Robin Hood's Wood (Helsington)

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Robin Hood's Island.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-08-17. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-07-12.

Robin Hood's Wood is a small wood by the bank of River Kent at a point approximately equidistant from Helsington, Natland, and Sedgwick, midway between Low Park Wood and Hawes Wood. In the middle of River Kent, a few meters NW of Robin Hood's Wood is Robin Hood's Island, a small wooded rock, and c. 375 m SSW is located Robin Hood's Well. The source cited by Dobson & Taylor is "the 1857 Ordnance Survey map" of Westmorland, presumably a 1" map. However, the locality is also indicated on a 6" O.S. map that may be a few years older, Lancashire IX, published 1851-63, but based on surveying carried out 1847-58 (see Maps section below). A small island in a river may have appealed to a child's imagination, and perhaps these three localities were named by children playing in this area?

Gazetteers

• Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 305, s.n. 'Robin Hood's Wood'.

Maps

• 6" O.S. map Lancashire IX (1851-63; surveyed 1847-58)
• 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXXVIII (1863; surveyed 1858)
• 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXXVIII.SE (1899; rev. 1897)
• 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXXVIII.SE (1920; rev. 1911)
• 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXXVIII.SE (c. 1947; rev. 1938).

Brief mention

• Godwin, Jeremy. '"Robin Hood", near Langwathby', Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, Series 2, vol. 96 (1996), p. 236

Notes