Robin Hood's Close (Nottingham)

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
Locality
Coordinate 52.972, -1.1223
Adm. div. Nottinghamshire
Vicinity In Nottingham; near St Ann's Well and Robin Hood's Chase
Type Area
Interest Robin Hood name
Status Defunct
First Record 1484
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The exact location of Robin Hood's Close is not known, but it was near St Ann's Well, formerly known as Robin Hood's Well. I have put the Close close to the Well.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-10-11. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-06.

Robin Hood's Close was a pasture[1] probably situated near St Ann's Well,[2] which latter was also known as Robin Hood's Well. Robin Hood-related place-names tend to cluster, and an entry in the civic records for 1624 refers to four (unnamed) closes near the well.[3] Very likely one of these was Robin Hood's Close. The 1484-85 record entry cited below refers to work done at both Robin Hood's Close and "þe Copy", i.e. the Coppice, a locality that was situated c. 200 m NNE of Robin Hood's Well.[4] That the Close was located in the immediate vicinity of the Well becomes virtually certain when we note that it was held by one John Selliok in 1499 and a disturbance in 1500 (see records cited below) took place on land "in the holding of John Seliok at Nottingham aforesaid, near Robynhode Well".

I do not know the exact location, but as coordinates must be provided for this place-name to appear on Google maps, I have chosen a location very close to the well.

Records

1484 - Robin Hood's Close (Nottingham)

[1484-85:]
Item paid, the xij. day of Maj to Richard Norys and
John' May for hedgyng at þe Copy and at Robyn-
hode Closse
, by þe space of iiij. dayes, eider of
them takyng by þe day to mete and hier, iiijd.:
summa . . . . . . . . . ijs. viijd.[5]

1485 - Robin Hood's Close (Nottingham)

[1485-86:]
[...] Item paid, the same tyme, to Richard Norys for hedgyng
of Robynhode Closse by þe space of ij. dayes, he
takyng by þe day to mete and hier iiijd.: summa . viijd.[6]

1499 - Robin Hood's Close (Nottingham)

[1499-1500:]
[...] Compotus Johannis Rose, bocher, et Johannis Williamson, Cameeariorum villae Notingham [...p. 66:...] de xs. per ipsos reccptis pro firma pasturae vocatae 'Robynhode Closse' de Johanne Selyok et Ricardo filio suo sic eis dimissae pro termino [blank] 1 annorum exnunc futurorum, etc. [...]

[Translation in printed source:]
[...] The account of John Rose, butcher, and John Williamson, Chamberlains of the town of Nottingham [... p. 67:...] for 10s. received by them for the rent of a pasture called 'Robynhode Close' from John Seliok and Richard his son so let to them for the term of [blank] 1 years still to come, etc. [...][7]

1500 - Disturbance near Robin Hood's Well (Nottingham)

[20 July 1500:]
3Et dicunt, quod Robertus Wyly, de Sneynton, in Comitatu Notingham', husbondman'. aggregatis ei diversis aliis ignotis ad numerum sexdecim personarum modo guerrino arraiatis, vicesimo quarto die Aprilis, anno regni Regis [Henrici quinto] decimo,4 vi et armis, videlicet, baculis et cultellis, vangis et tribulis ac aliis armis defencivis, solum commune Majoris et Burgensium villae Notingham' in tenura Johannis S[elyok] apud Notingham praedictam, juxta Robynhode Well'. injuste fregit, effodit et subvertit, in grave detrementum dictorum Majoris et Burgensium villae praedictae ac dicti Johannis Selyok, et contra pacem dicti Domini Regis, etc. 9 d., ro. 3.

[Translation in printed source:]
3And they say that Robert Wyly, of Sneinton, in the County of Nottingham, husbandman, having gathered to himself divers other unknown men to the number of sixteen persons arrayed in warlike manner, on the twenty-fourth day of April, in the fifteenth year of the reign of King Henry,4 with force and arms, to wit, with clubs and knives, spades and shovels and other defensive arms, unjustly broke, dug up and turned up the common soil of the Mayor and Burgesses of the town of Nottingham in the holding of John Seliok at Nottingham aforesaid, near Robynhode Well, to the grievous detriment of the said Mayor and Burgesses of the town aforesaid and of the said John Seliok, and against the peace of our said Lord the King, etc. 9 d., ro. 3.[8]

Gazetteers

Sources

Also see


Notes

  1. Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 301, s.n. 'Robin Hood's Close'.
  2. Stevenson, W.H.; Raine, James, transl.; Baker, W.T., ed.; Guilford, E.L., ed.; Gray, Duncan, ed.; Walker, V.W., ed. Records of the Borough of Nottingham, Being a Series of Extracts from the Archives of the Corporation of Nottingham (London; Nottingham, 1882-1956), vol. III, p. 475, s.n. 'Robynhode Closse'.
  3. Stevenson, W.H.; Raine, James, transl.; Baker, W.T., ed.; Guilford, E.L., ed.; Gray, Duncan, ed.; Walker, V.W., ed. Records of the Borough of Nottingham, Being a Series of Extracts from the Archives of the Corporation of Nottingham (London; Nottingham, 1882-1956), vol. IV, pp. 385-86.
  4. See for instance 6" O.S. map Nottinghamshire XXXVIII.15 (1900; rev. 1899).
  5. Stevenson, W.H.; Raine, James, transl.; Baker, W.T., ed.; Guilford, E.L., ed.; Gray, Duncan, ed.; Walker, V.W., ed. Records of the Borough of Nottingham, Being a Series of Extracts from the Archives of the Corporation of Nottingham (London; Nottingham, 1882-1956), vol. III, p. 230.
  6. Stevenson, W.H.; Raine, James, transl.; Baker, W.T., ed.; Guilford, E.L., ed.; Gray, Duncan, ed.; Walker, V.W., ed. Records of the Borough of Nottingham, Being a Series of Extracts from the Archives of the Corporation of Nottingham (London; Nottingham, 1882-1956), vol. III, p. 254.
  7. Stevenson, W.H.; Raine, James, transl.; Baker, W.T., ed.; Guilford, E.L., ed.; Gray, Duncan, ed.; Walker, V.W., ed. Records of the Borough of Nottingham, Being a Series of Extracts from the Archives of the Corporation of Nottingham (London; Nottingham, 1882-1956), vol. III, pp. 66, 67; and for date see vol. III, p. 62.
  8. Stevenson, W.H.; Raine, James, transl.; Baker, W.T., ed.; Guilford, E.L., ed.; Gray, Duncan, ed.; Walker, V.W., ed. Records of the Borough of Nottingham, Being a Series of Extracts from the Archives of the Corporation of Nottingham (London; Nottingham, 1882-1956), vol. III, pp. 74, 75.