Robin Hood's Bow Stones (Lyme Handley)

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Bowstones a.k.a. Robin Hood's Bow Stones, Lyme Handley

[[File:|thumb|right|500px|Robin Hood's Bow Stones, Lyme Handley / John Darch, 20 Aug. 2010, Creative Commons, via Geograph.]]

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-02-20. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-02-20.

The Bowstones, situated beside the old Disley–Macclesfield ridgeway, overlooking Lyme Park, the Cheshire Plain, city of Manchester and the Peak District, were known as Robin Hood's Stones and Robin Hood's Picking Stones in 1810.

William Marriott noted these folk names (see Allusions below) in the course of an extensive discussion of the stones and others he believed to be related. He generally used their more common name 'Bow Stones' (now usually spelled 'Bowstones'). The stones originally formed the shafts of an anglian cross, the western being 1.22 metres high, tapering from a diameter of c. 40 cm at the base to c. 27 cm at the top, the eastern being 98 cm high and c. 40 cm in diameter. The stones have interlaced carvings in a style indicating a date no later than the 10th century. It has been suggested that they were moved to their present location and fitted into a stone base by Sir Piers Legh of Lyme Hall in the 16th century. Two cross heads on display at the hall may originally have surmounted the shafts. The stones are a scheduled monument. Thanks in part to their location on a prominent ridgeline on the edge of the Peak District National Park with extensive views the site is well-visited.[1]

Current local tradition ascribes the stones' name to their having been uses by Robin Hood and his men to string their bows.[2] A similar tradition is connected with Robin Hood's Picking Rods at Ludworth Intake near Chisworth. Despite the apparently still current traditions, there is no evidence that folk names connecting them with Robin Hood are atill in use.Template:PnItemQry

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