Robin Hood's Picking Rods (Chisworth)
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2016-06-26. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-02-21.
'Robin Hood's Picking Rods' is the popular name of two stone columns standing side by side in a stone socket, the tallest column being about two metres high. They are located on the outskirts of Ludworth Moor c. 3.5 km WSW of Charlesworth. Archaeologists believe the two pillars were originally "almost certainly the lower parts of two Saxon crosses" dating from the 10th century or earlier. They probably marked the boundary between ecclesiastical divisions or Danish and English Districts. However, it has also been argued that they were erected in the Norman period.[1] Various other suggestions have been made as to their origin. Carl Rogerson discusses several such hypotheses, some less likely than others, including a myth of origin intended to explain the name 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods': the columns were used when bending and stringing bows, i.e. they were essentially a tool for making longbows.[2] This would seem to be a rationalization of the "Legend" that "Robin Hood used the column or columns 'to bend his bow on'".[3] Similar traditions are connected with the Bowstones near Lyme Handley. In the absence of any convincing evidence to the contrary, let us stick with the archaeologists and Anglo-Saxon crosses. As Carlson notes, the stones stood at the Derbyshire–Cheshire border (they are now at the Derbyshire–Greater Manchester border). Whatever the signifance and function of the original stone crosses, Robin Hood's Picking Rods thus served to mark the county boundary during the medieval to modern period.
While the stones themselves thus probably date from the early Middle Ages, the name 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods' is not in evidence before the early 19th century. The name appears on an O.S. map of the area published in 1842,[4] and it can be inferred from the allusion from 1810 cited below that the monument was then known under the name Robin Hood's Picking Stones. An illustration in the work in which the latter allusion occurs shows the Picking Rods with a piece broken off the shorter of the two upright stones lying in front of the monument. It was noted in 1904 that Robin Hood Picking Rods had been "so named for more than a century", but unfortunately no referene was supplied[5]
In the 17th century, Robin Hood's Picking Rods were known as the Maiden Stones.[6] Apparently this monument is also known as 'Robin Hood's Stumps' and the 'Druid Stones'.[7]
For the alleged connection between this monument and others in the High Peak, see High Peak place-name cluster. Template:PnItemQry
Gazetteers
- Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 297, s.n. 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods'.
Sources
- Cameron, Kenneth. The Place-Names of Derbyshire (English Place-Name Society, vols. XXVII-XXIX) (Cambridge, 1959), pt. I (vol. XXVII), p. 154. and see p. lxiii; pt. III (vol. XXIX), p. 760.
Maps
- 6" O.S. map Derbyshire V.NE (1882; surveyed 1879)
- 6" O.S. map Derbyshire V (1899; surveyed 1896)
- 1" O.S. map sheet 99 - (1896)
- 6" O.S. map Derbyshire V.NE (1923; surveyed 1919)
- 6" O.S. map Derbyshire V (1924; surveyed 1917-19)
Discussion
- Biden, H. B. 'The Stretford Stone and its Kindred', The South Manchester Gazette (27 June 1885), p. ?; not seen
- Carl's Cam: Robin Hood's Picking Rods, Charlesworth, Derbyshire (by Carl Rogerson)
- Collingwood, W. G. 'The Brailsford Cross', Journal of the Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, vol. 45 (1923), pp. 1-13; see p. 10
- Cox, J. Charles. 'Early Crosses in the High Peak', The Athenæum, No. 4002 (9 July 1904), pp. 56-58; see pp. 57 (bis), 58
- Crofton, H. T. A History of the Ancient Chapel of Stretford in Manchester Parish, including Sketches of the Township of Stretford together with Notices of Local Families and Persons (Remains Historical and Literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Cheshire, New series, vols. 42, 45 and 51) (Manchester, 1899-1903), vol. III, pp. 46-48 (volume publ. 1903); discussed in connection with similar monuments elsewhere
- Crofton, H. T. 'Agrimensorial Remains round Manchester', Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, vol. XXIII (1905), pp. 112-71; see p. 137
- Lawrance, H 1924a
- Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods – Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire (by user 'Sunny100')
- Pastscape: Robin Hoods Picking Rods
- Renaud, Frank. Contributions towards a History of the Ancient Parish of Prestbury, in Cheshire (Remains Historical and Literary connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Cheshire, vol. XCVII) (Manchester, 1876), p. 72
- Smith, G Le Blanc. 'Some Pre-Roman Crosses in Staffordshire', The Reliquary, New Series, vol. XII (1906), pp. 229-46; see pp. 237, 240
- Tudor, Thomas L., compil. 'Minor Monuments and Lesser Antiquities of Derbyshire, 1934: on or near the Highways, Byways, Disused Roads and Ancient Boundaries, First List', Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 55 (1934), pp. 64-76; see p. 66, item No. 21.
Brief mention
Background
- Marriott, William. The Antiquities of Lyme and its Vicinity (Stockport, 1810), pp. 6-7, 18-27, 56-57, 370-91
- Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods – Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire.
Notes
- ↑ See Pastscape: Robin Hoods Picking Rods and sources referred to there. Also see Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 297, s.n. 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods'.
- ↑ See Carl's Cam: Robin Hood's Picking Rods, Charlesworth, Derbyshire.
- ↑ Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods – Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire.
- ↑ Cameron, Kenneth. The Place-Names of Derbyshire (English Place-Name Society, vols. XXVII-XXIX) (Cambridge, 1959), pt. I, p. 154, and see p. lxiii for expanded source reference; Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 297, s.n. 'Robin Hood's Picking Rods'.
- ↑ Cox, J. Charles. 'Early Crosses in the High Peak', The Athenæum, No. 4002 (9 July 1904), pp. 56-58; see p. 57.
- ↑ Pastscape: Robin Hoods Picking Rods; Tudor, Thomas L., compil. 'Minor Monuments and Lesser Antiquities of Derbyshire, 1934: on or near the Highways, Byways, Disused Roads and Ancient Boundaries, First List', Derbyshire Archaeological Journal, vol. 55 (1934), pp. 64-76; see p. 66, item No. 21.
- ↑ Megalithic Portal: Robin Hood's Picking Rods – Ancient Cross in England in Derbyshire (by user 'Sunny100')
Robin Hood's Picking Rods / Jonathan Clitheroe, Creative Commons via Geograph.
Robin Hood's Picking Rods: the immediate surroundings are not (always) picturesque / Rude Health, Creative Commons via Geograph.
Robin Hood's Picking Rods / John Topping, Creative Commons via Geograph.
'Ludworth Stones', i.e. Robin Hood's Picking Rods. Notice the piece broken off / Marriott, William. The Antiquities of Lyme and its Vicinity (Stockport, 1810), plate facing p. 6.
Robin Hood's Picking Rods can be seen to the far right about halfway up in this view of ancient earthworks or encampments at Ludworth Moor / Marriott, William. The Antiquities of Lyme and its Vicinity (Stockport, 1810), plate facing p. 308.
