{"id":440,"date":"2011-12-03T03:44:13","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T03:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=440"},"modified":"2011-11-28T14:07:57","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T14:07:57","slug":"sherwood-forest-nottinghamshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/?p=440","title":{"rendered":"Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to Sherwood Forest, there\u2019s only one name on everyone\u2019s mind. Who cares if England\u2019s philanthropic hero really existed or not?<br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\">window.onload = setupZoom; function popwalk(walk) {var url = \"\/Walks\/amap.php?f=\"+walk; var walkwindow=window.open(url,\"walkwin\",\"height=600,width=900,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes\"); if (window.focus) {walkwindow.focus()}}<\/script>First published in: The Times <a href=\"javascript:popwalk('SherwoodForest.gpx');\" rel=\"nozoom\" title=\"Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window\">Click here to view a map for this walk in a new window<\/a><\/script><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6117\/6369157523_c07316df22.jpg\" title='One of Sherwood&#039;s mighty oaks'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6117\/6369157523_c07316df22_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6232\/6369181153_a24cdfcb71.jpg\" title='wind-shattered tree'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6232\/6369181153_a24cdfcb71_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6100\/6369187583_21e2813962.jpg\" title='fly agaric'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6100\/6369187583_21e2813962_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6236\/6369193425_b74eb0a79a.jpg\" title='silver birch and conifers'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6236\/6369193425_b74eb0a79a_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6230\/6369198233_b0d929f0bf.jpg\" title='hard winter ahoy? - plenty of holly berries'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6230\/6369198233_b0d929f0bf_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6103\/6369267465_fe1231a58d.jpg\" title='The Major Oak - 1,000 years old'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6103\/6369267465_fe1231a58d_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6093\/6369259343_0705deacdf.jpg\" title='silver birch'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6093\/6369259343_0705deacdf_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6216\/6369245055_ab685a8ba4.jpg\" title='King Edwin memorial'><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.static.flickr.com\/6216\/6369245055_ab685a8ba4_s.jpg\" alt=\"picture\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nFacebook Link: <script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=440\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" width=\"200\" colorscheme=\"dark\"><\/fb:like><br \/>\nRobbing the rich, helping the poor, tossing his friends into streams and whacking his foes into submission &#8211; Robin Hood (or Wood, or Locksley, or Fitzooth) is the nearest we\u2019ve got to a national saint, better than that milk-and-water St George by a long chalk. We all love jolly, carefree Robin, and we all want to be on his team, frolicking in the greenwood with the Merrie Men.<\/p>\n<p>A select band of Times readers set off from Sherwood Forest\u2019s Visitor Centre, the beauty of the autumnal forest and the gentle pace of the walk soon loosening all tongues. Karen and Lynn had come all the way from Bedford, their first time in Sherwood. \u2018Absolutely beautiful,\u2019 was the verdict. \u2018We weren\u2019t expecting it to be so open \u2013 you think of a forest as trees close all round, don\u2019t you?\u2019<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s true \u2013 our psyches have been stocked since childhood with Grimm\u2019s fairy tale forests, deep, dark and dangerous. Yet the thousand acres that remain of the old Sherwood Forest are more of a mosaic \u2013 open ground, broad grassy, rides, farmland, clearings, patches of heath and wetland.<\/p>\n<p>Sherwood\u2019s famous veteran oaks really are huge; bulbous old giants with troll faces and knotted limbs, blasted, cracked, hollowed, yet still defiantly sprouting leaves. It\u2019s reckoned each one hosts more wildlife than a whole forest of commercial conifers. Under them we found Granny\u2019s Cakes generously spilled \u2013 fly agaric fungi, deadly and beautiful in glossy scarlet sprinkled with sugary white.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Lincoln Green? They made the dye with a mixture of woad and weld,\u2019 quoth our walk leader David Wenk, adding modestly \u2018 &#8211; or so I\u2019m told. Now, a bit of a historic thrill up ahead!\u2019 It was a memorial cross marking the burial place of the headless corpse of King Edwin of Northumbria, after his death in battle in 633AD \u2013 a strange image on this peaceful morning.<\/p>\n<p>We ascended the gentle dome of Hanger Hill, known to Robin Hood and his contemporaries as Thyngehoe \u2013 perhaps a Norse \u2018thing\u2019 or meeting mound, surmised David. With the wide views, and our voices carrying far down the slope, we could well believe it.<\/p>\n<p>A slug of hot chocolate and a nibble of lebkuchen and we went on under silver birches whose turning leaves, acid green and yellow, glowed against the sombre Scots pines. Tiny tots came pelting past, absorbed in their own greenwood fantasies.<\/p>\n<p>Nearing the Visitor Centre once more, we came by the Major Oak, a salutary presence to end the walk. Old enough to have sheltered Robin Hood himself, the ancient oak with its craggy rind and soft heart leans on wooden crutches like a veteran of a thousand-year war.<\/p>\n<p>Start and finish:  Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre, Edwinstowe, Notts NG21 9HN (OS ref SK 627677)<\/p>\n<p>Getting there: Rail \u2013 (www.trainline.com; www.railcard.co.uk) to Mansfield (7 miles). Bus &#8211; 10A from Mansfield. Road \u2013 M1 Jct 28; A38 to Sutton-in-Ashfield; A 6075 to Edwinstowe; B6034 to Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre. Car park \u00a33<\/p>\n<p>Walk (6 miles, easy, OS Explorer 270): From Visitor Centre follow Greenwood Walk and Birklands Ramble (signed) for \u2153 mile. Just beyond \u2018Major Oak\/Fairground\u2019 signs, keep ahead (621676, blue arrow) on bridleway (\u2018Clipstone\u2019 fingerpost). In \u00be mile pass path on left (\u2018Edwinstowe\u2019). In another 300m, at T-junction (606676), left along wide ride. Right beside A6075; in 250m, bear right away from road on Robin Hood Way\/RHW (604663, green arrow). In \u2153 mile, fork right (600665, RHW). In 600m pass memorial cross on left (593666). In another 300m, at corner of forest, cross track; ahead for 100m, then right at junction (591667; white arrow on tree; RHW). <\/p>\n<p>In 1 mile at T-junction (599681) dogleg left, then right off RHW, on track heading NNE past Thyngehoe (summit of Hanger Hill \u2013 unmarked). In 250m track forks (600684); don\u2019t go right, but keep ahead along ride. In 600m cross RHW (606686); ahead through barrier. (\u2018Sherwood Forest, Edwinstowe YHA, Dukeries Trail\/DT\u2019). Fork immediately right on bridleway (horseshoe signs). In \u00be mile at junction, left (617679, DT). Path forks immediately; don\u2019t go right up slope, but keep ahead to Major Oak (621679); RHW to Visitor Centre.<\/p>\n<p>Lunch, information and green peaked hats: Sherwood Forest Information Centre (01623-823202; www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk\/sherwoodforestcp)<br \/>\nAccommodation: Forest Lodge Hotel, Edwinstowe, Notts (01623-824443; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forestlodgehotel.co.uk\">www.forestlodgehotel.co.uk<\/a><br \/>\nEnglish Country Walks (David Wenk): 07932-953174; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.englishcountrywalks.com\">www.englishcountrywalks.com<\/a><br \/>\n<U><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.LogMyTrip.co.uk\/\">www.LogMyTrip.co.uk<\/A><\/U><\/FONT> <FONT COLOR=\"#0000ff\"><U><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.ramblers.org.uk\/\">www.ramblers.org.uk<\/A><\/U><\/FONT> <FONT COLOR=\"#0000ff\"><U><A HREF=\"http:\/\/www.satmap.com\/\">www.satmap.com<\/A><\/U><\/FONT> <FONT COLOR=\"#0000ff\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to Sherwood Forest, there\u2019s only one name on everyone\u2019s mind. Who cares if England\u2019s philanthropic hero really existed or not?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walks","category-3-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christophersomerville.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}