Sheffield authors of new book say ‘we don’t to nick Robin Hood’

BUT SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM FENDS OFF CLAIM THAT ‘OUR’ FAMOUS OUTLAW WAS FROM SOUTH YORKSHIRE

TWO authors have said they “don’t want to nick Robin Hood” after they published a book backing up Yorkshire’s claims to being the legend’s birthplace.

The claims are in the book Reclaiming Robin Hood, which was sponsored by Sheffield City Council as part of its “Bring Robin Home” campaign.

One of the book’s authors, Dan Eaton, a 40-year-old teacher at Loxley Primary School, used his degree in archaeology to research the famous outlaw as part of 20 years’ work as a local historian.

He located a boundary stone near the school, marked with a cross denoting parish boundaries, that helped to locate “Little Haggas Croft” where according to legend, Robin Hood was born.

But the current Sheriff of Nottingham and Hyson Green councillor, Merlita Bryan, said: “Others can borrow but he belongs to Nottingham, everybody wants a bit of him which shows his fame.

“As I’ve said before, Robin Hood is as much from Sheffield as Jarvis Cocker is from Nottingham. Everyone knows his arch-rival wasn’t the Sheriff of Sheffield.

“His story is important to people as Nottingham is a fighting city that has the same spirit of defiance. We believe in fairness and trying to help each other.”

Speaking about his research, Mr Easton said: “We don’t want to nick Robin Hood. People have seen the title of the book and gone into a mad panic. We should all be celebrating Robin Hood as a global thing.

“My goal in all of this was to find the site of what was called Little Haggas Croft, which was there 400 years ago, and was where locals referred to where allegedly a Robin of Loxley, alias Robin Hood, had been born.

“It’s never been to usurp the legend of Robin Hood or something but to find this place that was referred to in 1637 by a survey of the area. We don’t believe this was the real figure but it may have been the start of the stories. “The ballads from 500 years ago about Robin Hood do associate him with Sherwood Forest, but they always refer to him as being born somewhere else. It’s about more of the location and pinning that down and raising the awareness of South Yorkshire connections to Robin Hood – which clearly it is has.” Dr David Clarke, 54, co-author of the book and associate professor of folklore at the Sheffield Hallam University Centre for Contemporary Legends, said: “Historians of Robin Hood legends know that the ballads say that he operated in South Yorkshire, in Doncaster. No-one is doubting that the Sheriff of Nottingham was the villain but if you watch all the movies and read all the originally sources they all suggest that he was born somewhere called Loxley.

“There are very early sources from the Elizabethan era, as early as you’re going to get, that someone called Robin Hood was born in Loxley – a surveyor sent by the lord of the manor in Sheffield in 1637 was told by people that it was the site of the ruined house where he was born. We’re not saying this is the Robin Hood, because there were literally dozens of them, with the earliest reference being tracked to something like 1261.

“It’s like when Kylie Minogue was popular and people started calling their kids Kylie.

“The nature of the legend means you get stories from Sheffield that he was born in Sheffield, stories from Nottingham that he haunted Sherwood Forest and robbed the rich travelling to London, and stories from West Yorkshire about him dying in Kirklees – how is it that people in Nottingham can claim its our legend and belongs to nobody else?

“It’s interesting as an academic that people are getting so worked up about someone, who if even if he existed, may have lived 800 years ago.

“Present-day Nottingham has invested lots of lots of public relations and branding, which is why they’re getting upset. The people who are banging on about ‘he belongs to us’ don’t even know their own legend. If this person existed, they lived in the Middle Ages – there was no such thing as Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire or Yorkshire. Robin would be laughing if he was reading any of this reaction.”

The authors are campaigning for a Robin Hood statue on the village green in the small Sheffield village of Loxley, and have said the Robin Hood legend can benefit both regions.

Dr Clarke added: “It’s not taking anything away from Nottingham. It’s just keeping the legend alive for both Nottingham and Sheffield and people are invested in these tales.

“This just a replay of something that has been going on for years. Like when in the 1990s there was the controversy when Doncaster Airport first opened calling itself ‘Robin Hood’ airport, where they’ve still got a statue in the terminal of the airport.”

Others can borrow but he belongs to Nottingham. Everyone knows his arch rival wasn’t the Sheriff of Sheffield Merlita Bryan, Sheriff of Nottingham