Boscobel, Shropshire

The Royal Oak is the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House. Charles told Samuel Pepys in 1680 that while he was hiding in the tree, a Parliamentarian soldier passed directly below it. The story was popular after the Restoration, and is remembered every year in the English traditions of Royal Oak Day. Numerous large slipware dishes (known as 'chargers') depicting the Boscobel Oak were made by the Staffordshire potter Thomas Toft. The oak tree is shown being supported by the Lion and Unicorn, with the king's face peeping from the branches.

Boscobel House (grid reference SJ837082) is a Grade II* listed building in the parish of Boscobel in Shropshire. It has been, at various times, a farmhouse, a hunting lodge, and a holiday home; but it is most famous for its role in the escape of Charles II after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. Today it is managed by English Heritage.

Bishops Wood, or Bishopswood (grid reference SJ835097) is a small village on the Staffordshire border with Shropshire. It is home to the Royal Oak public house, the first to be named after the nearby oak tree at Boscobel House in which King Charles II hid after the Battle of Worcester. The population for this village taken at the 2011 census can be found under Brewood and Coven. Bishop's Wood (grid reference SJ753310) is a 352 hectare wood 4 miles west north west of Eccleshall, Staffordshire. The village, in the parish of Brewood, may derive its name from the country residence of the early Bishops of Lichfield: Boscobel House. The King Charles II Royal Oak tree, White Ladies Priory, Blackladies (another former priory, now a private residence) and Weston Park are all within easy walking distance.

White Ladies Priory (often Whiteladies Priory), once the Priory of St Leonard at Brewood, was an English priory of Augustinian canonesses, now in ruins, in Shropshire, in the parish of Boscobel, some eight miles (13 km) northwest of Wolverhampton, near Junction 3 of the M54 motorway. Dissolved in 1536, it became famous for its role in the escape of Charles II of England after the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The name 'White Ladies' refers to the canonesses who lived there and who wore white religious habits.

Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green. Founded in the mid-12th century, it was a small, often struggling, house. It was dissolved in 1538, and a large house was built on the site in Tudor and Jacobean styles by the Giffard family of Chillington Hall. Much of this is incorporated in the present Black Ladies, a large, Grade II*-listed, private residence.

Royal Air Force Cosford or RAF Cosford (formerly DCAE Cosford) (ICAO: EGWC) is a Royal Air Force station in Cosford, Shropshire, just to the northwest of Wolverhampton and next to Albrighton.

Brockhurst is a hamlet in Staffordshire, England, 1 mile sorth-west of Blymhill. It is part of Blymhill and Weston-under-Lizard civil parish within South Staffordshire district.Today the hamlet consists of Brockhurst farm, a red brick 18th farmhouse, and two blocks of semi-detached houses built in 1954. The buildings rest on the site of a much earlier settlement, as evidenced by medieval earthworks. These include a square moat to the south-eastern side of the farmhouse, with raised mound within, and the line of a second moat seventy-five yards to the south-west.Raven speculates on the origin of the name 'Brockhurst': 'Broc' in a place name usually means either stream or badger. 'Hurst' can mean either a wood or a hill, or a wooded hill or even a sandbank in a river. As there are no streams, hills or sandbanks here it might be fair to interpret the name 'Brockhurst' as meaning 'the wood (or clearing in the wood) which has a badger sett'.

Albrighton railway station is a railway station which serves the village of Albrighton in Shropshire, England. The former up goods yard is now occupied by a small estate of low rise offices.

Chillington Hall is a Georgian country house near Brewood, Staffordshire, England, four miles northwest of Wolverhampton. It is the residence of the Giffard family. The Grade I listed house was designed by Francis Smith in 1724 and John Soane in 1785. The park and lake were landscaped by Capability Brown. In the Domesday Book, Chillington (Cillintone) is entered under Warwickshire as forming part of the estates of William FitzCorbucion. His grandson Peter Corbesun of Studley granted Chillington to Peter Giffard, his wife's nephew, for a sum of 25 marks and a charger of metal. The present house is the third on the site. In the 12th century there was a stone castle on the site, a small corner of which can be seen in the cellars of the present house, and beside it the original house. This house was replaced in the 16th century by Sir John Giffard, who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire on five occasions. Peter Giffard began the third building by demolishing and replacing part of Sir John's Tudor house in 1724. This rebuilding replaced the existing south front of three storeys in red facing bricks with stone dressing. In about 1725, Peter Giffard planted the long avenue of oak trees which formed the original approach to the house, but he probably incorporated many existing trees. During the 1770s, Capability Brown designed the landscape park and lake to the south of the house for Thomas Giffard the elder. There are a number of Grade II and Grade II* listed structures on the estate. The Grade II* listed dovecote and stable block were on the Buildings at Risk Register but were removed in 2009 following repair work. Restoration work had commenced in 2008 under John Giffard, former chief constable of Staffordshire Police.

Albrighton Moat is a Scheduled Monument in the village of Donington, Shropshire. The moat surrounds a relatively small platform of earth (900 square metres (9,700 sq ft)), which supported a, now demolished, manor house sometime in the 13th or 14th century. A geophysical survey in November 1990 revealed the remains of the main building and porch, facing towards a causeway that would have linked the buildings to the rest of the site. Excavations also undertaken at that time suggest the moat was filled in, partially by natural silting, and partly by modern deposits of brick rubble and refuse. Field drains had also been cut, to drain the moat into the stream which runs along the eastern edge of the site. William Hardwicke, the Registrar of Bridgnorth in 1801, believed this to be the site of the original house of the Lords of Donington, which was described as having been 'singularly seated in the centre of a pasture field called Moat Bank; north east of Donington church, a quarter of a mile away, and adjoining to the east a small stream, which separates it from the sub-feudal manor of Humphryston’. This accurately describes the position of Albrighton Moat, in relation to the medieval church of St Cuthbert at Donington, and being only 340 metres (1,120 ft) from the Grade II listed Humphreston Hall. The site was granted Scheduled Monument status on 15 July 1975. Historic England describe it as "a well-preserved example of this class of monument" and note that in its present state as a public amenity it acts as "a significant educational resource".

Wheaton Aston is a small village in Staffordshire, England about 9 miles south west of Stafford and 7 miles west of Cannock. It is located beside Bridge 19 of the Shropshire Union Canal. The civil parish is called Lapley, Stretton and Wheaton Aston. It has a population of several thousand according to the latest British Survey. It has good transport links making it an ideal commuter village to the large cities of the English Midlands. Junction 12 of the M6 motorway is only 5 miles away, providing quick access to Birmingham, Walsall and Wolverhampton, while close proximity to the M54, A449 and A5 provides easy access to Stafford, Cannock, Telford and Shrewsbury.

Mottey Meadows National Nature Reserve (NNR) consists of a series of alluvial flood meadows near the village of Wheaton Aston in Staffordshire, England. The meadows have been managed for hay making for many centuries. They support over 240 species of flowering plants, including the rare snake's-head fritillary. The site is an outstanding floristically-diverse mesotrophic grassland where traditional late hay cutting and aftermath grazing has been perpetuated, largely unaffected by modern agricultural practices. The site is important because of its large size, variety of grassland community types and presence of rare species. Further more it contains an extensive example of an alluvial flood meadow.Examples of grassland types found on the site include MG4 and MG8. The meadows are rich with a variety of orchids during the late spring and summer. The site is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and is carefully managed by Natural England with support from the Friends of Mottey Meadows and the Floodplain Meadows Partnership Full details of the site designations can be found on the Natural England register of Designated Sites