Robin Hood Pond (Thorpe Thewles)
Locality | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 54.617135, -1.36909 |
Adm. div. | Durham |
Vicinity | c. 1.6 km NNW of Thorpe Thewles, Grindon, Stockton-on-Tees |
Type | Natural feature |
Interest | Robin Hood name |
Status | Defunct |
First Record | 1842 |
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-04-09. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-07-21. Additional information kindly provided by Paul Dunnill of the Thorpe Thewles Local History Group.
Robin Hood Pond is listed as a field in the English Place-Name Society's volume on Durham,[1] which cites as its source an 1842 tithe award for Thorpe Thewles,[2] in which it is categorized as pasture with an area of 9 acres, 1 rood and 20 perches (Template:AcreRoodPerchToM2 m2), the owner a William Russell, Esq., the occupiers William and Thomas Wheatley. As one would expect, the name refers properly to a pond within this piece of land. On the 6" O.S. maps of the area published 1859 to 1947 it can be clearly seen a few meters NW of a northeast-pointing tentacle of Thorpe Wood on that wood's eastern side (see links in Maps section below). Since 1939, when the area was surveyed for the latest of these maps, the woody tentacle has stretched north to include at its tip the site of the little pond, which was already in 1859 shown with three trees to its immediate north. The locality is c. 275 m NW of Fulthorpe Farm.
I have listed Robin Hood Pond as a natural feature, but it may of course have been dug by a farmer as a watering hole for livestock. As of 9 April 2017, a Google search yielded no results for this locality. Paul Dunnill kindly responded via email to a request for information I posted on the Thorpe Thewles History Group Forum.[3] After inspecting the pond, which required negotiating potentially muddy fields after obtaining permission from the farmer who owns the land, Mr Dunnill tells me the water level has fallen so that what was formerly a single pond is now several smaller ones. Since the location is on a working farm it is not accessible to the public. He also tells me that the name 'Robin Hood Pond' had been lost; so much so, in fact, that note even members of Thorpe Thewles Local History Group were aware of it.
Gazetteers
- Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-311.
MS sources
- Thorpe Thewles tithe award, 1842
- Genealogist: Piece 11, sub-piece 258, image 015 (paid subscription required)
- Genealogist: Piece 11, sub-piece 258, sub-image 001, type b&w TNA (map; paid subscription required).
Printed sources
Maps
- 6" O.S. map Durham XLIV (1859; surveyed 1856)
- 6" O.S. map Durham XLIV.SE (1898; rev. 1896)
- 6" O.S. map Durham XLIV.SE (1898; rev. 1896) (georeferenced)
- 6" O.S. map Durham XLIV (1923; rev. 1914)
- 6" O.S. map Durham XLIV.SE (1923; rev. 1914)
- 6" O.S. map Durham XLIV.SE (1947; rev. 1939).
Background
- Thorpe Thewles History Group: Forum: Robin Hood Pond (by Henrik Thiil Nielsen)
- Wikipedia Grindon, County Durham
- Wikipedia Thorpe Thewles.
Notes
- ↑ Watts, Victor; Cavill, Paul, ed. The Place-Names of County Durham (English Place-Name Society, vol. LXXXIII) (Nottingham, 2007), p. 92.
- ↑ Genealogist: Piece 11, sub-piece 258, image 015 (paid subscription required); Genealogist: Piece 11, sub-piece 258, sub-image 001, type b&w TNA (map; paid subscription required).
- ↑ Thorpe Thewles History Group: Forum: Robin Hood Pond.
"th" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 19.