Robin Hood's Well (Knutsford)

Locality
Coordinate	53.3048, -2.3722
Adm. div.	Cheshire
Vicinity	In Knutsford, Nether Knutsford Ward, near the NE end of Malt Street
Type	Natural feature
Interest	Robin Hood name
Status	Defunct
First Record	1847

Loading map...

{"minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"mappingservice":"leaflet","width":"34%","height":"400px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"zoom":false,"defzoom":9,"layers":["OpenStreetMap","NLS","Stamen.Terrain"],"image layers":[],"overlays":[],"resizable":false,"fullscreen":true,"scrollwheelzoom":true,"cluster":false,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clustermaxradius":80,"clusterspiderfy":true,"geojson":"","clicktarget":"","imageLayers":[],"locations":[{"text":"\u003Cdiv class=\"mw-parser-output\"\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERobin Hood's Well (Knutsford)\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003C/div\u003E","title":"Robin Hood's Well (Knutsford)\n","link":"","lat":53.3048,"lon":-2.3722,"icon":""}],"imageoverlays":null}

The site of Robin Hood's Well.

The well was situated near Knutsford Gym (to the right) and the Medi & Beauty and Dental Academy (to the left) / Google Earth Street View.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-01-19. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-17. Includes information kindly provided by an anonymous contributor.

A no longer existing Robin Hood's Well in Knutsford is first mentioned in 1847 and figures on maps published in 1882 and 1899. It was probably named after Robin Hood, a race horse belonging to a Matthew Miller.

Henry Green in his Knutsford (see 1859 allusion below), tells us that over the well, presumably as an inscription or on a signboard, was the motto 'If Robin Hood be not at home | Stop and take a drink with little John'. Just beside the well was an enclosed mound and a stone on which the words 'Alas! poor Bob!' were engraved. On making enquiries, Green learned that the Robin Hood in question was a race horse which lay buried under the mound and that 'little John's drink' was strong ale rather than pure water. Perhaps unknown to Green, the motto over the well was a variant of a piece of verse that was inscribed near the entrances to some 19th century public houses named after Robin Hood and/or Little John. He does not mention the Robin Hood's Cottage that was situated very close to the well and mound, but this seems an odd name for a 19th century Robin Hood pub, and it is in any case not easy to see why the motto of a nearby pub should be found over the well, so while there is no reason to think that the Cottage was a pub, perhaps the strong ale was contained in a bottle deposited by the well or mound as a last gift to a dearly beloved horse who had perhaps been known to enjoy a pint or two after a succesful day at the races? Homo sapiens is not the only life form that can develop a taste for alcohol.

In a recent pamphlet on the history and topography of the Moor, a park in Knutsford, Joan Leach and others list Robin Hood's Well in Malt Street as being in existence by 1847. They cite no source, but on finding that the tithe award for Nether Knutsford – that of the four wards of Knutsford in which the well was situated – dates from the same year, we expected to find the well included in it. However, no mention of the well is found there, and not surprisingly, one also looks in vain for it in the tithe award for Over Knutsford.

Allusions

1859 - Green, Henry - Knutsford

 The name Robin Hood's Well, a locality near the Moor, suggests that the great outlaw and freebooter of Sherwood Forest had wandered to our town; we read the motto over the well,

"If Robin Hood be not at home,
Stop and take a drink with little John;"

[p. 131:] and we imagine his favourite attendant must have been concealed close at hand. But, alas! for our antiquarian excitement; just by is a neatly enclosed mound, and a stone engraved with the words, "Alas! poor Bob!" We enquire what it all means, and learn, almost to our vexation, that Robin Hood was the name of a race-horse buried under the mound, and that little John's drink was not the pure element—"that best of liquors," but like Friar Tuck's,—a flagon of strong ale.

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

• Dodgson, John McN.; Rumble, Alexander R. The Place-Names of Cheshire, pts. I-V (English Place-Name Society, vols. XLIV-XLVIII, LIV, LXXIV) (Cambridge, 1970-72; [s.l.], 1981; Nottingham, 1997), vol. II, p. 75; vol. V, pt. 1:ii, p. 419, may refer to this locality, but he cites no source, date or location.

Maps

• 25" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII.9 (c. 1877; surveyed c. 1874). No Copy in NLS
• 25" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII.9 (c. 1898; rev c. 1897). No Copy in NLS
• 25" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII.9 (1934; rev. 1908) (georeferenced)
• 25" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII.9 (1934; rev. 1908)
• 6" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII (1882; surveyed 1872-76)
• 6" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII (1899; rev. 1897) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII (1911; rev. 1908)
• 6" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII (c. 1931; rev. 1908)
• 6" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII (c. 1936; rev. 1908)
• 6" O.S. map Cheshire XXVII (c. 1947; rev. 1938).

MS sources

• 1847 tithe award for the Township of Nether Knutsford in the Parish of Nether Knutsford, Piece 5, sub-piece 227, at The Genealogist
• accompanying map, Piece 5, sub-piece 227, sub-image 001, at The Genealogist
• 1847 tithe award for the Township of Over Knutsford in the Parish of Nether Knutsford, Piece 5, sub-piece 228, at The Genealogist
• accompanying map, Piece 5, sub-piece 228, sub-image 001, at The Genealogist.

Printed digital sources

• Knutsford Methodist Church: the First Chapel
• Leach, Joan; Friends of the Moor. A History of the Moor, Knutsford ([s.l.]: [s.n.], [c. 2009]), pp. 8, 17.

Gazetteers

• Dodgson, John McN.; Rumble, Alexander R. The Place-Names of Cheshire, pts. I-V (English Place-Name Society, vols. XLIV-XLVIII, LIV, LXXIV) (Cambridge, 1970-72; [s.l.], 1981; Nottingham, 1997), vol. V, pt. 1:ii, p. 419, may refer to this locality, but he cites no source, date or location.

Background

• Wikipedia: Knutsford.

Also see

• Knutsford place-name cluster
• Places named Robin Hood's Well
• Come and drink with Robin Hood.

Notes

 Cheshire place-names 

 Place-names