Robin Hood's Butt (Wigginton)

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
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North: Robin Hood's Butt, Elford. South: general area where Robin Hood's Butt, Wigginton, may have been located.

[[File:|thumb|right|500px|Looking north at Lillingstone Avenue. Robin Hood's Butt was likely situated in this general area / Google Earth Street View]]

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-10-28. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-10-29.

According to local historians writing in the late 18th to mid-19th century, a now vanished mound situated southwest of Wigginton and northwest of Tamworth was known as 'Robin Hood's Butt'. This was also an alternative name for the mound now generally known as 'Elford Low', situated on the east side of Tamworth Road (A513), c. 800 m south-southeast of the village of Elford. It was said, during the first half of the 19th century, that Robin Hood used to shoot arrows from one to the other. They were known collectively, therefore, as 'Robin Hood's Shooting Butts'.

Robin Hood's Butts in Elford and Wigginton were first noted by Stebbing Shaw in his History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (1798).[1] Other early local historians were certain that the 'butts' were Roman tumuli (see Allusions below). This is possible but by no means certain. Earthworks of more recent date were often misidentified as Roman or Celtic, and while the 'butt' located southeast of Wigginton can no longer be identified, Elford Low does not appear to be included at PastScape,[2] which may indicate that it is not currently considered archaeologically significant. However, according to William Pitt's Topographical History of Staffordshire (1817), Robert Plot examined the latter 'low' and concluded that it was 'sepulchral'. It was also noted that a farmer living in the immediate vicinity had seen 'the bones of three human skeletons dug out of a gravel-pit, a few years since, near this Low, which seems a conclusive proof that it is the site of some ancient cemetery'.[3] C. F. Palmer (1845) felt that the tradition connecting the two mounds through Robin's shooting arrows from one to the other was of fairly modern origin (see Allusions below). The early O.S. maps listed below all know the northernmost mound as 'Elford Low', not 'Robin Hood's Butt', but they do not seem to include any feature that could tentatively be identified as the other Robin Hood's Butt.

Locating the butt

Stebbing Shaw noted in his History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (1798) that[4]

[o]n the North of Tamworth and South-West Wiginton, in or near a piece of land called The Low Flat, is a remarkable eminence, which now goes by the name of Robin Hood's Butt. There was another a few years ago, but the farmers have carried that quite away.
Perhaps subsequently Robin Hood's Butt in Wigginton was also thus 'carried away', for PastScape notes that it has not been found during field work and 'the names Robin Hood's Butt and Low Flat are not now known locally'.[5] IRHB has found nothing relevant in the tithe award for Wiggington, Cumberford Coton and Hopwas (1846). No tithe award for Tamworth seems to survive, assuming one was ever drawn up.[6] While no exact location has ever been cited, confusion has grown over time:
William Pitt 1817; Staffordshire Directory (1818);[7] Wikipedia: Wigginton[8]
'South-west of Wigginton, near a piece of land called the Low Flat'.
Wikipedia: Elford[9]
'Elford Lowe, on the summit of a hill, [...] and opposite it, at the distance of a mile, [...] a smaller lowe'.
Tamworth Time Hikes (a blog)[10]
'a mystery, can't find any more info[,] either text or map[-]based anywhere'.

Evidently a folded map which appears as a frontispiece in Charles Palmer's History of Tamworth (1845) does include the locality. Unfortunately this map is not shown unfolded in any of the scans of the book available online and IRHB has not had access to a physical copy. However, PastScape lists the map among its sources and provides an O.S. grid reference, 'SK 208 062', which must be based on it. This translates to the coordinate cited in the info box above and indicated on the interactive map. While the grid reference itself must be approximate, further imprecision is introduced by converting a square to a point, so the coordinate only points to the general area in which the southernmost of the two Robin Hood's Butts was situated according to Palmer. Imperfect as this is, it should form the starting point for any attempt to locate the site. Perhaps someone who knows the area well will take up this challenge? If so, will he find the following bits of information of value? Discussing lands belonging to a local charity, Palmer notes that as of 1818 its properties in the lordship of Wigginton were:

  • The Slang
  • Windmill Close
  • Ball's Close
  • The Biddens
  • Robin Hood's Butt.[11]

The early 25" O.S. maps show a Windmill Farm slightly west of Comberford Road and north of Coton Lane.[12] This is not quite one kilometre west of the coordinate suggested for Robin Hood's Butt at PastScape.

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Gazetteers

Sources

Maps

Discussion

Background

Nothing relevant found in:

  • Tithe award for Wiggington, including Cumberford Coton and Hopwas (1846); piece 32, sub-piece 233, at the Genealogist.

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Notes

  1. Shaw, Stebbing; et al. The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire, compiled from the Manuscripts of Huntbach, Loxdale, Bishop Lyttelton, and Other Collections of Dr. Wilkes, T. Feilde, &c. &c., Including Erdeswick's Survey of the County, and the Approved Parts of Dr. Plot's Natural History (London, 1798-1801), vol. I, p. 432. Reprinted: Shaw, Stebbing; et al. The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire (Classical County Histories) (East Ardsley, 1976); neither seen, but cf, PastScape: Robin Hoods Butt.
  2. PastScape: Search: Elford.
  3. See fuller quotation on the page on Robin Hood's Butt (Wigginton).
  4. Shaw, Stebbing; et al. The History and Antiquities of Staffordshire, compiled from the Manuscripts of Huntbach, Loxdale, Bishop Lyttelton, and Other Collections of Dr. Wilkes, T. Feilde, &c. &c., Including Erdeswick's Survey of the County, and the Approved Parts of Dr. Plot's Natural History (London, 1798-1801), vol. I, p. 432; not seen but cf. PastScape: Robin Hoods Butt, which despite the absense of quotation marks seems to quote rather than paraphrase Shaw.
  5. PastScape: Robin Hoods Butt.
  6. Tithe award for Wiggington, including Cumberford Coton and Hopwas (1846); piece 32, sub-piece 233, at the Genealogist.
  7. Parson, W., compil.; Bradshaw, T., compil. Staffordshire General & Commercial Directory, presenting an Alphabetical Arrangement of the Names and Residences of the Nobility, Gentry, Merchants, and Inhabitants in General; to which ias added, an Abbreviated History of the Principal Towns and Villages of the County (Manchester etc., [1818])
  8. Wikipedia: Wigginton.
  9. Wikipedia: Elford. IRHB's ellipses.
  10. Tamworth Time Hikes: Elford Low (aka Robin Hood's Butt) and beyond. IRHB's brackets.
  11. Palmer, Charles Ferrers. The History of the Town and Castle of Tamworth, in the Counties of Stafford & Warwick (Tamworth; London, 1845), pp. 467-68.
  12. 25" O.S. map Staffordshire LIX.6 (1902; rev. 1900) (georeferenced).



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