Those who love pub trivia quizzes will be aware of the usual disclaimer that you cannot dispute the answers given by the quizmaster.
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So, when Seven Network’s The Chase Australia quizmaster, Andrew O’Keefe, asked the name of Robin Hood’s arch-enemy, there could have been some biffo from The Beast with regard to the answer. Two of the suggested answers were - the Sheriff of Nottingham and the Sheriff of Yorkshire.
Generations of students were taught Robin Hood hid out in Sherwood Forest on the outskirts of Nottingham, where he and his merry outlaws robbed from the rich to give to the poor while avoiding capture by the Sheriff of Nottingham and his hapless men.
But tourists to England, who venture a few hundred kilometres north of Nottingham to Clifton in Yorkshire, are told a very different story by the local folk. They will tell how there was a Sheriff of Yorkshire, who was also in charge of policing Nottinghamshire in Robin Hood’s day.
Outlaw Robin’s, real name was Robert Hood of Wakefield, an old industrial town Yorkshire (now famous for its rugby league team Wakefield Trinity Wildcats).
Close to Clifton is the site of Kirklees Priory, a nunnery razed to the ground on the orders of King Henry VIII. It was at the priory that Robert Hood spent the years before his death about 1346, allegedly poisoned by the prioress. Legend has it his dying wish, at age 70 or so, was for a bow from which he shot an arrow out the window and asked to be buried where it landed. From the priory to his grave is 600 metres - almost twice the range of a skilled longbow archer.
The outlaw’s original gravestone disappeared some time around 1670. A replica was made, however, many of the locals chipped away pieces of it, because they believed his memorial had magical powers. Another replacement was made sometime in the 19th century, replete with olde English wording in an attempt to make it look authentic.
Nowadays, the buildings on the Kirklees Priory estate are luxury apartments for high-flyers who have set up profitable businesses in renovated former woollen mills and factories in nearby areas such as Wakefield, Bradford and Leeds.
The people of Nottingham are content to keep attracting the tourists with the legendary tales of Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Little John, Friar Tuck and Alan a’Dale.
The answer on The Chase Australia was the Sheriff of Nottingham, but there was no pontificating about the Sheriff of Yorkshire from The Chaser. Perhaps, unusually, the experts had no idea about the background of the real Robin Hood.
