which keeps close to the hedgerow.

At the end of the first – large – field that you cross the path switches sides via a gap in the hedge.

Continuing on the other side with the hedge now on your left you come to a thicket.

After this point the path is more clearly defined beneath your feet.

Follow it around across a further field until you reach a wooden gate.

On the other side of the gate the path crosses a horse’s paddock fenced off into pens and enclosures for individual horses.

Having passed these enclosures you come to a wooden gate and a track leading towards a farm on your right.

Walk through the gate and follow the track towards the farm buildings.

Just before the farm buildings there is a section paved in concrete.

Turn left here and walk round the perimeter of the farm structure.

On the far side of the farm buildings this turns into a concrete path.

Follow this concrete path leading off on your left around the edge of a field also set up for horses.

At the bottom of the field runs the M50 motorway.

To cross over it follow the concrete path round the field, heading down into a steep dip.

At the bottom of this dip on your right there is a tunnel.

This leads under the motorway.

Having walked underneath the carriageways you emerge into woodland on the other side.

In front of you stands a wooden gate.

Once you have passed through the wooden gate follow the path slightly uphill through woodland.

Presently the path curves around to the right. Here it runs past a large pool of water, somewhat reminiscent of a millpond, though it looks relatively recently constructed, so is possibly connected with the motorway.

Past the pool you come to a wooden gate.

On the other side of the gate turn left and walk up the lane.

At the top you pass through another gate.

Here you are standing on the edge of the RAF Cosford military base.

To one side of the road you are walking along an estate of detached mid-20th Century houses akin to a council estate stand.

After some distance you come to a junction.

Turn right here and keep walking, with the airbase fenced off to your right and civilian residential housing to your left.

Presently after several minutes walking you emerge onto a main road next to a filling station and a small static caravan park.

Here there are crossing lights which you can use to cross the road.

Head down the road opposite the one you have just walked along.

Soon on your left you pass an RAF social centre which in terms of its style, the services on offer and general vibe reminded me of nothing less than an underfunded students’ union at a plate glass or small post-1992 university.

Eventually you see the railway line ahead of you.

Cosford Railway Station is to the left, and this marks the end of the walk.

Getting Back

At Cosford Railway Station the eastbound platform for trains back towards Wolverhampton and Birmingham is on the far side of the railway bridge. Whilst trains headed towards Telford and Shrewsbury depart from the near side platform, where the former station ticket office stands. There is no footbridge between platforms.