Robin Hood's Grave (Crosby Ravensworth Fell)
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-05-11. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-06-07.
Robin Hood's Grave is a cairn on Crosby Ravensworth Fell. The earliest occurrence of this place-name noted in A.H. Smith's Place-Names of Westmorland is an 1859 MS Ordnance Survey name book.[1] Dobson & Taylor refer to an O.S. map of the same year.[2] In fact, as may be seen from the allusion cited below, the name occurs in a slightly older source dated 1857.
The Royal Commission on Historical Monuments noted in 1936 that the cairn had been "robbed of much of its stone".[3] The photo included on this page certainly shows that Robin Hood's Grave must have shrunk a good deal from the 'oblong mound, seven yards by three' mentioned in the second 1860 allusion cited below.
A.H. Smith makes the plausible suggestion that the name of Robin Hood's Grave was related to that of the nearby Howe Robin.[4] Template:PnItemQry
Gazetteers
- Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 305, s.n. Robin Hood's Grave.
Sources
- Lindsay, David, compil. An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England) (London, 1936), p. 90, item No. 50.
- Old Cumbria Gazetteer: Robin Hood's Grave
- Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of Westmorland (English Place-Name Society, vols. XLII, XLIII) (Cambridge, 1967), pt. II, p. 161; and see pt. I, pp. lxvi, lxviii for source references.
Maps
- 1859 O.S. map at Old Maps.co.uk
- 25" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.12 (1861; surveyed c. 1858-59). No copy in NLS
- 25" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.12 (1898; rev. 1897)
- 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.SE (1899; rev. 1897)
- 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.SE (1899; rev. 1897) (georeferenced)
- 25" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.12 (1915; rev. 1912)
- 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.SE (1920; rev. 1912)
- 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.SE (c. 1936; rev. 1912)
- 6" O.S. map Westmorland XXI.SE (c. 1946; rev. 1912).
Background
Brief mention
Notes
- ↑ Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of Westmorland (English Place-Name Society, vols. XLII, XLIII) (Cambridge, 1967), pt. II, p. 161; and see pt. I, p. lxvi for source reference.
- ↑ Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 305, s.n. Robin Hood's Grave. See map at Old Maps.co.uk
- ↑ Lindsay, David, compil. An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Westmorland (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England) (London, 1936), p. 90, item No. 50.
- ↑ Smith, A.H. The Place-Names of Westmorland (English Place-Name Society, vols. XLII, XLIII) (Cambridge, 1967), pt. II, pp. 160, 161.