Robin Hood House (Little Gaddesden)

Locality
Coordinate	51.803095, -0.553097
Adm. div.	Hertfordshire
Vicinity	58 Nettleden Road, Little Gaddesden, Berkhamstead
Type	Public house
Interest	Robin Hood name
Status	Extant
First Record	1883
A.k.a.	Robinhood House

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Robin Hood House.

Robin Hood House, once an inn – the Robin Hood – then a private residence, now a privately owned and run dementia care home / Benslow Care Homes: Robin Hood House.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2014-08-25. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-03-22.

Robin Hood House was originally a village pub, the Robin Hood, but was subsequently converted into a private residence and greatly expanded. It now functions as a dementia care home, owned and run by Benslow Care Homes.

As can be seen on the Google map of the county on the page on Hertfordshire place-names, Robin Hood House is just outside the historical Hertford­shire/Bucking­ham­shire border according to the boundary data provided by the Historic Counties Trust. I follow the Victoria County History which includes it in Hertfordshire (1908). It is certainly now in Hertfordshire.

In the 6" O.S. map Hertfordshire XXVI, published 1883-84 (see Maps below), the name is cited as 'Robinhood House'. This is the earliest occurrence of the name (in any form) known to IRHB, but an earlier 6" map of the area, published c. 1878, is not available online. This could very well include the Robin Hood public house, as it then was.

Quotations

[1908:]
Following the high road north from Hemel Hempstead may be seen near the beginning of the village Robin Hood House, a large old house of timber and stucco. It was once the Robin Hood village public-house, but has been greatly added to, and is now the residence of Mr. Alexander Murray-Smith.

[1911:]
Robin Hood House, originally an inn, stands at the end of the village, ¾ mile S. of the church. It is a two-storeyed building with attics, and is covered with cement; the roofs are tiled. It is probably of the 17th century, but the only old features now visible are some beams in the ceilings and some flat, shaped balusters in a staircase leading from the first floor to the attics.
   Condition—Good.

Gazetteers

• Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 298.

Sources

• [Gardner, Herbert Colstoun, ed.] An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Hertfordshire (Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England)) (London, 1911), p. 208.
• Page, William, ed. The Victoria History of Hertfordshire. Vol. II (The Victoria History of the Counties of England) (London, 1908), p. 144. Web version a British History Online.

Maps

• 25" O.S. map Hertfordshire XXVI.9 (c. 1878; surveyed 1876–78). No copy in NLS
• 25" O.S. map Hertfordshire XXVI.9 (1899; rev. 1897) (georeferenced)
• 25" O.S. map Hertfordshire XXVI.9 (1899; rev. 1897)
• 25" O.S. map Hertfordshire XXVI.9 (1924; rev. 1922)
• 6" O.S. map Hertfordshire XXVI (1883-84; surveyed 1877-78)
• 6" O.S. map Hertfordshire XXVI (1899; surveyed 1897)
• 6" O.S. map Bedfordshire XXXIV.SW (1901; rev. 1900)
• 6" O.S. map Bedfordshire XXXIV.SW (1901; rev. 1900) (georeferenced)
• 6" O.S. map Bedfordshire XXXIV.SW (1925; rev. 1922)
• 6" O.S. map Bedfordshire XXXIV.SW (c. 1948; rev. 1928)
• 6" O.S. map Bedfordshire XXXIV.SW (1950; rev. 1946).

Background

• Benslow Care Homes: Robin Hood House
• Wikipedia: Little Gaddesden.

Also see

• Little Gaddesden place-name cluster
• Places named Robin Hood's House
• Robinhood place-names
• Public houses named after Robin Hood.

Notes

Image gallery

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• 

  Robin Hood House, once an inn – the Robin Hood – then a private residence, now a privately owned and run dementia care home / Benslow Care Homes: Robin Hood House.

• 

  Anonymous. "Robin Hood House," Little Gaddesden ([s.l.], [19??]). Photo­graphic post­card (b./w.). 137 x 87 mm. / HTN collection

• 

  "Robin Hood", Little Gaddesden. Postcard published by Wm. F. Piggott, Leighton Buzzard, [s.d.] / Hertfordshire Genealogy.

 Hertfordshire place-names 

 Place-names