{"id":10,"date":"2017-04-26T14:43:02","date_gmt":"2017-04-26T14:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetforyou.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=10"},"modified":"2018-04-25T11:06:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T11:06:20","slug":"robin-hood-comes-to-poole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2017\/04\/26\/robin-hood-comes-to-poole\/","title":{"rendered":"Robin Hood comes to Poole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent cataloguing of the Poole Borough Archive has revealed an early mention of Robin Hood!<\/p>\n

\"Poole
Poole record book cover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

The earliest existing record book for Poole Borough, dating 1490-1553, provides us with a yearly record of appointed officers – mayors, churchwardens, bailiffs, keymen and constables – along with accounts of town and parish funds, traditionally held in the ‘town box’ and ‘church box’. Yet the volume also includes a series of curious references to a certain ‘Robyn Hode’ for the years 1509-1511. Varying amounts of money are generated on each occasion, from \u00a316 13s 4d in January 1509 and 16s remaining in January 1511 to a massive \u00a320 10s in 1510 – the equivalent of roughly \u00a310,000 in today’s money:<\/p>\n

‘There restyd more in [th]e towne Boxe [tha]t day [tha]t Robyn Hode [Robin Hood] and hys C[o]mpany gaderyd [gathered] xx l x s’<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Extract
Extract from Poole record book<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Uncovering the legend<\/h2>\n

So was there a legendary outlaw frequenting the West County in the 16th<\/sup>\u00a0Century, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor? Alas, not quite. The money was likely generated through collections taking place during ‘Robin Hood games’ – folk plays, revels or pageants centred on the Robin Hood legend which have generally been associated with May Day celebrations. These ‘games’ were particularly popular in the 16th\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Century, with the earliest reference to such events thought to be from Exeter in 1426. Might this be the earliest reference for Dorset?<\/p>\n

On such occasions, significant sums of money could be collected by players costumed as Robin and sometimes Little John and the merry men – perhaps the ‘company’ mentioned in the account. The funds are thought to have benefited the church and townspeople – the sixteenth century’s answer to community fundraising!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent cataloguing of the Poole Borough Archive has revealed an early mention of Robin Hood! The earliest existing record book for Poole Borough, dating 1490-1553, provides us with a yearly record of appointed officers – mayors, churchwardens, bailiffs, keymen and constables – along with accounts of town and parish funds, traditionally held in the ‘town… Read more Robin Hood comes to Poole<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[4],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}