Robin Hood in Barnsdale Stood!

Robin Hood was an outlaw.

Misinformation, misconception, rumour and legend put him in many places at many times. However it is certain that some of his exploits took place in Yorkshire.

Great controversy has raged between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire on the location of Robin Hood's exploits. Today most people would say that Sherwood Forest was the site but to present this as historical evidence is clearly absurd.

The answer is either that Robin was active in both areas or that there was more than one Robin Hood. It is important to clarify what is meant by the term "forest" as used in the ballads where two are named, Sherwood and Barnsdale. In medieval times the name "forest" could apply to a royal hunting park, or chase, an area subject to strict laws, or it could apply to a large area of land in which woods and heathland could be found. Sherwood was the former, Barnsdale the latter. Created at the time of the Norman Conquest the royal forests provided hunting, game and timber for the king and his followers. Like the undesignated area of forest the park could include open glades, cultivated land, pastures, villages and wasteland, but the laws protecting the venison and vert(trees) were both arbitrary and harsh with savage penalties against law-breakers.

 

There is an early record of King Richard I chasing a hart out of Sherwood into Barnsdale, which shows the close proximity of the two areas and suggests that it was quite possible for Robin to have operated in both counties.

M. Thierry - History of the Conquest of England by the Normans

"... the woodi and famose forest of Barnsdale,where
they say Robyn Hudde lived like an outlaw."

Leyland, Itinery

"My dwelling is in this woode," sayes Robin
"By thee I set right naught
I am Robin Hood of Barnsdale
Whom thou so long hast saught."

Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, v. 36