Not all historians have been convinced, however, most notably the medievalist J.C. In his famous ‘History of Hallamshire’ (1819) Hunter mentioned that in the village of Loxley were ‘the remains of a house at which it was pretended that he was born’.
Without making his reasons entirely clear, Hunter went on to claim that this Robyn Hood had been involved in an attack on the baggage train of King Edward II as it made its way through the north of England in April 1323.Īll that remained for Hunter to do next was to identify this Robyn Hood with the one referred to by Dodsworth and Harrison, and the Sheffield connection was complete. Using his position as Keeper of the Public Records in London to sift through medieval manuscripts, Hunter claimed that a certain Robert, or Robyn, Hood was named in the records of the manor of Wakefield in 1316. In turn, both of these suggestions were taken up enthusiastically by one of Sheffield’s most famous sons, the local historian Joseph Hunter. In 1637 a Sheffield land surveyor, John Harrison, went further in claiming that this man had been born in Loxley village, three miles to the north-west of Sheffield town centre at a house called ‘Little Haggas Croft’. Sheffield itself first comes into the story when the celebrated antiquarian Roger Dodsworth, writing in the 1630s, claimed to have uncovered references to a ‘Robert Locksley, born in Bradfield parish in Hallamshire’ who escaped justice by fleeing to the surrounding forests after accidentally killing his father. The main setting for these stories is also generally in Yorkshire, one of the most specific references being to Barnsdale, a formerly forested area and royal hunting ground in the vicinity of Doncaster, some 12 miles to the north-east of Sheffield. As far as written records are concerned, the first stories appear in the fifteenth century and, tellingly, are written in a northern (Yorkshire) dialect. If we are to assign a location to the Robin Hood legend then we need to start with its origins. So, if a single town or city can lay claim to this elusive figure, it’s Nottingham, right? What do you know about Robin Hood? Most likely that he and his band of brothers hung out in the depths of Sherwood Forest, coming out from time to time to harass the Sheriff of Nottingham? This is the usual scenario portrayed in film and TV, and on the back of this general perception Nottingham boasts a statue of the legendary outlaw, erected in the 1950s, outside its castle.
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