Robin Hood Hill (Oxton)

Locality
Coordinate	53.075, -1.0562
Adm. div.	Nottinghamshire
Vicinity	1.9 km NNE of central Oxton
Type	Prehistoric site
Interest	Robin Hood name
Status	Extant
First Record	1843

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Robin Hood Hill.

Robin Hood Hill with Loath Hill, believed to have been a Roman fortification, immediately to the north / © Martin Jones, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-10-09. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2022-04-22.

Gover, Mawer and Stenton in the English Place-Name Society's volume on Nottinghamshire do not provide any reference or first date for this place-name; instead they refer to the place-name Robin Hood Pit, which is first mentioned in an O.S. map published c. 1825. Robin Hood Hill is a tumulus, and the noun 'pit' may mean 'grave', but it seems unlikely that pit' should have been used for 'mound' since they are opposites in their primary significations. Perhaps the c. 1825 O.S. map was also their source for Robin Hood Hill, but until IRHB gets access to this, the earliest verified source is the 1843 tithe award for the parish of Oxton, which was not consulted by Gover, Mawer and Stenton. It lists 'Robin Hood Hill' under 'Rectorial Glebe' with Ann Sherbrooke as 'Lessee Secunda Pars', Samuel Simpson as occupier, 'Arable' as 'State of Cultivation' and an area of 1 acre, 2 roods and 27 perches (6753.19 m²). The tithe map cannot be found, but the place-name is included in the 6" O.S. map of the area published in 1884. Immediately north of Robin Hood Hill is Loath Hill, which according to Martin Jones, who took the photograph shown below, 'is thought to have been a Roman fortification'.

Gazetteers

• Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 302, s.n. 'Robin Hood Hill'.

MS sources

• Tithe award for Oxton (1843) (Piece 26, sub-piece 096, Image 425, #818 – The Genealogist; £).

Printed and web sources

• Geograph: SK6353: Robin Hood Hill.
• Gover, J.E.B.; Mawer, Allen; Stenton, F.M. The Place-Names of Nottinghamshire (English Place-Name Society, vol. XVII) (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 173, 294.

Maps

• 25" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.4 (1885; surveyed 1883)
• 25" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.4 (1900; rev. 1899) (georeferenced)
• 25" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.4 (1900; rev. 1899)
• 25" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.4 (1915; rev. 1913)
• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.NE (1884; surveyed 1873-84)
• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.NE (1900; rev. 1898–99) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.NE (1900; rev. 1898-99)
• 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXIII.NE (1920; rev. 1913).

Background

• Nottingham Wayfarers' Rambling Club; Price, Roland, introd. The Robin Hood Walks: A Comprehensive Guide to Walks in Robin Hood Country including the Third Edition of the Guide to the Full Route of Nottinghamshire's First Recreational Footpath, The Robin Hood Way (Leicester: Cordee, ©1994), pp. xi, 47, 52 (map), 98, 118, 119, 120 (map)

Also see

• Oxton place-name cluster
• Places named Robin Hood's Hill.

Notes

 Nottinghamshire place-names 

 Place-names