Robin Hood's Well (Fountains Abbey): Difference between revisions

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__NOTOC__{{PnItemTop|Lat=54.109795|Lon=-1.578145|AdmDiv=Yorkshire|Vicinity=Fountains Abbey, c. 75 m SE of the Abbot's House|Type=Monument|Interest=Robin Hood name|Status=Extant|Demonym=|Riding=West|GreaterLondon=|Year=1734|Aka=|Century=|Cluster1=|Cluster2=|Cluster3=|Image=hillier_matthew_rh's_well_fountains_abbey_2011-06-29.jpg|Postcards=|ExtraCat1=|ExtraCat2=|ExtraCat3=|ExtraCat4=|ExtraCat5=|GeopointPrefix=|GeopointSuffix=|StatusSuffix=|DatePrefix=|DateSuffix=}}
__NOTOC__{{PnItemTop|Lat=54.109795|Lon=-1.578145|AdmDiv=Yorkshire|Vicinity=Fountains Abbey, c. 75 m SE of the Abbot's House|Type=Monument|Interest=Robin Hood name|Status=Extant|Demonym=|Riding=West|GreaterLondon=|Year=1734|Aka=|Century=|Cluster1=Fountains Abbey|Cluster2=|Cluster3=|Image=hillier_matthew_rh's_well_fountains_abbey_2011-06-29.jpg|Postcards=|ExtraCat1=Places named Robin Hood's Well|ExtraCat2=|ExtraCat3=|ExtraCat4=|ExtraCat5=|ExtraLink1=1832 - Scott, Walter - Inscription for Robin Hood's Well|ExtraLink2=Robin Hood's Well (Fountains Earth)|GeopointPrefix=|GeopointSuffix=|StatusSuffix=|DatePrefix=|DateSuffix=}}
{{#display_map:{{#var:Coords}}|width=34%}}<div class="pnMapLegend">Approximate location of Robin Hood's Well.</div>
{{#display_map:{{#var:Coords}}|width=34%}}<div class="pnMapLegend">Approximate location of Robin Hood's Well.</div>
[[File:hillier_matthew_rh's_well_fountains_abbey_2011-06-29.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Robin Hood's Well at Fountains Abbey (photo: Matthew Hillier)]]
[[File:hillier_matthew_rh's_well_fountains_abbey_2011-06-29.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Robin Hood's Well at Fountains Abbey (photo: Matthew Hillier)]]
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* {{:White, Walter 1858a}}, p. 303 (first published 1853).
* {{:White, Walter 1858a}}, p. 303 (first published 1853).


=== Also see ===
{{PnItemAlsoSee}}
* [[Fountains Abbey place-name cluster]]
 
* [[Places named Robin Hood's Well]]
* [[1832 - Scott, Walter - Inscription for Robin Hood's Well]]
* [[Robin Hood's Well (Fountains Earth)]].
=== Notes ===
=== Notes ===
<references/>
<references/>

Revision as of 16:41, 30 December 2017

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Approximate location of Robin Hood's Well.
Robin Hood's Well at Fountains Abbey (photo: Matthew Hillier)
Robin Hood's Well at Fountains Abbey (drawing: Thomas R. Macquoid, 1883 or earlier)

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-07-22. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-12-30. Photo: Matthew Hillier.

Fountains Abbey is the home of the "Curtal Friar" and the scene of the main action of the ballad of Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar (Version A in MS of c. 1650, version B first printed 1663). Within or very close to the abbey grounds are two places named after Robin Hood: Robin Hood's Wood and Robin Hood's Well. The covering of the latter is built into a slope in Robin Hood's Wood at the southern boundary of the abbey grounds. Dobson & Taylor refer to it as the "well now associated with Friar Tuck's combat with, and ducking of, Robin Hood".[1] It may have been named Robin Hood's Well to commemorate the said combat, though we have no evidence of this, but it should be stressed that the water into which Robin Hood was ducked in the ballad was not the trickle from this little well but the Skell which runs by (and once ran under) the abbey.

The well-spring and the name Robin Hood's Well date back at least to 1734,[2] and underground lead piping is said to have been found leading from the site of the well to the abbey, which if correct is a clear indication that the well existed in medieval times. However, according to notes found among the Walbran papers at York Minster Library[3] the present well cover is of somewhat more recent construction, for it was built, with stones from the ruins of Fountains Abbey, after Walter Scott visited the site and suggested to the owner of the Studley Roger estate, Elizabeth Sophia Lawrence, that she let a well covering or well house construct. Scott apparently wrote a short poem for use as an inscription (see Allusion 1832 below), but there is no indication it was ever displayed at the site. Mrs Lawrence, who inherited the estate in 1808, died in 1845; Walter Scott died in 1832, so his visit would have taken place some time in the period 1808-32. It does not appear to be mentioned in any of Scott's letters[4] or in J.G. Lockhart's ten volume biography of Scott,[5] but of course this does not necessarily mean it never happened. The construction of such a well house in this period would have been quite in keeping with the contemporary craze for such follies[6] among well-heeled landowners. The well covering "is built of coursed squared gritstone and comprises a round chamfered arch approximately 2 metres high under a hood-mould with spiral stops, and short flanking walls protecting a spring in a rock-cut recess".[7] A much more detailed technical description of the structure can be found at the National Trust's website.[8] Note that the lines attributed to Walter Scott have also been cited as applying to Robin Hood's Well at Fountains Earth, an upland pasture area that was owned by Fountains Abbey but is located more than 12 km west of the abbey ruins.

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