Robin Hood's Hey (Burscough)

Locality
Coordinate	53.5904, -2.8692
Adm. div.	Lancashire
Vicinity	c. 500 m S of Burscough Industrial Estate to c. 150 N of Pippin Street, Burscough
Type	Area
Interest	Robin Hood name
Status	Defunct
First Record	1845

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Robin Hood's Hey and Summer Field.

Robin Hood's Hey and Summer Field / Google Earth Street View.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2020-10-20. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-02-12.

An oat field in Burscough, Ormskirk, is recorded in 1845 under the name or description 'Robin Hoods Hey & Summer Field'.

The field is included under that name in the tithe award for the township of Burscough in the Parish of Ormskirk, with 'Richard Edge, Lessee' entered as landowner, 'Richard Edge' as occupier, state of cultivation as 'Oats', and an area of 6 acres, 3 perches and 12 roods (27619.8 m²). It is unclear what suggested the name 'Robin Hoods Hey'. A likely possibility is that it referred to wild plants that grew there as an unwelcome admixture to the oats with which the field was sown. At least three wild flowering plants are or used to be known under the folk-name 'Robin Hood': Geranium robertianum, Lychnis flos-cuculi and Silene dioica. The location, size and shape of the area in question can be seen on a map included in the image gallery below.

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.

MS sources

• 1845 tithe award for the township of Burscough in the parish of Ormskirk, online at the Genealogist.com, piece 18, sub-piece 056, image 051, item #1447 (£)
• accompanying map, online at the Genealogist.com, piece 18, sub-piece 056, sub-image 003 (£).

Maps

• 25" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.9 (1893; surveyed 1891)
• 25" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.9 (1908; rev. 1906) (georeferenced)
• 25" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.9 (1908; rev. 1906)
• 25" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.9 (1928; rev. 1926)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.SW (1909; rev. 1906–07) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV (1848; surveyed 1845–46)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.SW (1894; surveyed 1891)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.SW (1909; rev. 1906–07)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.SW (1929; rev. 1926)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.SW (c. 1931; rev. 1926)
• 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV.SW (1948; rev. 1938).

Also see

• Robin Hood - Geranium robertianum
• Robin Hood - Lychnis flos-cuculi
• Robin Hood - Silene dioica.

Notes

Image gallery

Click any image to display it in the lightbox, where you can navigate between images by clicking in the right or left side of the current image.

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  Robin Hood's Hey and Summer Field / Google Earth Street View.

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  'Robin Hood's Hey and Summer Field' indicated in gray / Detail of 6" O.S. map Lancashire LXXXIV (1848; surveyed 1845–46); reprod. with perm. of NLS; under Creative Commons Attrib. (CC-BY) license; adapt. Henrik Thiil Nielsen.

 Lancashire place-names 

 Place-names