Robin Hood's Cross (Hampole)

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Site of Hampole Priory.

The base of Skellow Market Cross / Rod Jacobsen, 2011.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-17. Revised by 3.133.160.156, 2020-05-15.

What is so far the only known mention of Robin Hood's Cross at Hampole occurs in a report of the interrogations of Sir Thomas Percy about his role in the Pilgrimage of Grace and Bigod's Rebellion (see 1537 Allusion below). Thomas Percy was subsequently convicted of treason and hanged. Gairdner noted that the "little nunnery beyond Doncaster" mentioned in the report was "Hampall", i.e. Hampole Priory, which is confirmed by another contemporary examination report that does not mention the cross but explicitly states that the rebels "for that night lodged under Hampall the nunnery", the night in question being 27 Oct. 1536. The maneuvers of the rebel forces and skirmishes with a loyalist detachment in or near Barnsdale are treated in detail by Dodds, who also mentions the brief encampment near Robin Hood's Cross.

Hampole Priory

A George Nicholson made three drawings of 'Hampole Priory, Yorkshire' in 1822 (see Image Gallery below), but most likely the buildings in these drawings were later than the priory, for according to PastScape "[t]here are no extant remains of the priory other than a quantity of re-used masonry incorporated in the buildings adjoining the site". Part of the priory grounds is now a private garden. I have indicated the site on the Google map, with the leftmost of the two markers, immediately east of Main Street and immediately north of Leys Lane in the hamlet of Hampole. This is slightly southwest of Barnsdale, c. 2 km SW of Robin Hood's Well. Given the proximity to the well, it is of course possible that "Cross" in the interrogation report is a mistake for "Well", but on the other hand a cross near Hampole Priory may also, for one reason or another, have been named after the outlaw. After all this was Robin Hood country par excellence. If the cross stood on priory grounds, it may have become a victim of the destruction that accompanied the dissolution of the monasteries. This would explain why it is never heard of subsequently.

Skellow Market Cross

Another possibility is that the cross referred to is Skellow Market Cross aka the Buttercross. Its location seems close enough to Hampole to match the situation implied in the phrase "a little nunnery beyond Doncaster, besides Robin Hood's Cross" (see 1537 allusion below), for the Market Cross, of which now only the stub remains, is located on Cross Hill at the junction of Buttercross and Skellow Road, a mere 2.5 km due east of the site of Hampole Priory. As its name implies it then stood at a market place and so would have been somewhat prominent. However, unless the name "Robin Hood's Cross" can be found used with unequivocal reference to the Market Cross, this identification must remain an interesting hypothesis. The site of the cross is indicated on the Google Map by the rightmost of the two marker.

I do not believe this place-name has been noted in previous works on the Robin Hood tradition.

Allusions

1537 - Prise, John - Examination of Thomas Percy

[...] they concluded to send this examinate [Sir Thomas Percy (c. 1504-37, second son of Henry Percy, 5th Earl of Northumberland)] and his company, Sir Ralph Ellerker, Sir William Constable [...] with their companies, being in the whole about the number of four thousand men, to Fery bridge aforesaid. And there they kept watch for that night. And on the morrow came all the rest of the host to them save only my Lord Darcy and my Lord Archbishop of York, with their own retinue which were left in Pomfret Castle. And the same day they went from Fery bridge to a little nunnery beyond Doncaster, besides Robin Hood's Cross, and there kept the field all that night.

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

• Dodds, Madeleine Hope; Dodds, Ruth. The Pilgrimage of Grace 1536-1537 and the Exeter Conspiracy 1538 (Cambridge, 1915), vol. I, p. 252
• Fonblanque, Edward Barrington de. Annals of the House of Percy, from the Conquest to the Opening of the Nineteenth Century (London, 1887), vol. II, p. 451. Fonblanque prints the report in toto
• Gairdner, James, compil. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. Preserved in the Public Record Office, The British Museum, and elsewhere in England Vol. XII – Part I (London, 1890), p. 194; summary of the interrogation report
• Gairdner, James, compil. Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII. Preserved in the Public Record Office, The British Museum, and elsewhere in England Vol. XII – Part II (London, 1891), p. 668. s.n. 'Robin Hood's Cross'
• Historic England: Skellow Market Cross.

Maps

Hampole Priory

• 25" O.S. map Yorkshire CCLXIV.14 (1893; surveyed 1891)
• O.S. 6" map Yorkshire Sheet 264 (1854, surveyed 1849) (Hampole Priory)]
• O.S. 6" map Yorkshire Sheet CCLXIV.SW (1894; surveyed 1891) (Hampole Priory)]
• O.S. 6" map Yorkshire Sheet CCLXIV.SW (1907; surveyed 1904) (Hampole Priory)]
• O.S. 6" map Yorkshire Sheet CCLXIV.SW (1930; surveyed 1930) (Hampole Priory)]
• O.S. 6" map Yorkshire Sheet CCLXIV.SW (1950; surveyed 1948) (Hampole Priory).]

Skellow Cross

• 25" O.S. map Yorkshire CCLXIV.15 (c. 1893; surveyed c. 1891)] (No Copy in NLS)
• 25" O.S. map Yorkshire CCLXIV.15 (1904; surveyed 1905)
• 25" O.S. map Yorkshire CCLXIV.15 (1932; surveyed 1930)

Background

• British History Online: Hampole Priory.
• PastScape: Hampole Priory.
• Wikipedia: Bigod's Rebellion.
• Wikipedia: Pilgrimage of Grace.
• Wikipedia: Thomas Percy (Pilgrimage of Grace).

Notes

• 

  The base of Skellow Market Cross / Rod Jacobsen, 2011.

• 

  Skellow Market Cross is located on Cross Hill at the junction of Buttercross and Skellow Road / Google Earth Street View.

• 

  'Hampole Priory, Yorkshire', drawing by George Nicholson, 1822 / York Museums Trust YORAG R5136.4; public domain.

• 

  'Hampole Priory, Yorkshire', drawing by George Nicholson, 1822 / York Museums Trust YORAG R5136.5; public domain.

• 

  'Hampole Priory, Yorkshire', drawing by George Nicholson, 1822 / York Museums Trust YORAG R5136.6; public domain.