Little John (Markfield)

Locality
Coordinate	52.6702, -1.2603
Adm. div.	Leicestershire
Vicinity	1.3 km SSE of Markfield
Type	Natural feature
Interest	Robin Hood name
Status	Extant
First Record	1885
A.k.a.	John's Hill

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Little John.

Little John, the little hill / Mat Fascione, 29 Jul. 2007, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-02-17. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-02-13.

A small, sharply defined hill c. 1.3 km SSE of Markfield and c. 5 km NW of Leicester, is named Little John. From its summit there is an excellent view in all directions.

The hill appears on the first (1835) 1" O.S. map of the area. The earliest evidence i have for the name "Little John" is a 5" O.S. map of the area from 1885. The English Place-Name Society's volume on this part of Leicestershire notes that

a nod to Little John of the Robin Hood legend is poss[ible]., but otherwise John is prob[ably]. a familiar name for any notable isolated physical feature, to be compared with the outcropping hill Old John, 3 3/4 miles to the north-east in Bradgate Park.

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.

Sources

• Cox, Barrie; Watts, Victor, introd.; Coates, Richard, gen. ed.; Cavill, Paul, production ed. The Place-Names of Leicestershire (English Place-Name Society, vols. LXXV, LXXVIII, LXXXI, LXXXIV, LXXXVIII, XC-XCI) (Nottingham, 1998-2016), pt. VI, p. 177, and source reference p. xxvii.

Maps

• 25" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.3 (c. 1886; surveyed 1885). No copy in NLS
• 25" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.3 (1903; rev. 1901)
• 25" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.3 (1903; rev. 1901) (georeferenced)
• 25" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.3 (1915; rev. 1914)
• 25" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.3 (1920; rev. 1928)
• 6" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.NE (1885; surveyed 1885)
• 6" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.NE (1904; rev. 1901)
• 6" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.NE (1904; rev. 1901) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX (1919; rev. 1913-14)
• 6" O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.NE (1930; rev. 1928)
• 1:25,000 O.S. map Leicestershire XXX.NE (1904; rev. 1901) (georeferenced)
• 1:1 mill.–1:10k, SK501083 (1900s) (georeferenced)
• 1:1m to 1:63, SK501082k (1920s-1940s) (georeferenced)
• 1" O.S. map Atherstone (Hills), Sheet 155, Revised: 1898, Published: 1899 (georeferenced)
• 1" O.S. map Atherstone (Outline), Sheet 155, Revised: 1898, Published: 1899 (georeferenced)
• 1" O.S. map Derby and Leicester (1959; surveyed 1950-56) (georeferenced).

Background

• Wikipedia: Markfield.

Also see

• Places named after Little John.

Notes

Image gallery

Click any image to display it in the lightbox, where you can navigate between images by clicking in the right or left side of the current image.

• 

  Little John / Mat Fascione, 29 Jul. 2007, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

• 

  View of Leicester from the summit of Little John / Mat Fascione, 29 Jul. 2007, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

• 

  Leicester City Skyline, looking southeast from Little John / Mat Fascione, 29 Jul. 2007, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

• 

  Houses located along the A50, Bradgate Hill, seen from Little John / Mat Fascione, 29 Jul. 2007, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

• 

  Looking southwest from the summit of Little John / Mat Fascione, 29 Jul. 2007, Creative Commons, via Geograph.

 Leicestershire place-names 

 Place-names