After a day walking around Chatsworth House in Derbyshire I
decided to head to nearby Hathersage village. The Sat-Nav took me into a town
busy with day-trippers and up a hill to a pretty church. The cemetery was small
so I knew it would not take long to find the grave of Little John who was Robin
Hood’s chief lieutenant. I saw in the car having a sandwich and a coffee and
turned off the Van Morrison CD to listen to a cuckoo.
Here I am by
the elongated grave of the elongated Little John who was a legendary fellow
outlaw. The headstone is more modern but there’s also an older one which is too
weathered to read. I suppose some people only visit the church to see this
headstone that looks over a man who was about seven feet tall. Was he really? Apparently
when his crossbow was found it so huge people of average age couldn’t use it.
In films Robin
Hood is portrayed as a peasant or a nobleman who spurned his birth right to
defend the poor. In both versions Little John is always Robin's second-in-command
of the Merry Men. Whether this band of outlaws really existed is inconclusive
but they’ve spawned hundreds of books, dramas and films. I read it was likely that Robin Hood was
likely to be “Robin of Locksley”, a peasant who lived nearby.
Perhaps Little
John was associated with the town of Hathersage. In 1784 Captain James
Shuttleworth exhumed the thigh bone of a man who once stood more than 7 feet
tall – clarifying that the occupant was a “giant of a man”. I couldn't quite
understand by Little John was buried here in Derbyshire as I grew up thinking
Robin Hood and his gang lived in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. Later on
at home I read that five hundred years ago Sherwood Forest was much bigger and stretched
from Nottinghamshire up to Derbyshire and South Yorkshire.
Little John
was said to be present at Robin’s death. Robin had been deceived and poisoned
by the abbess of Kirklees Priory. Knowing he was dying he fired a bow for the
final time and asked John to bury him where “the last arrow” fell (now an
overgrown grave at Kirklees Priory - see link below.)
I thought of going
into the church as the doors were open but a Coffee Morning ensued and someone
would probably be selling some ghastly pourable version of homemade jam (I've
yet to find a homemade jam that is spreadable.) I didn’t bother going in. The church
dates back to 1381 and inside lies the tomb of Robert Eyre who fought at the
Battle of Agincourt. It's thought Charlotte Bronte stole the name
"Eyre" from this well-known Derbyshire family (for her novel Jane Eyre.)
I had a stroll
around the cemetery and found a newer section. I spotted two graves of brothers
who'd died in the war aged 21. You just have to do a hearty salute don’t you?
I've been to both
of Robin Hood's cave and grave. Just click on this link...
http://www.johnhalley.uk/BP%20-%20Robin%20Hoods%20cave.htm
At the rear of the church, the only
bit of red…
The grave of the brothers who both
died aged 21…