Hathersage Little John's Grave
Stanage Pole, pictured, marks the ancient diocesan boundaries of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. The pole is also a way-marker over this early pack-horse route.
Roger Dodsworth, an outstanding antiquarian, visited John Armytage III of Kirklees in January 1618. He then went to a local Wakefield church, where he wrote, “Robert Locksley, born in the Bradfield Parish of Hallamshire, wounded his stepfather to death while ploughing and fled into the woods, where his mother sustained him. When discovered, he fled to Clifton-upon-Calder (Kirklees), where he became acquainted with Little John, who kept the kine. Later, Robin joined Much, the miller’s son. Little John lies buried at Hathersage in Derbyshire, where he has a fair tombstone with an inscription.” (Bodleian Library MS. Dodsw. 160 fol. 64r).
After Little John buried his friend and comrade, he made his lonely way back to Hathersage. There, he dug his own grave under the old yew tree in the graveyard by the preaching cross. “His bow was in the chancel hung his last good bolt (short arrow) they drove down to the rocks, its measured length westward from the grave. Root and bud, this shaft put forth, then, when spring returned, it grew into a tree and threw a shade, where slept staunch Little John.”
NOTE
The plot belongs to the Naylor family, who claimed Little John as an ancestor. (Iola) The grave in the picture is that of a later man with the same name. He was very small, hence his nickname, but there is no reason why he cannot be a descendent of the legendary man.
Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby. All rights reserved NEXT PAGE
Roger Dodsworth, an outstanding antiquarian, visited John Armytage III of Kirklees in January 1618. He then went to a local Wakefield church, where he wrote, “Robert Locksley, born in the Bradfield Parish of Hallamshire, wounded his stepfather to death while ploughing and fled into the woods, where his mother sustained him. When discovered, he fled to Clifton-upon-Calder (Kirklees), where he became acquainted with Little John, who kept the kine. Later, Robin joined Much, the miller’s son. Little John lies buried at Hathersage in Derbyshire, where he has a fair tombstone with an inscription.” (Bodleian Library MS. Dodsw. 160 fol. 64r).
After Little John buried his friend and comrade, he made his lonely way back to Hathersage. There, he dug his own grave under the old yew tree in the graveyard by the preaching cross. “His bow was in the chancel hung his last good bolt (short arrow) they drove down to the rocks, its measured length westward from the grave. Root and bud, this shaft put forth, then, when spring returned, it grew into a tree and threw a shade, where slept staunch Little John.”
NOTE
The plot belongs to the Naylor family, who claimed Little John as an ancestor. (Iola) The grave in the picture is that of a later man with the same name. He was very small, hence his nickname, but there is no reason why he cannot be a descendent of the legendary man.
Copyright © 2020, Graham Kirkby. All rights reserved NEXT PAGE