For sale: a piece of Robin Hood history
Robin Hood's alleged final resting place is up for grabs – Jonny Beardsall wishes he had several million pounds .
By Jonny Beardsall
3:49PM BST 26 Jun 2012
If you ever made a longbow as a child — I did because I lived near Sherwood Forest — it follows that Robin Hood and his Merry Men would be central to your games. I have visited his alleged hideout, the Major Oak, but until now have never seen his grave. The reputed site is included in the sale of the Kirklees Estate, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, along with the main house, several farmhouses and the enchanting remains of a Grade II-listed Cistercian priory, ripe for residential development, in 750 acres of farmland and woods.
The forlorn mini-mausoleum, a few stone slabs bordered by dilapidated Victorian iron railings, is not easy to find among the rhododendrons. Although there is no public access, the grave, a scheduled ancient monument, features in a walk led by the Calderdale Historical Society on the last weekend in June (calderdale heritagewalks.org.uk).
Legend has it that the outlaw was murdered by a waspish prioress 600 years ago, while she nursed him in the priory’s gatehouse, which is included in the sale. Before he died, he is said to have asked his most trusted friend, Little John, to help him shoot his last arrow and to bury him where it landed. His supposed tomb is 60 yards from the gatehouse.
The estate, which was the seat of the Armytage family since 1565, is looking for in excess of £7 million as a whole, or in lots (through Strutt & Parker, 01432 706786; struttandparker.com). The last Armytage to live there was the late great-uncle of Telegraph racing correspondent Marcus Armytage. Today, Kirklees is run by trustees.
Marcus’s father, Roddy, the retired racehorse trainer, also lives in Yorkshire – albeit in a mere six acres. He knew Kirklees when it was a massive 8,000 acres, much of it where the M62 now snakes.
“It’s been whittled away over the years. As a boy I remember delivering milk with my Uncle John to people’s doorsteps in his Rolls-Royce. In those days all the trees in the place were black with soot from local industry,” he says.
So what does he make of the resting place of the outlaw? “There’s nothing in it – I’ve had a good dig inside,” he laughs.
Given our ongoing appetite for the legend – as recently as 2010, Russell Crowe starred as Robin Hood in a big-budget Ridley Scott film – you would be forgiven for thinking that no photograph of the grave in the glossy particulars is an inexplicable if not an astonishing omission.
Claire Whitfield, head of estates in the North for the selling agents, disagrees. “There’s more to this than Robin Hood,” she scoffs. “If this was Hampshire, it would be £30 million. It is quite the most wonderful proposition I’ve seen all year.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/935 ... story.html
