The Kirklees Grave

The grave with its questionable attribution to Robin Hood, is only one of a number of graves, mostly unmarked, at Kirklees Park Estate. The Saville family, who owned Kirklees long before the Armytage family, gave the information to Camden about the grave - the letter is written in Latin and survives; so the grave`s early origins pre-date Armytage control. They enclosed the grave in the early 18th century first of all because of people chipping off bits for souvenirs and it gave them a wonderful "folly" when the estate was landscaped - but it all pre-dates them. If you owned the land with it on you would walk your friends there, but they have not charged admission to it unless it`s been for fund-raising events. As for the gatehouse, its internal timbers on the oldest single cell section date from the 1400s, but it never was a gatehouse. It was most likely the prioress`s lodging or a guesthouse. The grave itself has not moved for centuries. Measurements have been taken by a professional landscape architect from two fixed building points - namely the corner of the gatehouse and the corner of the barn opposite - neither of which has moved. Sir George Armytage II in 1773 ordered the works, which included the erection of the firt epitaph. In the accounts, John Sykes and Bernard Lee received £5/9/2d for masons’ work on the monument and John Mann received £3/11/8d for 43 man-days labour “when building Robin Hood’s Monument”. Further work took place in September and October 1784 when Jonas Stott laid new walls and crafted the present pillars and finials at a cost of £6/18/3d. Once Stott’s work was completed, Messrs Emmetts, local blacksmiths were paid £14/4/- for cast iron upright and top railings, suggesting that tourists had damaged the originals. There is evidence of the family spending a serious amount of money in the preservation of what was obviously deemed to be a very important monument. That notwithstanding, as recorded in Land of Lost Content (1812): “There was a mystery about it which local people only reluctantly tried to penetrate. The mystery was helped physically by the thick shroud of trees that surrounded the place, and was sustained by local tales of ghosts of prioresses and nuns … ” Strange occurrences and supernatural phenomena have plagued the surrounding area as attested by a significant number of witnesses.

There has even been talk of a rumoured vampire. Seán Manchester wrote about the Kirklees grave: “Eventually a specialist group was formed called Gravewatch … [with] the Vampire Research Society. Its express purpose is to keep a vigil at the Kirklees grave site in a determined effort to unearth its sinister secrets and solve the centuries old mystery of the Kirklees phenomenon ~ whether it be vampire or not …” (The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook, page 36, Gothic Press, 1997). He established earlier in the chapter titled The Kirklees Vampire: “Interest was less concentrated on the precise identity of Robin Hood’s burial place, than the unearthly wanderings beyond the grave on which tombstone appears the inscription: ‘Here underneath dis laitl stean Laz Robert earl of Huntingtun’.” (The Vampire Hunter’s Handbook, page 29, Gothic Press, 1997). The current eptiaph placed on the tomb significantly afterwards by someone with either a sense of humour, or a bad case of dyslexia, seems to have been enough, coupled with the “Robert Hode of Wakefield” claim, to convince some people (largely Yorkshire residents) that the falsely attributed grave at Kirklees Park Estate contains the remains of Robin Hood.

Robert Hode of Wakefield lived in the fourteenth century. A record has been found that reveals Robyn Hod (no connection to Robert Hode of Wakefield) was a porter of the King's Chamber in June 1323. Thus he was in the service of Edward II before he visited Nottingham in November. The last reference to Robyn Hod, porter of the Chamber, is in November 1324 when he received a final payment: “To Robyn Hod, formerly one of the porters, because he can no longer work, five shillings as a gift, by command.” This account of Robyn Hod was, at this point, of someone “retired” from service because he could no longer work. His retirement gift amounted to twenty days’ wages. Some have argued that this was the “real” Robin Hood, but there are numerous other public records in which his name appears. Most of today’s knowledge stems from a series of tales and ballads that created the legendary outlaw hero. They were mainly written in the seventeenth century, although the most important were the handful produced before 1500. Many believe there is strong evidence that Robin Hood was in fact a real person and not the fictitious villain who emerged throughout the last century in romantic dramas and cinematic romps. Indeed, there are as many different candidates for the “real” Robin as there are legends about the fictitious one. Robert Hode and Robyn Hod certainly do not sound like the Robin Hood of the Lytell Geste who wished to visit the chapel of St Mary Magdalen in Barnsdale. It would appear that Robyn Hod porter had merely retired. The only fact that matches the Geste  is the journey of “Edward our comely king.” Edward II did make such a journey in 1323, and he was concerned about the state of his forests, as was the King in the Geste.  The Yorkshire antiquary J W Walker, claimed in 1944 and again in 1952, to have evidence that a Robert Hode of Wakefield served in Thomas of Lancaster's army at Boroughbridge, and became dispossessed with other supporters, but his “evidence” has been disputed. Joseph Hunter and Walker also tried to identify some of the other characters in the ballads. Hunter's theories were widely accepted, but exploded by the nineteenth century editor of the ballads F J Childs. More recently, Dr David Crook put forward another candidate. He mentions the record of a hunt to find Robert of Wetherby, who is described as an “outlaw and evildoer of our land.” The hunt cost forty shillings, and in the following year another twenty eight shillings was spent when trying to behead him. Then there's the order of two shillings for a chain to hang Wetherby, who appears to have met his end at the hands of the Sheriff. Eustace of Lowdham was the Sheriff of Yorkshire from April 1225 to May 1226; then deputy-sheriff until September. He was also a forest justice north of Trent in 1226. Eustace was probably the person responsible for the capture of Robert of Wetherby, and for the sale of the chattels of a certain Robert Hod fugitive, and he  became sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1232-33.  Crook tried to link Robert of Wetherby with Robert Hod fugitive (Hobbehod), but admits: “All that can be said for sure is that the two men shared the same very common first name, and fell foul of the law in the same very large county at about the same time.” And let us not forget Robert Fitz Odo, a Knight born in Loxley, Warwickshire, in the reign of Henry II and Richard I. The Sloane manuscript, an anonymous document from 1600, says that Robin Hood was born in Locksley, but that place, probably the name of a village, could be found in at least three English counties in olden times. In 1599, Anthony Munday wrote two plays responsible for the creation of the outlawed Earl of Huntingdon, or “Huntington” as Munday spelled it, and, of course, it is this latter misspelling, or something akin to it, that we find on the Kirklees grave: “Here underneath dis laitl stean Laz Robert earl of Huntingtun … ”

Roger Marshall adopted the name Robin Hood in 1498 when he led one hundred men in lawless activities in Willenhall. A complaint was made in a parliamentary petition of 1439, which stated that wrongdoers in Derbyshire had behaved “like it hadde be Robyn Hode and his meynee.” It was not uncommon for men to use an alias. The rebel chaplain Robert Stafford called himself Friar Tuck in the fifteenth century, and in 1231-2 Sir Robert Thwing, a Yorkshireman, led bands of men in attacks on the foreign clergy, he used the alias of William Wither. Robert Hod fugitive, not to be confused with Robert Hode of Wakefield, is mentioned in the York assizes record of 1226. His goods were confiscated because he owed money. Then there is reference to the exploits of Robin Hood (in the ballads of some seven hundred years ago) as taking place in the Royal forests. Yorkshire does not have any Royal forests. But Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire can lay claim to being Royal.

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Some history and background to the mysterious Kirklees grave with its alleged supernatural manifestations ~ plus a small sample of recorded encounters ~ can be viewed by clicking on the bat: