In the footsteps of Robin Hood
The outlaw from Barnsdale
A
Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode is very different from the version of the
Robin Hood story we know today. In it, Robin isn't a nobleman. He and
the outlaws are yeomen – low-born freemen. But the most obvious
difference is the setting: it is not Sherwood Forest. The poem is set
in the forests of Barnsdale, between Doncaster and the village of Wentbridge
in Yorkshire.
The ballad contains very specific clues about the area. In it, Little John, Will Scarlet and Much the miller's son lie in wait for the knight next to 'Watlinge Strete'. This is actually a misnomer: the road in question was not the Romans' Watling Street (which ran from Kent to north Wales), but their Ermine Street, which stretched from Kent to York. It later became the Great North Road, and today is the A1.
Perfect look-out point
The Merry Men are commanded by Robin to 'walk up to the Saylis'. In
1852, this was identified by Joseph Hunter
as a plantation that is today on the eastern side of the A1 fly-over,
adjoining the village of Wentbridge. Now known as Sayles, it was once
a small tenancy in the parish of Kirk Smeaton. Evidence on the ground
shows that the author of the ballad knew this place well and realised
that it was the perfect look-out point.
Wentbridge was also known by the name of 'Barnsdale'. In the Geste, the Merry Men, finding no one at the Saylis, 'loked into Bernysdale' where they meet the knight. In another ballad – Robin Hood and the Potter – the three are said to have met the knight at 'Went breg [bridge]'.
Place-names
A couple of miles down the A1 from Wentbridge, there is further proof
of Yorkshire's claims to be the home of the outlaw: Robin Hood's Well
near Skelbrooke. All that can be seen today is the cover that the 18th-century
architect Sir John Vanbrugh designed for it. Once a staging post for Royal
Mail stage coaches, it was moved to this spot to make way for the modern
dual carriageway.
Robin Hood's Well is the earliest known place-name associated with the legendary outlaw. Over the next three centuries, the name cropped up all over the place: Robin Hood's Bay near Whitby, Robin Hood's Butts in Cumbria, Robin Hood's Walk in Richmond, Surrey – practically everywhere except in Sherwood. There, it was only in 1700 that a place was named after Robin Hood.
Robin and men of the cloth
In the Geste, the knight owes a huge amount of money to the
monks of 'Seynt Mari Abbey'. This really existed – St Mary's Abbey
in York. York was the second most powerful political centre in the country,
and the monks in charge of abbeys such as St Mary's were politicians and
captains of industry as well as being responsible for the spiritual welfare
of the country.
The abbeys of northern England controlled the wool trade. The money was supposed to be a means to an end, supporting thousands in lives of prayer, but this wealth had led to sleaze. In Robin's day, religious communities were notorious for their greed, lax morals and hypocritical lifestyles.
Conversely, Robin is portrayed as fair and truly religious. He may be a criminal, but his rough justice restores true values. Those listening to the ballad would have cheered when he robs the monk from St Mary's. Here was an ordinary man striking a blow for justice and true religion. Everyone knew the system was wrong, but only an outlaw would have dared do anything about it.
It was at York that, in 1226, the royal justices first heard the case of a fugitive named 'Robin Hood'. It may be significant that Sir Henry de Faucumberg, the sheriff of Nottingham most likely to have been associated with Robin Hood, was for a while keeper of the castle here and sheriff of the county.
What you can see now
Ermine Street/Great North Road
Much of what was for centuries Britain's chief highway is now the
A1. The part on which the knight travelled towards the Merry Men's ambush
is today a track in a wood near the A1 viaduct that bypasses the village
of Wentbridge on the River Went. According to local historian Eric Houlder:
A surviving remnant of the original medieval highway, on which Robin Hood may have practised his brigandage, climbs through the woods out of the valley to the north. Signed as a public bridle-way, this track was the only route until the adjacent cutting was blasted through the rocks to provide a safer road for the mail coaches.
Wentbridge, West Yorkshire
The present stone bridge, which carried all the A1 traffic until bypassed
in 1965, is largely 18th century but almost certainly encloses an earlier
one.
On the B6474, just off the A1, about 4 miles south-east of Pontefract.
OS ref: SE4817.
Robin
Hood's Well, West Yorkshire
The well was first mentioned by local antiquary Roger Dodsworth in
1622. The 17th-century diarist John Evelyn wrote of it: 'We all alighted
at the highway to drink at the crystal spring, which they call Robin Hood's
Well, neere it is a stone chair and an iron ladle to drink out of, chained
to the seat.' The stream, known as the Skell, bubbled up into the well
and flowed beneath the old Roman road. Close by was Robin Hood's Stone,
first mentioned in a deed of 1422 lodged at Monk Bretton Priory at Barnsley.
The stone has since disappeared, and the well stands isolated in the lay-by,
removed from the stream because it stood in the way of the modern A1.
In a layby on the south-bound carriageway of the A1, near the hamlet
of Skellow, South Yorkshire, 6 miles north-west of Doncaster, about half
a mile north of the junction with the A638. OS ref: SE518120.
St Mary's Abbey, York
The abbey of St Mary's, founded in 1088 to the west of the Minster,
was once the largest and richest Benedictine establishment in the north
of England. All that remains today are the north and west walls, plus
a few other remnants: the Pilgrims' Hospitium, the West Gate and the 14th-century
timber-framed Abbot's House (now called the King's Manor). Excavated finds
and architectural features, particularly relating to the chapter and warming
houses, are displayed in the nearby Yorkshire Museum.
In the centre of the Museum Gardens, which are bounded by Lendal and
Museum streets and the river Ouse.
Loxley, South Yorkshire
This is thought by some to be the birthplace of Robin Hood. The place-name
is first associated with his birth in the Sloane Manuscript of c
1600, and this reputation was reinforced by Sir Walter Scott in his novel
Ivanhoe (1820). The usual spelling is 'Locksley'. Here, the foundations
of Robin's traditional birthplace were apparently visible in Little Haggas
Croft as long ago as 1637. A nearby pub, called The Robin Hood, is locally
said to have been (or built on the site of) one of the outlaw's many watering
holes.
'Locality' three miles north-west of Sheffield. OS ref: 307899.
Old Basford, Nottinghamshire
This is where local historian Jim Lees places the Barnsdale of the
ballads. 'Bryunsdale' is marked on ancient maps at the junction of the
rivers Day and Leen, where Old Basford is now.
Three miles north of Nottingham, on the A6514. OS ref: 554427.
Find out more
Websites
Robin Hood: Bold outlaw from Loxley
http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/kirk6479/default.htm
Enthusiast's site by a resident of Loxley in South Yorkshire. Has
masses of information and pictures, but the design of the site makes it
difficult to read.
Hunting out the remains of Robin Hood
www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba48/ba48feat.html#houlder
Article by local historian Eric Houlder, on the Council for British
Archaeology website.
