Nottinghamshire place-names

Adm. div.
Full name	Nottinghamshire
Abbreviation	Notts
Coordinates	53.144901, -0.986307

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Localities named after Robin Hood (or members of his band) in Nottinghamshire. Click locality marker for link to locality page. Historic county boundary coordinates provided by the Historic Counties Trust.

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English counties with Robin Hood-related localities. Click marker for link. Historic county boundary coordinates provided by the Historic Counties Trust.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-07. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-06-06.

Introduction

Gover, Mawer and Stenton note in the English Place-Name Society's volume on Nottinghamshire that

[a]s might be expected in the county of Nottingham references to the Robin Hood story are frequent but none of the names is recorded except in modern maps and documents. We may note Robin Hood's Cave, Chair, Grave, Hill, Stable and Well, Robin Hood Close, Farm and Meadow, Robin Hood Close and Little John, all from the Sherwood and neighbouring districts.^[1]

While It is true that most Robin Hood-related place-names in Nottinghamshire are only recorded relatively late, two such name, Robin Hood's Well and Robin Hood's Close were in fact in use already in the early Tudor period. I am not aware that there ever was more than one Robin Hood's Close in Nottinghamshire.

County description

The Historic Counties Trust describes Nottinghamshire as follows:

Nottinghamshire stretches from the heart of the Midlands to the edge of Yorkshire. It is an entirely inland county, but low-lying; rarely reaching 600 feet above sea level. The River Trent, the great river of the Midlands, crosses southern Nottinghamshire as a broad stream. The City of Nottingham itself is one of the largest of the Midland towns. At its heart is a mediæval castle on a sandstone hill overlooking and commanding the Trent. The cliffs in and around Nottingham have caves, some man-made; the mediæval inn "The Trip to Jerusalem" is built into a cave, and higher up the Trent there were cave-dwellers into the twentieth century. (In the ninth century Asser said that Nottingham's name in Welsh was Tig Guocobauc: House of Caves.) North of Nottingham is Sherwood Forest, shrunk since the Middle Ages but still with many acres of woodland, particularly around Ollerton. Sherwood is famous as the legendary haunt of Robin Hood. Beyond Sherwood lie the great parks of "the Dukeries"; Clumber, Rufford, Thoresby, and Welbeck. However by this time Nottinghamshire has changed; by Ollerton the coal fields have begun and the county becomes industrialised. Western Nottinghamshire in particular is part of an industrial belt together with eastern Derbyshire. The mines, though much reduced, have created new villages and towns, which stretch in a belt up towards the Yorkshire boundary. The major towns in this part are Mansfield and Worksop "the capital of the Dukeries". The east of the county manages to remain agricultural. Here is found Southwell, home of a Cathedral of great architectural interest. The Fosse Way crosses the south and east of Nottinghamshire, part of its long course from Bath to Lincoln, and remarkably is almost devoid of villages along its route.

Main Towns: Beeston, Blidworth, Eastwood, Edwinstone, Mansfield, Newark on Trent, Nottingham, Retford, Southwell, Worksop.
Main Rivers: Trent, Idle, Maun, Devon.
Highlights: Major Oak, Edwinstone; Robin Hood Hills; Thoresby Hall; Wollaton Hall.
Highest Point: Silverhill, 204.52 m.
Area: 2136.74 km².^[2]

Chronology

15th century

Robin Hood-related place-names first documented in the 15th century.

17th century

Robin Hood-related place-names first documented in the 17th century.

Robin Hood's Acre (Nottingham)

18th century

Robin Hood-related place-names first documented in the 18th century.

19th century

Robin Hood-related place-names first documented in the 19th century.

21st century

Robin Hood-related place-names first documented in the 21st century.

Unknown century

Robin Hood-related place-names whose century of first occurrence is unknown.

Local traditions

Localities with local traditions relating to Robin Hood.

Nottingham Castle (Nottingham)

Literary locales

Literary locales etc. in Nottinghamshire.

Artifacts

Robin Hood-related artifacts in Nottinghamshire.

All localities

All Robin Hood-related place-names, places with local traditions, and literary locales.

Place-name clusters

Clusters of Robin Hood place-names, localities with local traditions, literary locales etc. in Nottinghamshire.

Lists and gazetteers

Guides and other secondary literature

Background

Notes

↑ Gover, J.E.B.; Mawer, Allen; Stenton, F.M. The Place-Names of Nottinghamshire (English Place-Name Society, vol. XVII) (Cambridge, 1940), p. 294.
↑ The Historic Counties Trust has kindly allowed me to quote its county descriptions in toto. I have converted square miles to km² and feet to m.

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[1] Gover, J.E.B.; Mawer, Allen; Stenton, F.M. The Place-Names of Nottinghamshire (English Place-Name Society, vol. XVII) (Cambridge, 1940), p. 294.

[2] The Historic Counties Trust has kindly allowed me to quote its county descriptions in toto. I have converted square miles to km² and feet to m.

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