Robin Hood's Chair (Baildon): Difference between revisions

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== Allusions ==
== Allusions ==
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== Gazetteers ==
== Gazetteers ==
* Not included in {{:Dobson, Richard Barrie 1976a}}, pp. 293-311.
* Not included in {{:Dobson, Richard Barrie 1976a}}, pp. 293-311.

Revision as of 15:43, 12 July 2018

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Robin Hood's Chair is close to the point indicated.
In lieu of the Chair: The hilltop entrance to the tramway station. Robin Hood's Chair is near the top of the hill and close to the tracks / 'tri:art:p', Google Earth Panoramio.
In lieu of the Chair: The tramway station in the valley. Robin Hood's Chair is near the top of the hill and close to the tracks / Howard C. Harrison, Google Earth Panoramio.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-12-17. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-07-12.

Apparently first recorded on a 6" O.S. map of Aireborough, Baildon, Bingley and Shipley dated 1852, Robin Hood's Chair is located in Trench Wood about 2 km SW of Baildon. According to blogger Kai Roberts, it is "an earthfast boulder in which water has worn a natural cavity resembling a seat and where Victorian antiquarians suggested some local shaman or chief once sat". He notes that it is also sometimes known as Robin Hood's Seat and is located "about halfway down Shipley Glen".[1] However, according to the 1891 allusion cited below, the Chair is located "[a]t the top of Trench Wood, on entering the Glen"; this is most likely correct. The Chair has an interesting neighbour, the Shipley Glen Tramway, which has taken passengers up and down the glen since 1895.[2] An official publication of Baildon Council has the Chair "[n]ear the top of the tramway",[3] which confirms the statement in the 1891 allusion. I have not found any photos of Robin Hood's Chair.

Allusions

1851 - West, R - Lines written on a Beautiful Glen

Behold how they flock to the Glen from each village.
Sweet echo resounds from Baildon's high plain.
Here Robin Hood's Chair is hewn out in the rock.
The Larches and Poplars uplift their proud heads.
But O what sweet melodies sound in the wood.
The old Druid's Pulpit is seen in the Glen,
And the Writing Desk too, if tradition be true.
From Bingley and Bradford, and Leeds they resort—
Some have breathed the foul gas in the mill.
Ye Cottingley friends and Wilsden likewise,
And Harden that lies near the Grange,
You may come to the Glen sweet pleasures to find,
And your minds relieve with a change.
And Cullingworth, too, where Odd-fellows unite,
Considered intelligent men,
If you choose, you may roam o'er the sweet fragrant bloom,
You are welcome to visit the Glen.[4]

1891 - Gray, Johnnie - Through Airedale from Goole to Malham (2)

At the top of Trench Wood, on entering the Glen there is a large stone with a bowl-shaped cavity, called from time immemorial Robin Hood's Seat. This designation is, of course, purely mythical, many such curious stones and other remarkable objects in our part of the country being associated in some fanciful way or other with this famous mediaeval outlaw. It may just as well have been the judgment-seat of some Druid priest or chief, or even (if credence may go so far) a holy basin for the retention of water in which leaves of the sacred oak were dipped and borne, as we are told, in processionals to the festal altars.* Similar stones are found elsewhere in our district near Druidical temples.[5]

1912 - Baildon, William Paley - Baildon and the Baildons (1)

Robin Hood's Seat. — "At the top of Trench Wood, on entering the Glen, there is a large stone with a bowl-shaped cavity, called from time immemorial 'Robin Hood's Seat.' This designation is, of course, purely mythical, many such curious stones and other remarkable objects in our part of the country being associated in some fanciful way or other with this famous mediaeval outlaw."2

The cavity in the stone is in my opinion of natural origin and has no traces of human handiwork. The hollow is, I think, a "pot-hole," worn by the action of pebbles in the bed of a river where a circular motion is imparted to the water. Such holes exist in considerable numbers in the bed of the Wharfe near the Strid, and are common in most swiftly-flowing rivers where the bed is rocky. This piece of stone must, if I am right, have been at the bottom of a river in some very remote geological epoch. The whole slope of the hill about this spot is strewn with masses of rock which have rolled down from a higher level; this particular mass got broken in the process, leaving about three-quarters [p. 114:] of the basin intact, which is two feet in diameter and one foot 9 inches deep.[6]

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