Sign of Robin Hood (Queen Street, Oxford)
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-02-18. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-06-01.
The Sign of the Robin Hood was located in Butcher Row, which was later extended, widened and renamed first Great Bayly Street, then Queen Street. The tavern would have been located, at least in part, on the area covered by the pavement in front of the red-brick building (Queen Street 33-35) seen in the Google Street View photo shown elsewhere on this page.[1] The property was owned by Balliol College, whose bursar noted details about leases, fines and rents in his Fine Book, begun about 1670. His entry on the property on part of which the Robin Hood was located must have been written some years after 1674 for the words "in 1674 (and so at the present)" to make sense (see Record cited below). His entries stop in 1686, when another hand takes over and the entries become less interesting and detailed.[2] While the record makes it clear that the sign of the Robin Hood, run by Robert Gardiner, was in business by 1674 and had gone out of business by 1686, it is not clear from the bursar's entry how long it had existed by the former date. As the buildings erected on this land were not quite finished on 3 June 1657, the tavern could hardly have opened much earlier. A lease dated 27 April 1676 lists 'Robert Gardiner' as 'victular',[3] so the Robin Hood was evidently still in business at that time. Template:PnItemQry
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
- Salter, H.E., ed. The Oxford Deeds of Balliol College (Oxford Historical Society, vol. LXIV) (Oxford, 1913), p. 350, and see pp. 174, 178-79 (Nos. 269-70), 339, 351.
Maps
Maps of Oxford, focused on Queen Street. The tavern is not indicated.
- 6" O.S. map Oxfordshire XXXIII (1887 (surveyed 1876)
- 'Plan of Oxford shewing the Position of the Ancient Halls &c. according to Wood', frontispiece in Wood, Anthony; Clark, Andrew, ed. Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford, composed in 1661-6 (Oxford Historical Society, vols. 15, 17, 37) (Oxford, 1889-99), vol. I. Butcher Row indicated (detail reproduced on this page)
- 6" O.S. map Oxfordshire XXXIII.SE (1900 (rev. 1898)
- 6" O.S. map Oxfordshire XXXIII.SE (1900 (rev. 1898) (georeferenced)
- 6" O.S. map Oxfordshire XXXIII.SE (1922 (rev. 1919)
- 6" O.S. map Oxfordshire XXXIII.SE (c. 1947 (rev. 1938).
Background
Notes
- ↑ This can be inferred from information provided in Salter, H.E., ed. The Oxford Deeds of Balliol College (Oxford Historical Society, vol. LXIV) (Oxford, 1913), pp. 174, 178 (No. 269), 350-51, and the 'plan' of Oxford according to Wood shown elsewhere on this page.
- ↑ Salter, H.E., ed. The Oxford Deeds of Balliol College (Oxford Historical Society, vol. LXIV) (Oxford, 1913), p. 339.
- ↑ Salter, H.E., ed. The Oxford Deeds of Balliol College (Oxford Historical Society, vol. LXIV) (Oxford, 1913), pp. 178-79 (Nos. 269-70).