Little John's Close (Whitby Laithes)

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From north to south: Whitby Abbey, and the Robin Hood-related places at Whitby Laithes.
Robin Hood's Stone and Little John's Stone, the latter of course standing in Little John's Close. These are not the original stones / Panoramio user 'whitby-mick', 20 August 2010.
Robin Hood's Stone and Little John's Stone / Peter Craggs (2008), who runs a bed & breakfast in Whitby. Photo first used on Hidden Teesside blogs page on Robin Hood’s Close and Little John’s Close, Whitby.)

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-05-28. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-04-05.

Little John's Close is situated immediately west of Whitby Laithes, c. 2.35 km SE of Whitby. To the south it borders on Robin Hood's Close. As early as 1540 a stone called Robin Hood's Stone stood in Robin Hood's Close, and Little John's Stone may well have also stood in Little John's Close already at that time, but we have no direct evidence of this.

According to Lionel Charlton, who gave an interesting account of these stones and fields in his History of Whitby (1779),[1] at some point in the early 18th century the two stones were moved to the edge of their respective fields, Robin Hood's to the south and Little John's to the north, so that they now stood very close to each other, separated only by the lane that leads from Whitby Laithes to Stainsacre. This situation is also what is indicated on an 6" O.S. map of the area that was based on field work done in 1849[2] By 1881 the stones had disappeared altogether,[3] and 6" O.S. maps published after this date indicate the site of the stones or omit them entirely (see Maps section). In 1903 someone erected two replacement stones[4] (see photos below.) A local tale connects the stones and the fields in which they stand with Whitby Abbey.

According to Lionel Charlton,[5] Robin Hood and Little John once went to dine with the abbot of Whitby. Evidently the abbot, Richard de Waterville, in office 1176-89,[6] was in the mood for a post-prandial archery exhibition, for he asked his guests to give him a demonstration of their prowess with the longbow. The two outlaws went to the top of the abbey where each shot an arrow that landed near Whitby Laithes, about 2.25 km SSE of the Abbey, "and in memorial thereof a pillar was set up by the Abbot in the place where each of the arrows was found, which are yet sanding in these our days [...][7]

Charlton leaves it up to the reader to decide whether he believes this story, acknowledging that it "will stagger the faith of many", but he cites as corroborating evidence the circumstance "that these very pillars are mentioned, and the fields called by the aforesaid names, in the old deeds for that ground, now in the possession of Mr. Thomas Watson."[8] The record cited below shows that Robin Hood's Stone was known by that name as early as 1540, and Charlton clearly had seen similar records also mentioning Little John's Stone and the fields on which the pair of pillars stood. However, this of course cannot in itself be taken as corroboration of the story of how they got there. It would appear instead to be an obvious instance of an etiological myth, a myth of origin. However, Charlton is almost certainly right that Little John's Close and Robin Hood's Close were named after the pillars, for the stones are the features that stand out; once their true purpose had been forgotten, they called for an explanation.

As for what suggested the names, Robin Hood's Stone and Little John's Stone, if both arose at the same time, perhaps the fact that there were a pair of stones next to each other made someone think of the famous pair of outlaws. Moreover, Robin Hood's Stone was about 1.20 m high, while that of Little John was only about 75 cm in height.[9] It seems likely that the difference in height helped suggest the names for these stones. The name Robin Hood's Stone was in use already in 1540, and in view of this and what has just been said it seems likely that both stones were in existence and were known as Robin Hood's and Little John's stones before 1538,[10] when Whitby Abbey was disestablished during the calamity known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The story connecting the stone pillars with the abbey by the magic of flight shooting may also date from pre-Reformation times or it may have been invented at a time when the abbey buildings stood ruined, begging for their stories to be told. The evidence now available to us does not permit us to say with certainty that the names of the two fields and the stone next to Robin Hood's Stone date, like the latter, from 1540 or before. Unless the records to which Charlton refers can be found, those three place-names cannot with certainty be traced further back than the 18th century.

I have followed Dobson & Taylor[11] in referring to the two fields as 'Little John's Close' and 'Robin Hood's Close'. A couple of recent blog articles about the stones also refer to the fields as Closes.[12] However, most likely the original (colloquial) forms were Little John's Field and Robin Hood's Field. Charlton in the 1779 allusion uses 'field', and this is also found on all the 6" O.S. maps online at NLS (see Maps section below.) George Young (see allusion dated 1817) uses 'Closes', but this was probably inspired by the corresponding Latin term in the records he referred to. Template:PnItemQry

Gazetteers

Sources

Maps

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Notes

  1. Charlton, Lionel. The History of Whitby, and of Whitby Abbey. Collected Rom the Original Records of the Abbey, and other Authentic Memoirs, Never Before Made Public. Containing, Not Only the History of Whitby and the Country Adjacent, But also the Original and Antiquity of many Particular Families and Places in other Parts of Yorkshire (York; London; Whitby, 1779), pp. 146-47.
  2. O.S. 6" map Yorkshire 32 (1853, surveyed 1849.)
  3. Atkinson, J. C., ed. Cartularium Abathiæ de Whiteby Ordinis S. Benedicti fundatæ Anno MLXXVIII (The Publications of the Surtees Society, vols. LXIX-LXXII) (Durham; [London]; Edinburgh, 1879-81), vol. II, p. 727 n. 1.
  4. Hidden Teesside: Robin Hood’s Close and Little John’s Close, Whitby.
  5. Charlton, Lionel. The History of Whitby, and of Whitby Abbey. Collected Rom the Original Records of the Abbey, and other Authentic Memoirs, Never Before Made Public. Containing, Not Only the History of Whitby and the Country Adjacent, But also the Original and Antiquity of many Particular Families and Places in other Parts of Yorkshire (York; London; Whitby, 1779), pp. 146-47.
  6. Charlton, op. cit., pp. 144, 147.
  7. Charlton, op. cit., pp. 146-47.
  8. Charlton, op. cit., p. 147.
  9. See Charlton's account and Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 307, s.n. 'Robin Hood's Close and Little John's Close'.
  10. Wikipedia: Whitby Abbey.
  11. Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 307, s.n. 'Whitby: Robin Hood's Close and Little John's Close'.
  12. Hidden Teesside: Robin Hood’s Close and Little John’s Close, Whitby and The Northern Antiquarian: Robin Hood & Little John Stones, Whitby, North Yorkshire (Paul Bennett.)

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