Robin Hood's Stone (Allerton, Liverpool) (1)

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The original site of Robin Hood's Stone.

[[File:|thumb|right|500px|Greenhill Road just after crossing Booker Avenue. Robin Hood's Stone stood here until 1924/25 if not later but had moved to its present location by 1937 / Google Earth Street View.]]

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-02-11. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-02-11.

Robin Hood's Stone in Allerton, Liverpool, now resides on the corner of Booker Avenue and Archerfield Road, but until 1924/25 and perhaps as late as 1936 its home was a rather large plot of land on the corner of Greenwood and Greenhill Roads, less than a hundred meters north-east of its present location.

According to a local blogger, this red sandstone monolith is c. 2.4 metres high and about 90 cm in width. He further notes that

It was apparently dug-up in 1928 in a field in the Forty Pits area – where it then stood for some considerable time until a new housing estate was built, and, then it was moved (once gain) to its present position on Brooker Avenue, just opposite Archerfield Road, at the beginning of the 1970s.

The stone does now sit on the corner of Booker – not Brooker – Avenue and Archerfield Road, but there is nothing remotely 1978-ish about the railing around it, and in fact a 25" O.S. map published in 1939 and based on a survey carried out in 1937 already has the stone at its present address (see maps below). On the other hand, a 6" O.S. map published c. 1936 and based on a revision of an older map completed in 1925 still has it on the corner of Greenwood and Greenhill Roads. The stone, therefore, must have been moved a some point between 1925 and 1937. It is labelled (and usually also indicated) at its old location on O.S. maps of the area from 1850 to c. 1936, It therefore almost certainly was not moved during this period and can hardly have been "dug-up in 1928". Had the stone disappeared from view, through either being covered in earth or moved elsewhere, the maps would typically have labelled the spot "Site of Robin Hood's Stone", but this is never the case.

Gazetteers

• Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 315-19.

Maps

• 25" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.8 (1893; surveyed 1890)
• 25" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.8 (1908; rev. 1905) (georeferenced)]
• 25" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.8 (1927; rev. 1924-25)
• 25" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.8 (1939; rev. 1937).
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII (1850; surveyed 1846-48)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.NE (1894; surveyed 1889-91)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.NE (1909; rev. 1905) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.NE (1909; rev. 1905)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.NE (1928; rev. 1924-25)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.NE (c. 1936; rev. 1924-25)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire CXIII.NE (1946; rev. 1938)

Discussion

• Journal of Antiquities: Robin Hood’s Stone, Allerton, Liverpool, Merseyside by 'sunbright57'.

Notes

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