Where to find an old pub restaurant,The Royal Oak, Yattendon, Berkshire

 

The road to Yattendon, Berkshire. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

You can find a fine old pub in almost every high street in Britain. If you want an old coaching inn, with beams and an old grandfather clock, you can go for the centre of one of Britain's cities. But if you are wanting to get out to the countryside, opt for a village pub.  Here's the special one I found this week. The Royal Oak, Yattendon. We took the M4 from London and approached this tiny village through a series of winding roads with trees meeting overhead and around every corner and bend yet another grand historic house and extensive farms with steeply pitched rooftops.

First, look it up on the map and if you are driving, set your Satnav. How do you spell it? I mis-spelled it several times, yatter, and den. Oops. I finally found the correct spelling and a memory aid. Yatten rhyming with batten, and don, as in a university don.

The Royal Oak is easy to find, dead centre of Yattendon's central square with parking outside or in the car park opposite. The sign on the pub shows an oak tree and a crown.

Inside are a series of rooms, each with an interesting feature such as a fireplace. At the back is a well kept garden with pristine benches and solid well-kept and cut small trees.

The Royal Oak pub/restaurant/hotel and bus shelter. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

I could not find details of a bus route. If you want to hire a car or a bike, you could travel here from London, from Heathrow airport to the west of London, from Reading, or Windsor.  

Our group of about ten were having a grammar school reunion, having found each other through LinkedIn and the internet. Several had kept in touch, and one of them booked a private room. The room it was laid in advance of our arrival with cutlery, napkins and glasses and menus for every person.

The advantage of a pub lunch is that I can always get a glass of Prosecco, usually reasonably priced. Restaurants not attached to pubs often ask silly prices or cannot supply drinks by the glass. One glass is enough if you are driving. Or the passenger navigating. Thank heavens for Satnav.

More details in next post.

Useful Websites

Wikipedia on Yattendon, its history and famous residents. 

https://moovitapp.com/index/en-gb/public_transportation-Yattendon_Road-London_and_South_East-street_5115961-2122

Pub names - what do they mean?

I ordered The Dictionary of Pub Names. I like dictionary format. You can find what you want quickly. The book is not only a handy explanation of pub names, it gives you amusing myths and local history and national and international history. I just got distracted by reading about Ypres and how the French and British pronounce it.


I also bought:
The Old Dog and Duck The secret meanings of Pub Names by Albert Jack (best selling author of Pop Goes The Weasel).

Interesting to read about Captain Kidd who according to this account was not really a pirate but preying on ships from enemy states in wartime. It's more complicated than that.

I also enjoyed reading about Henry VIII and his first wife Anne - whose divorce led to the founding of the Church of England. Next I read about Nelson who suffered from seasickness.

Then on to The Royal Oak, where Charles II hid from Cromwell's men, as Charles later told diarist Samuel Pepys.

The book about pub names also deals with Molly Malone of the Irish song. I was impressed with the song's connection to Dublin (mentioned in the song). She died of a fever - what kind? I have always been too naive to suspect.

If you go to Dublin you can see the statue to Molly Malone, whose day is June 13, commemorating a girl of that name (one of many) who died on June 13.

See pictures in Wikipedia.

Both books are an entertaining read.