Robin Hood Pond (Thorpe Thewles)

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
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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 Formerly Defunct, but recently reintroduced
First Record 1842
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Robin Hood's Pond.
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The site of Robin Hood's Pond.
File:Robin-hood-pond-thorpe-thewles-bob-mullen.jpg
The site of Robin Hood Pond, 19 July 2017 / Photo courtesy Bob Mullen.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-04-09. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-07-25. Additional information kindly provided by Bob Mullen, via 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 site is located 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, so I posted a request for information on the Thorpe Thewles History Group Forum.[3] I am grateful to Bob Mullen of the local history group for braving thistles and nettles to inspect the site and provide me with a photograph (included on this page) which, together with additional information, was relayed to me by Paul Dunnill, a fellow member of the local history group. Since the site belongs to a working farm, Fulthorpe Farm, it is not accessible to the public, but Mr Mullen was allowed to inspect it by the present owner, who was able to identify the locality from the maps brought by Mr Mullen, who notes that, as members of the local history group expected, the area "was completely dried up", but "three individual pond areas [were] still definable but completely filled with thistles, nettles [...] and mature trees. All the becks in Thorpe Wood were also completely dry so presumably it would have to be a sustained period of rain before the ponds saw water".[4] The owner of the farm, who has lived there for twenty years, had never heard the name 'Robin Hood Pond' before being contacted by Bob Mullen. The name had been lost; so much so, in fact, that note even members of Thorpe Thewles Local History Group were aware of it, but now, Paul Dunnill notes, "the name Robin Hood’s pond has been restored – all at the history group are mentioning it at every opportunity possible. No doubt when family visit the farm all the children will be made aware."[4] He agrees that since the site is located on high ground the pond may have been a man-made watering hole.

Gazetteers

MS sources

Printed sources

Maps

Background

Notes


"th" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 19.