Description:On the right is the Royal Oak Inn, one of Eccleshall's two coaching inns on the London to Chester road (the other is the King's Arms on Stafford Street). With the advent of the railway the landlord compensated for the decline of his business by running an omnibus service, collecting passengers from trains arriving at Norton Bridge. In the 1860s the Royal Oak had become a commercial hotel, and in the 1890s landlord Henry Milward had set up a funeral and furniture removal business.
The second inn sign on the right belongs to the Crown Inn. On what today is the inn's car park were cowsheds and stables for travellers' horses.
Photograph by Don Adnitt. Published by L.A.M. Productions, Stafford.