Missed it!

I missed it the 360th anniversary of the Battle of Worcester, the final battle in the English Civil War and the one in which King Charles II was defeated by the forces of Oliver Cromwell. That battle was on 3rd September 1651. However, I am not too late to mark his subsequent escape to France on 16th October 1651 after the King had spent what he expected to be his last night in England at a tavern in Brighton.

Fast forward 310 years and we find ourselves in Hangleton, by then a suburb of Hove. Hangleton was on the route of the defunct railway from Hove to the Devil's Dyke but most of the old railway was still in use as a footpath across the Downs. In those days it was called simply the old railway. Later on, the earthen track was surfaced with asphalt to encourage cyclists and the old railway became the Dyke Railway Trail. Old timers like me still called it the old railway and, as far as I am aware, people knew what we were talking about.

Fast forward another 50 years and we are up to date. The old railway is sill officially the Dyke Railway Trail, although the sign at the start of the trail is looking, shall I say? a little weary and in need of refurbishment. But not only is it still the Dyke Railway Trail, it has now been subsumed into the 651-mile Monarch's Way, which is where the Battle of Worcester comes completely into our story. The Monarch's Way is a long-distance footpath roughly tracing the journey undertaken by the defeated King after the battle.

The logo of the Monarch's Way Association includes a ship to represent the Surprise, the vessel in which the King crossed the Channel, and an oak, to represent the tree in which the King hid after the battle.

Which leads me nicely into a short discourse on English pub names. I couldn't say what is the most common pub name: Station Inn and Railway Tavern would be two very popular names, but I think probably the King's Head or the Queen's Head would be more common. Another of the particularly popular names, especially in smaller villages, is the Royal Oak. The sign adopted by these pubs is nearly always a picture of an oak tree with a crown in it. The name recalls the oak tree in which King Charles II hid at Boscobel House.

Mine's a pint. Cheers!