Robin Hood's Bay
Robin Hood’s Bay gained its name from smugglers, pirates and privateers. Bolt holes and secret passages abounded and silk bales, whisky, etc., could pass from the bottom to the top of the village without leaving the houses.
King Henry III (1216—1272) was the first to issue licenses to privateers, thus allowing them to plunder foreign ships. Local landowners, fishermen, farmers, clergymen, gentry, members of the English royal council, and royalty all got involved and Flemish, Dutch and Hanse ships came under attack from pirates. This resulted in letters of complaint from the Count of Flanders between the years 1324 to 1346 one of which reads: —
“They put to sea from Newport, Flanders with their crew and tackle to make their living by fishing, they had taken 14 lasts (168 barrels).” Englishmen came in six ships, “took Cullin’s ship and all within, and took it and all the people in it to Robin Oed’s Bay, where they were given to the people of the country and led them overland to Witteby.”
The disturbances in nearby Whitby caused by pirates (Robin Oed’s) who, like the Vikings “came and wasted that place, as they had compassion on none,” was so severe that the monks in the abbey had no choice but to leave. They finally settled in York and built St. Mary’s Abbey. There’s little to associate the forest outlaw with seagoing pirates. NEXT Copyright © 2014, Graham Kirkby
King Henry III (1216—1272) was the first to issue licenses to privateers, thus allowing them to plunder foreign ships. Local landowners, fishermen, farmers, clergymen, gentry, members of the English royal council, and royalty all got involved and Flemish, Dutch and Hanse ships came under attack from pirates. This resulted in letters of complaint from the Count of Flanders between the years 1324 to 1346 one of which reads: —
“They put to sea from Newport, Flanders with their crew and tackle to make their living by fishing, they had taken 14 lasts (168 barrels).” Englishmen came in six ships, “took Cullin’s ship and all within, and took it and all the people in it to Robin Oed’s Bay, where they were given to the people of the country and led them overland to Witteby.”
The disturbances in nearby Whitby caused by pirates (Robin Oed’s) who, like the Vikings “came and wasted that place, as they had compassion on none,” was so severe that the monks in the abbey had no choice but to leave. They finally settled in York and built St. Mary’s Abbey. There’s little to associate the forest outlaw with seagoing pirates. NEXT Copyright © 2014, Graham Kirkby