ROYAL OAK, PIDDINGHOE
Early fifties
By John Quinton
This photo, taken by my father, shows me outside the pub looking rather wistfully at it! It makes for an interesting comparison with the photo taken some 30 years later by Laurie Stonehouse. The house next door has gained a porch and the owning brewery has changed.
The poster in the window advertises a concert by the violin virtuoso Tom Jenkins. He was, from 1938, leader of the Grand Hotel orchestra in Eastbourne. He broadcast on the radio from there and in 1948 he took over as leader of the BBC Palm Court Orchestra. He was voted most popular musical entertainer two years running in 1952/3 and 1953/4. He died in 1957 at the age of only 46.
I gather the pub closed in 1992 after a fire but still exists as a private house.