Population, Coinage, Agriculture and Forestation in the North

If we compare maps of Roman and Norman coin finds with maps of population density, we find that coin density mirrors known population density in the North of England for Norman England. If we overlain Roman coin finds in the North with Norman, we see a near exact fit, which implies similar land use and perhaps population levels.

Anglo-Norman Coin Finds

Roman Coin Finds

Roman & Norman Coin Finds Compared

Domesday Population 1086 Mapped



So if we look at 2009 land use we can see the pastoral zone is the area with lower population

A Barnsdale Commentary for History Hunters

Merry Wakefield, Forrestation and Robin Hood

It is in the Wakefield Rolls we find the strongest candidate for the many Real Robin Hoods, Robert Hood lived in Wakefield with his wife Matilda at Bichill - now the site of Wakefield Bus Station.

Local Historians in the 1970's took the time to map historic land use in Wakefield, and these can be viewed at Wakefield Museum and Library.

Waca's Field was a settlement -  a clearing into the uncleared Forest of Barnsdale with the Great Marsh separating the small hamlet from Sandala. The area would have still been part of the British forest Kingdom of Elmet with Anglian settlement from the East with the Anglian Kingdom of Deira

After the defeat of Elmet at the hands of the Northumbrians - Deira and Bernicia, Viking invasion and settlement into Bys and Thorpes  let to further in roads into Barnsdale in Wakefield.

By the time of the Norman Invasion in 1066, we see depopulation caused by the Harrying of the North by King William I. 

By the Age of Robin Hood in 1300, the deforestation of Barnsdale which was an Anglo-Danish hunting forest used by Canute and the Confessor, the Normans protected Sherwood but not Barnsdale, which was a place of Anglo-Saxon Brigandage. 

The Woodland continues to diminish but still plays a role as can be seen in 1460 with the Battle of Wakefield.

Nostell Priory, St Austin and Robin Hood

The Wakefield Rolls record a Robert Hood who lived in Wakefield in 1316 with his wife Matilda, he was son of Adam Hood, a forester. Some think that had property in the Village of Wragby, the parish church is set in the grounds of Nostell Priory. The Priory was founded in 1120 in the Reign of King Henry I by his chaplain Ralph Adlave as a Priory for the Canons of St Austin, on the site of a church set in St Oswalds Wood which had been occupied by Christian monks and hermits from 665 AD who had built the Church and a little hall. The Priory was decicated to St Oswald and the Norman Baron Robert de Laci granted land in Hardwick to support it.
In the Gest of Robin Hood, the little known Saint Austin is referenced by King Edward who entered the Greenwood in the guise of an Abbot

They all kneeled down on their knee

Fittingly, before Robin;

The king noted this himself,

And swore by Saint Austin,

‘Here is a wondrous, goodly sight

I think, by God’s agony,

His men are more at his bidding

Than my men are at mine’.

Very quickly was their dinner prepared,

And in to eat they went;

They served our king with all their might,

Both Robin and Little John.

Right in front of our king was set

The fat venison;

The good white bread, the good red wine,

And also fine ale, and brown.

‘Make good cheer’, said Robin,

‘Abbot, for charity,

And because of this same tiding,

Blessed may you be.

Nostell Priory's wooded landscape is on the edge of the Went Valley that leads to Wentbridge, and it would have been an established order at the time of Robin Hood, in the Wragby Parish Church, ancient yew trees dating back to the middle ages grow in the churchyard, These were used for bows used by Robin, Little John and the Merry Men as referenced by the Gest.

Then up spoke Little John,

To Much he did say,

‘I dare lay my life in pledge,

That these monks have brought our pay.’

‘Be of good cheer,’ said Little John,

‘And ready our bows of yew,

And look your hearts be strong and sober,

Your strings trusty and true.

The monk has two and fifty men,

And seven packhorses strong;

There rides no bishop in this land

So royally, as I reckon.

Brethren,’ said Little John,

‘Here are no more than we three;

Unless we bring them to dinner,

Our master we may not see.

Bend your bows,’ said Little John,

‘Together you must stand;

The monk at the front, his life and his death,

Are held in my hand.

The Church of St Michael and Our Lady - built in the 1533 after the destruction of the Priory at the hands of Henry VIII on the site of an earlier medieval church is dedicated to St Michael and the referencing of "Our Lady"  eight times by Robin Hood in the Gest, including his building a chapel in Barnsdale to Our Lady, so the church may stand on the site of a candidate for Robin Hood's Barnsdale chapel, along with South Kirkby and Campsall.

The Forest Kingdom of Elmet - unifying Barnsdale and Elmet

A Chronology of Elmet and Barnsdale

55 BC Julius Caesar invades South of England

43 AD Claudius conquers South of England

47 AD Brigantian resistance delayed Roman invasion of Wales

51 AD Southern Rebel leader Caractacus handed over to Romans by Brigantian Queen Cartimandua

52-57 Venetius Rebellion

59 AD  Vellocatus Rebellion

70-84 AD Conquest of Brigantian Territory

2nd C AD  Rebellions 

5th C AD Romans depart founding of Sub-Romano British Kingdoms of the Old North

Coel Hen "Merry Old King Cole"

Later Elmetian Kings 

Masgwid Gloff?

Llaennog ap Masgwid?

Arthuis ap Masgwid?

Gwallog ap Llaennog?

Ceretic d. 617

7th C AD 
600 AD Battle of Catterick (Catraeth) total defeat of Bryneich & Gododdin at hands of the Angles of Bernicia & Deira - foundation of Northumbria

633 AD Battle of Hatfield Chase - King of Gwynedd Cadwallon conquers Northumbria 

634 AD Battle of Heavenfield - Cadwallon defeated by Anglian Oswald

655 AD Battle of Winwaed (Penda's Fields) Leeds - Bernician Oswiu kills Mercian Penda

Elmet Hiddage - 600 hides for the Elmetsaetae

865 AD  Great Heathen Army from York to Nottingham

937 AD Battle of Brunanburh where English King Athelstan destroys Irish, Scottish, Norse Strathclyde armies north of Robin Hood's Well in Barnsdale

1065  Yorkshire revolt against Tostig. 
1066 Battle of Fulford, Battle of Stamford Bridge York, Battle of Hastings
1067  Revolt of Gospatric and Morcar, 
1068  Edgar the Atheling
1069  Harrying of the North, villages across Yorkshire laid waste 
1072  Gospatric loses Bamburgh 
1194 Barnsdale Forest extends to Sherwood in reign of Richard I

Robin Hood - A Good Catholic Outlaw

Robin Hood was, whether he lived in the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth or fourteenth Centuries, a good Catholic. In the Gest of Robin Hood, one of the earliest and most reliable of the sources, we learn that he was a "good Yeoman".He was Courtesous, One key verse identifies that whatever land he was in it was his practice to have three masses:

A good custom then had Robin,

In whatever land he were,

Every day before he would dine,

Three masses would he hear.

The one in worship of the Father,

And another of the Holy Ghost;

The third of Our dear Lady,

That he loved altogether most.

Robin loved Our dear Lady;

For fear of deadly sin,

Would he never do a gathering harm

That any woman was in.

Was the "Dear Lady" - St. Mary mother of Jesus? or was it Mary Magdalene - to whom he later built a chapel in Barnsdale?

But Robin was minded to protect the honest peasant or Yeoman, Knight, Squire but to rob only the greedy over wealthy Bishops, Archbishops,Sheriffs or Barons, when asked by Little John:

Where we shall take, where we shall leave,

Where we shall wait behind;

Where we shall rob, where we shall reve (abduct),

Where we shall beat and bind.’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ then said Robin,

‘We shall do well enough;

But look you do no husbandman harm

That tills with his plough.

No more shall you no good yeoman

That walks by the wood’s green canopy;

Nor no knight nor no squire

That will be a good fellow.

These bishops and these archbishops,

You shall them beat and bind;

The high sheriff of Nottingham,

Him hold in your mind.’

Robin invited his "guests" to share his feast and then share their wealth, but only if they could afford it. When the pauper Sir Richard at the Lee came to dine, and had only ten shillings, Robin lent him money so he could pay the greedy Abbot of York.

When Sir Richard pledges on the name of Our Dear Lady, Robin Hood at once is ready to help him, with four hundred pounds from Robin's Greenwood treasure horde.

‘Away with your tricks,’ then said Robin Hood,

‘Therof I will right none;

Do you think I would have God as a pledge,

Peter, Paul, or John?

No, by him who made me,

And shaped both son and moon,

Find me a better pledge,’ said Robin,

Or money gettest thou none.’

‘I have no other,’ said the knight,

‘The truth for to say,

Unless it be Our dear Lady;

She failed me never before this day.’

‘By the great good God,’ said Robin,

‘I searched throughout all England,

Yet I never found, to my liking,

A much better pledge.

Robin provided clothes and a horse 

‘Take him a grey courser,’ said Robin,

‘And a saddle new;

He is Our Lady’s messenger –

God grant that he be true.’

Robin is able to help his friend whose loyalty has led to his capture by the Sheriff of Nottingham, and his lands being taken by King Edward, who is won over by Robin who stays with the King for just over a year before begging to return to Barnsdale Forest.

Forth then went Robin Hood

Until he came to our king;

‘My Lord the king of England,

Grant me what I ask.

I made a chapel in Barnsdale,

That lovely is to see;

It is of Mary Magdalene,

And that’s where I would be.

I might never these seven nights

Sleep a single wink,

Nor in all these seven days

Either eat or drink.

I long to be in Barnsdale,

I can’t be kept therefrom:

Clothed in a penitent’s hair shirt

I am bound to go.’

Domesday Population Density matched with Norman and Anglo-Saxon Forests

If you take the location of known Norman Forests such as the New Forest along with Anglo-Danish Forests created by Canute and Edward the Confessor along with ancient "Silva" forests like the Weald and Elmet along with Barnsdale and Sherwood which are Anglo-Saxon Danish names for Elmet then you can see a correlation between low population, low arable farm use and forestation.