inn 5 The Royal Oak – Manor Court Street.
£3.00At the corner of Manor Court Street and Newcastle Lane stood for many years, The Royal Oak Inn. The premises were surrendered as a mortgagee was in default to William Bridgwood in 1860 who converted two cottages out of a row of eight into a beer house. At a copyhold court held on the 13th day of September 1866 the properties were sold to John Royal.
The 1861 census lists the property as The Royal Oak, but then recorded not in Church Street, but at the top of Newcastle Street, numbered 1 and 3. It was occupied by a direct ancestor of mine George Henry Underwood, aged thirty-six, beer seller and potter, born Penkhull. He was married to Eliza, aged thirty-eight, of Stoke. They had four children, Henry, aged sixteen, John, aged twelve, and both working as potters’ boys, followed by Frank, aged nine and James, aged two. James was my great grandfather. His daughter Eliza Ann was my grandmother who married Thomas Talbot in 1908.
The 1871 census shows that Benbow, then aged thirty-six, also worked as a potters colour maker as well as running the beer house in the evening alongside his wife. a practice not uncommon for the period. Benbow was born at Coalbrookdale and married to Jane, aged thirty-seven a widow Her son, George Willott, aged thirteen, was working as a turner. Three other children were also living at the house but also took in lodgers to make ends meet making a total of nine people living there.
Ten years later in 1881, The Royal Oak was held by Mr David Shenton, aged forty-0five, and his wife Mary, aged forty-two, together with their seven children ranging from Albert, aged twenty, to Blanch, aged one. Three years later, in May 1884, his wife Mary died and is buried in Penkhull churchyard. Her gravestone reads In Loving Memory of Mary Ann, the beloved wife of David Shenton of the Royal Oak Inn.
By 1891, David Shenton had remarried to Emma, aged thirty-four, eleven years his junior. At the time there remained four children living at home, together with Jane Bryan, a domestic servant. Shenton died on the 15th of March 1900, aged seventy-two. He is buried alongside his first wife Mary.
Shenton had already sold The Royal Oak in 1890 to Parkers Brewery although he continued to run the establishment at least until 1891 on their behalf. The court minute commences by stating that Shenton was formerly of The Royal Oak, licensed victualler but afterwards of No. 14 Church Street, grocer but at the time of the court record living at No. 191 Campbell Road Stoke.
