Robin Hood is from Loxley, Sheffield, Yorkshire!

[Grahame]

You ask the question "Who cares?"

 

For those who doubt Robin Hood was a real person here is an extract from Walter Bower's Scotichronicon of 1440AD.

 

QUOTE]

1440 AD eh, well thanks but I'd rather live in the present and leave history where it belongs, in the past.

 

Saying "leave history where it belongs, in the past" obviously means you don't care and that is what you have just said. I think you care and I'm guessing that you have Nottingham connections and that is what your avatar indicates. If you do have Nottingham connections then let me say here and now that Robin Hood belongs in Yorkshire so you had better get used to it my friend.

 

(The Battle of Evesham was 1265)

[hillsbro]

Well, as PopT wrote, there will have been more than one Robin Hood stretching over several centuries. If it were ever possible conclusively to identify the 'principal' Robin Hood, and if it can be shown - as the historical evidence suggests - that this Robin Hood was from South Yorkshire, then this naturally will have some significance, especially to local people. But it will be a long time - if ever - before the historical figure of Robin Hood becomes uppermost in peoples' minds. The legend of the benevolent folk hero will prevail as it has done for centuries, just as for example Wilhelm Tell exists in the minds of the Swiss. Unlike the fictitious Wilhelm Tell, an historical Robin Hood might belatedly take his factual, historical place among the legends - but it is the legends that will prevail, representing as they do the triumph of good over bad.

[Greybeard]

Robert Hood was an outlaw amongst the woodland briar's and thorns. Between them they inflicted a vast amount of slaughter on the common and ordinary folk, cities and merchants.

 

So....in real life he was just another hoodlum ?

[Leg-end]

Wow!

 

Strange to see all the anti 'Facebook' hysteria at the start (most of it completely without grounding), but then some useful posts started to accumulate.

 

Professor Holt who is the former Master of Fitzwilliam College and Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge has this to say: http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/kirk6479/mycustompage0014.htm

 

As for why was the Sheriff of Nottingham involved? Well, he owned Peveril Castle which is in Castleton which was then part of the Royal Forest of the Peak where Robin Hood operated. The Sheriff also built Beauchief Abbey which is clearly in Sheffield. It is impossible to deny that the territories at the time were closely connected and indeed disputed and not confined solely to Nottinghamshire: http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/KIRK6479/mycustompage0037.htm

 

I don't really care either way! Sheffield has enough to shout about over Nottingham without claiming some story that has been trumped up beyond all recognition over the years. I created the group on facebook as an opposing point of view to a group slating yorkshire people for disputing Nottingham's claim that he was theirs and theirs alone.

[hillsbro]

.... Professor Holt who is the former Master of Fitzwilliam College and Professor of Medieval History at the University of Cambridge has this to say: http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/kirk6479/mycustompage0014.htm

 

The first words of the Introduction to Professor Holt’s book are perhaps significant: "This is a book about a myth, not a man". But there seems little doubt that if Robin Hood ever existed, he did so in South Yorkshire (which, contrary to what "Alastair" wrote in post #20 on this thread, was not "invented in 1974". It has always existed as the southern part of Yorkshire). Much research has been carried out in the 20 years since Professor Holt was working on his book, but while academics might argue over which of the possible contenders to be the "genuine" Robin Hood actually was the folk hero, he was surely a Yorkshireman with strong links to Loxley.

[Grahame]

So....in real life he was just another hoodlum ?

 

He may not have been a very nice guy at all if what William Grafton wrote is correct. (I think it was Grafton)

[Leg-end]

It seems a bit pointless to argue over exactly where he came from using modern administrative boundaries. One thing is for sure, he didn't come from South Yorkshire as it wasn't invented until 1974.

 

I don't think anyone so far has tried to suggest he was from South Yorkshire?!

[pitsmoorlad]

I suppose when it came to having a "local" hero, Nottingham didn't have much choice. The only definite connection with a historic name was the Sherrif of Nottingham, but as he was obviously a baddie, taxing people to the hilt and being a bit of a bullying dictator, they couldn't really adopt him. So instead they chose the guy who kept nipping down the road from Loxley, with his mates to give him a good sorting. Obviously, transport then not being what it is now (???) he had to stay overnight, and chose Sherwood Forest so he could hide out of sight. The Great Oak was called that because it was a great meeting point for the gang, and was only a mere sapling then.

So as the only "heroic" figure to ever go through the Nottingham town gates, they've latched onto Robin Hood. I don't really mind, I know where he's really from. God's own county of Yorkshire, and the fair land of Hallam.

[Hopman]

I thought Richard Greene came from Plymouth.

[Grahame]

Robin Hood is a folklore figure and not real history. He may have existed, or maybe not. There are theories that the stories are an amalgamation of tales that could have roots in more than one historical figure.

 

It seems a bit pointless to argue over exactly where he came from using modern administrative boundaries. One thing is for sure, he didn't come from South Yorkshire as it wasn't invented until 1974.

 

And seeing as Alastair obviously knows about the boundary changes, he will also know prior to that Sheffield and Loxley were in the West Riding of Yorkshire the same as Robin Hood's grave at Kirklees.