View source for Robin Hood's Picking Rods (Chisworth)

__NOTOC__{{PlaceNamesItemTop|Lat=53.4152|Lon=-1.9923|AdministrativeDivision=Derbyshire|Vicinity=1.5 km SE of Chisworth; 3.5 km WSW of Charlesworth|Type=Monument|Interest=Robin Hood name|Status=Extant|Demonym=|Riding=|GreaterLondon=|Year=1810|Aka=Robin Hood's Picking Pegs; Robin Hood's Picking Stones; Robin Hood's Stumps; Maiden Stones; Druid Stones|Century=|Cluster1=High Peak|Cluster2=|Cluster3=|Image=jonathan-clitheroe-geograph-robin-hoods-picking-rods.jpg|Postcards=|ExtraCat1=Places connected by bowshot|ExtraCat2=|ExtraCat3=|ExtraCat4=|ExtraCat5=|ExtraLink1=Robin Hood's Bow Stones (Lyme Handley)|ExtraLink2=|ExtraLink3=|ExtraLink4=|ExtraLink5=|ExtraLinkName1=|ExtraLinkName2=|ExtraLinkName3=|ExtraLinkName4=|ExtraLinkName5=|GeopointPrefix=|GeopointSuffix=|StatusSuffix=|DatePrefix=|DateSuffix=}}
{{#display_map:{{#var:Coords}}~{{#replace:{{PAGENAME}}|&#39;|'}}|width=34%|enablefullscreen=yes}}<div class="pnMapLegend">Robin Hood's Picking Rods.</div>
[[File:jonathan-clitheroe-geograph-robin-hoods-picking-rods.jpg|thumb|right|500px|Robin Hood's Picking Rods / [http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19028 Jonathan Clitheroe, Creative Commons, via Geograph.]]]<div class="no-img">
<p id="byline">By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-06-26. Revised by {{#realname:{{REVISIONUSER}}}}, {{REVISIONYEAR}}-{{REVISIONMONTH}}-{{REVISIONDAY2}}.</p>
'Robin Hood's Picking Rods' is the popular name of two stone columns standing side by side in a stone socket, the tallest column being about two metres high. They are located on the outskirts of Ludworth Moor c. 3.5 km WSW of Charlesworth. Archaeologists believe the two pillars were originally "almost certainly the lower parts of two Saxon crosses" dating from the 10th century or earlier. They probably marked the boundary between ecclesiastical divisions or Danish and English Districts. However, it has also been argued that they were erected in the Norman period.<ref>See [https://pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=306377&sort=4&search=all&criteria=picking&rational=q&recordsperpage=10 Pastscape: Robin Hoods Picking Rods] and sources referred to there. Also see {{:Dobson, Richard Barrie 1976a}}, p. 297, ''s.n.'' 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods'.</ref> Various other suggestions have been made as to their origin. Carl Rogerson discusses several such hypotheses, some less likely than others, including a myth of origin intended to explain the name 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods': the columns were used when bending and stringing bows, i.e. they were essentially a tool for making longbows.<ref>See [http://www.carlscam.com/charlesworth/pickrods.htm Carl's Cam: Robin Hood's Picking Rods, Charlesworth, Derbyshire.]</ref> This would seem to be a rationalization of the "Legend" that "Robin Hood used the column or columns 'to bend his bow on'".<ref>[http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=12336 Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods &ndash; Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire].</ref> Similar traditions are connected with [[Robin Hood's Bow Stones (Lyme Handley)|the Bowstones near Lyme Handley.]] In the absence of any convincing evidence to the contrary, let us stick with the archaeologists and Anglo-Saxon crosses. As Carlson notes, the stones stood at the Derbyshire&ndash;Cheshire border (they are now at the Derbyshire&ndash;Greater Manchester border). Whatever the signifance and function of the original stone crosses, Robin Hood's Picking Rods thus served to mark the county boundary during the medieval to modern period.

While the stones themselves thus probably date from the early Middle Ages, the name 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods' is not in evidence before the early 19th century. The name appears on an O.S. map of the area published in 1842,<ref>{{:Cameron, Kenneth 1959a}}, pt. I, p. 154, and see p. lxiii for expanded source reference; {{:Dobson, Richard Barrie 1976a}}, p. 297, ''s.n.'' 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods'.</ref> and it can be inferred from the allusion from 1810 cited below that the monument was then known under the name Robin Hood's Picking Stones. An illustration in the work in which the latter allusion occurs shows the Picking Rods with a piece broken off the shorter of the two upright stones lying in front of the monument. It was noted in 1904 that Robin Hood Picking Rods had been "so named for more than a century", but unfortunately no referene was supplied<ref>{{:Cox, John Charles 1904a}}; see p. 57.</ref>

In the 17th century, Robin Hood's Picking Rods were known as the Maiden Stones.<ref>[https://pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=306377&sort=4&search=all&criteria=picking&rational=q&recordsperpage=10 Pastscape: Robin Hoods Picking Rods;] {{:Tudor, Thomas L 1934a}}; see p. 66, item No. 21.</ref> Apparently this monument is also known as 'Robin Hood's Stumps' and the 'Druid Stones'.<ref>[http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=12336 Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods &ndash; Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire] (by user 'Sunny100')</ref>

For the alleged connection between this monument and others in the High Peak, see [[High Peak place-name cluster]].
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== Gazetteers ==
* {{:Dobson, Richard Barrie 1976a}}, p. 297, ''s.n.'' 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods'.

== Sources ==
* {{:Cameron, Kenneth 1959a}}, pt. I (vol. XXVII), p. 154. and see p. lxiii; pt. III (vol. XXIX), p. 760.

== Maps ==
* [http://maps.nls.uk/view/101599953#zoom=5&lat=4286&lon=1956&layers=BT 6" O.S. map ''Derbyshire'' V.NE (1882; surveyed 1879)]
* [http://maps.nls.uk/view/101599950#zoom=5&lat=4255&lon=1850&layers=BT 6" O.S. map ''Derbyshire'' V (1899; surveyed 1896)]
* [http://maps.nls.uk/view/102193434#zoom=5&lat=4446&lon=1928&layers=BT 6" O.S. map ''Derbyshire'' V.NE (1923; surveyed 1919)]
* [http://maps.nls.uk/view/102341274#zoom=6&lat=9098&lon=8641&layers=BT 6" O.S. map ''Derbyshire'' V (1924; surveyed 1917-19)]
* [http://maps.nls.uk/view/101169737#zoom=5&lat=8201&lon=2653&layers=BT 1" O.S. map sheet 99 - (1896).]

== Discussion ==
* {{:Biden, H B 1885a}}; not seen
* [http://www.carlscam.com/charlesworth/pickrods.htm Carl's Cam: Robin Hood's Picking Rods, Charlesworth, Derbyshire] (by Carl Rogerson)
* {{:Collingwood, W G 1923b}}; see p. 10
* {{:Cox, John Charles 1904a}}; see pp. 57 (''bis''), 58
* {{:Crofton, H T 1899a}}, vol. III, pp. 46-48 (volume publ. 1903); discussed in connection with similar monuments elsewhere
* {{:Crofton, H T 1905a}}; see p. 137
* {{:Lawrance, Henry 1924a}}
* [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=12336 Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods &ndash; Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire] (by user 'Sunny100')
* [https://pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=306377&sort=4&search=all&criteria=picking&rational=q&recordsperpage=10 Pastscape: Robin Hoods Picking Rods]
* {{:Renaud, Frank 1876a}}, p. 72
* {{:Smith, G Le Blanc 1906a}}; see pp. 237, 240
* {{:Tudor, Thomas L 1934a}}; see p. 66, item No. 21.

== Brief mention ==
* {{:Collingwood, W G 1923b}}, see p. 10.

== Background ==
* {{:Marriott, William 1810a}}, pp. 6-7, 18-27, 56-57, 370-91
* [http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=12336 Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods &ndash; Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire.]
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== Notes ==
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File:jonathan-clitheroe-geograph-robin-hoods-picking-rods.jpg|Robin Hood's Picking Rods / [http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/19028 Jonathan Clitheroe, Creative Commons, via Geograph.]
File:Rude-health-geograph-robin-hoods-picking-rods.jpg|Robin Hood's Picking Rods: the immediate surroundings are not (always) picturesque / [http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/86758 Rude Health, Creative Commons, via Geograph.]
File:John-topping-geograph-robin-hoods-picking-rods.jpg|Robin Hood's Picking Rods / [http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/77988 John Topping, Creative Commons, via Geograph.]
File:Marriott-william-1810a-facing-p6.jpg|'Ludworth Stones', i.e. Robin Hood's Picking Rods. Notice the piece broken off / {{:Marriott, William 1810a}}, plate facing p. 6.
File:Marriott-william-1810a-facing-p308.jpg|Robin Hood's Picking Rods can be seen to the far right about halfway up in this view of ancient earthworks or encampments at Ludworth Moor / {{:Marriott, William 1810a}}, plate facing p. 308.
File:crofton-h-t-1899a-p46-plate.jpg|Robin Hood's Picking Rods / [[Crofton, H T 1899a|Crofton, H. T. ''A History of the Ancient Chapel of Stretford in Manchester Parish'' (''Remains Historical and Literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Cheshire, New series'', vols. 42, 45 and 51) (Manchester, 1899-1903), vol. III (1903), plate facing p. 46.]]
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