FINE DINING EXPERIENCE

Many of the pictures and details are courtesy of the Potton History Society.

The countywide licensing register of 1876 simply states that the public house had been licensed over a hundred years before. The first reference to The Royal Oak is the licensing register of 1822 to 1828. By 1834 it was owned by Biggleswade brewer Samuel Wells, who devised it in his will to Frederick Hogg and William Lindsell and the firm was later known as Wells and Company. The public house continued in Wells and Company ownership through the 19th century. In 1899 Wells and Company was purchased by Kent businessman George Winch for his son Edward Bluett Winch, becoming Wells and Winch Limited. In 1961 Wells and Winch Limited merged with Suffolk brewers Greene King, becoming Greene King (of Biggleswade Brewery) in 1963.
The Royal Oak was listed by the former Ministry of Public Buildings and Works in October 1966 as Grade II, of special interest, thus “occupying a prominent position, with tile-paved entrance; taproom, parlour, club room, scullery, cellar, four bedrooms, and three garrets. Also a bar, stables, coach-house, store and large garden.” The listing states that it was two separate properties dating from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The Royal Oak was in a poor state by 1979 and had to be substantially repaired.
It is still a Greene King public house today.

Did you know, there were 30 pubs in Potton in 1903?
There was also a Train Station.
Learn more from the Potton History website.