Shelter for a future King.

Boscobel House, the hiding place of King Charles 11, lies on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border. Situated in a very quiet corner of England it belies the fact that it played host to a King on the run.

When Charles 11 and his Scottish army suffered defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, Charles and several supporters escaped. They then made their way to Boscobel House, a former hunting lodge which was just one of the properties owned by The Penderel family, who were Royalists. Following close behind were Cromwell's troops, the story goes that as soon as Charles arrived, he had to shelter from the Parliamentarian troops in a large oak tree, not the most comfortable retreat for a king! It known that Charles actually watched as the search below him continued. The area at that time would have been mainly forest, whereas nowadays it is for the most part open arable farmland.

On the evening of that same day, when the troops had dispersed and it was safe for Charles to descend from his refuge, he took a meal inside Boscobel House and made it clear he would like to spend the night indoors, rather than risk going back to the tree. Charles is believed to have hidden himself in a "Priest Hole" which is surprisingly cramped, as I discovered when I visited Boscobel House myself

The following morning Charles left Boscobel, making his way across the English countryside, en route to his exile in France. The route which Charles followed has become well known, and is now a national footpath which is called "The Monarch's Way", it stretches from the middle of England down to the South, and parts of it are regularly walked by keen hikers or history enthusiasts.

At Boscobel House you are able to view one of the priest holes which is under the floor of the cheese room, obviously a deliberate ploy, using the smell of ripe cheese to mask the smell of the poor souls who had to hide there. On my visit we were told that many people who hid from Cromwell's troops sometimes had to spend days in a priest hole, and it was not unusual for a person to die after being holed up for days!

Another interesting story is that the nursery rhyme Goosey Goosey Gander sprang from those times of the Civil War. Of course I know the nursery rhyme well, here are some of the lines - "Then I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers, so I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs". I think I agree, that is just what would happen if a suspected Royalist supporter would not change their allegiance!

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