SunGreen web site - Cinderford, Mitcheldean, Drybrook, Ruardean and nearby areas.

TAP or Click here to show or hide the MENU

Royal Oak Quoit Club Supper Sep. 25 1926

Royal Oak Ruardean (46k)

BACK ROW L-R William Harper, Joseph Duberley, Charles Brain, ? Knight (bush), Tom Malson, Stanley Knight, Peter Marfell, William Bennett, Charles Scrivens, William Duberley, George Duberley, Sidney Duberley, Baden Reid.
MIDDLE ROW L-R William Reid, Joseph Duberley, Evan Turner, Oswald Vaughan (Os), Aaron Baldwin (Yurry), Frank Fisher, ? Morgan (bush), Raymond Rudge, Albert Bent, Alan Marfell, Alfred Duberley, Jim Ried, James Hawker, Wallace Trump, Tom Ried.
FRONT ROW L-R James Andrews (Jim), Evan Matthews, Joseph Hale (knobby), Thomas George (Tom) (Scorer), Sidney Reid (Sid), Jack Bent, Sidney Trump (Sid), William Whittington, Bert Bent.

Paul Hancock provided the names above (Feb 2016). Paul added: "... My great grandfather is Joseph Hale (Knobby) thats how I came across this photograph with the names".


Back Row: 2 uncle Joe, 10 uncle Billy, 11 uncle George, 12 uncle Sid
Middle Row: 2 grandfather Duberley, 11 Dad, 12 uncle Jim Reid
Front Row: Sidney Reid with his dog "Jack" which my dad gave him
(All as related to Reg. Duberley)
The "Royal Oak" pub was located near The Pludds. The pub door was split into two like a stable door. Customers (mostly miners) would take their empty bottles or jugs to the hatch The containers were filled with ale or cider which was consumed outside beneath a tree. The local nickname for the Royal Oak was the "Bag o' Nails".
Quoits has long been a popular game in the Forest of Dean. Nowadays it is played indoors with rubber quoits on either a red and green wooden board or on a concrete "board", either one being about one metre square. This quoits club would have thrown their iron quoits at a spike in a sandpit on the Gill Ground a disused quarry near the pub. The middle spike was traditionally called the "meg".

The photo shows (far left) one of the quoits held in a man's right hand. A modern day indoor quoit would fit into the palm of a man's hand. The cider flagon (far right) is decorated with flowers.

The Forester newspaper of September 28 2016 carried the following report in the 'It Seems Like Yesterday' section:

"1939"

"For the past 22 years many residents of The Pludds have been in the habit of taking their pint mugs and glasses to the Royal Oak Inn , which has an off-licence, to be supplied with beer or cider. It has been the custom to to stand just outside the door to enjoy their drinks".
"But Thomas Reid, licensee, was fined 10 shillings on 3 counts for permitting liquor to be consumed on the premises and drinking it on common land".


If you wish to comment on this photo or can supply names of people please click here

WANTED: Old photos, old postcards, ephemera and memories of the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire. U.K.- please click here to make contact.