VV_April Web 21-compressed

Village Voice April/May 2021
ASK THE VV
HISTORIANS
Ask the VV Historians your questions
about local history, people, and places
The Royal Standard
I was contacted recently by a keen freelance arts
and travel writer who had been commissioned
to write a piece for a magazine about the Royal
Standard of England pub in Forty Green. She
had been told that ‘the long history of the
pub included mention of The Ship in the
dedication papers for the founding of
Penn Church in 1213’ and was looking
for documented evidence to give real
historical weight to her piece.
I had to disappoint her by responding
that whilst the Royal Standard is a nice
pub, the history the landlord claims for it
is breath-takingly exaggerated. In fact, it
started life as a humble beer house in
about 1840 and was not a fully-fledged
public house until the 20th-century. It is
the youngest pub in Penn Parish whereas
the Crown, Red
Lion and several
others have long,
well-attested
pedigrees.
In 1838, the
Penn Tithe Map
records no pub in
Forty Green and
the site of the
present pub is
described as an
‘Orchard with
Cottage’, a part of
Holespur Heath
Farm owned by
Earl Howe. The
first mention of a
publican appears in the 1841 census, and local
Directories first record it as The Britannia. The
1855 Inclosure Award plan shows it was briefly
The Ship, but by 1865 it had become the Royal
Standard. The ‘of England’ was not added until
the 1880s, and it was still a beer house in the
1920s.
The ludicrous claim that King Charles II hid
there after losing the Battle of Worcester in
1651 meant that it was a leading candidate for
the ‘Old Wives’ Tales’ section of ‘Our Royal
Connections’ (published in 1812 and available
via the P&TGRS website at www.
pennandtylersgreen.org.uk) Miles Green
www.pennandtylersgreen.org.uk