The Oak Apple Figure

This unusual statue was once the centrepiece for a drunken celebration at Tong Fold in Bolton. The occasion was Oak Apple Day once a national commemoration of the Restoration of King Charles II.

Parliament ordered that the 29th May, which was also Charles II birthday, be set aside as a celebration in 1660. The significance of the oak was that this was the tree that Charles was said to have hidden in to escape after his army was defeated by Oliver Cromwell at the Battle of Worcester in 1651.

There were lots of local forms of Oak Apple or Royal Oak Day celebration across England. It seems likely that many of these customs were much older folk traditions held to celebrate the coming of spring that became associated with this official holiday. Castleton in Derbyshire still holds an Oak Apple day celebration that involves a horse procession through the town. At the head of the procession rides the “King” wearing a beehive–like construction decorated with flowers. The day was known elsewhere as “Shick-Shack” day, this being a name for the galls found on the tree that are more commonly known as oak apples.

The day was officially commemorated until 1859 when it was abolished by Parliament as part of a campaign to remove public holidays which had become associated with drunkenness and disorder.

Even so the tradition continued in many parts of the country and was still practised in Tong Fold until after the Second World War. Tong Fold is now a suburb of Bolton, but was once a separate hamlet and site of a popular fair held around Oak Apple Day. The whole Tong Fold community was involved in a week-long celebration notorious for its drunkenness. By the later 1800s the fair had gone, but the commemoration survived as an annual event involving the regulars at the Park View Inn (also known as the Dog and Kennel).

In 1938/39 observers taking part in the Mass Observation ‘Worktown’ project visited the pub and recorded what they saw. By this point the ritual began with a reading of the “Nominy”, a ballad that had been written for the day in 1848. This was done by the eldest male in the village.

The ritual also involved a re-enactment of King Charles hiding in a tree. A wooden statue was hung in an oak tree to be later ‘discovered’ and brought indoors. Regulars would then kiss the statue. This part of the custom was strictly reserved for locals but it was possible for non-natives to buy the right with a gallon of beer!

The statue itself is a mystery. It has little resemblance to Charles II and may have originally been carved in South or Central America as a representation of Christ or a Roman Catholic saint. We can only guess how it came to a pub in Tong Fold. 

Tong Fold had – and still has – a strong sense of local identity. The Oak Apple Day celebration was a way of retaining this identity at a time when industrial Bolton was growing and old communities were being swallowed up.  The Tong Fold Oak Apple Day celebrations continued until 1949 when the pub lost its licence and became a private house.

The figure seems to have stayed in the building until 1959 when a local historian tracked it down and arranged for it to be donated to the museum.