Where I've been
One of the coolest things I think I got to see on this trip (and there were MANY) was the alleged grave site of Little John at St. Michael's Church in Hathersage.........yes, of Robin Hood. I say alleged because there are conflicting stories but honestly there was such an air of peace and rightness about the churchyard that I'm inclined to believe this one on a just because basis.
St. Michael's Church
Most "tourist" points of interest were marked this discreetly
Outside the churchyard
And just in case you are a more literary sort, this church/graveyard also is the final resting place for the Eyre family, which I didn't know until after the visit. Of course I don't think I've actually "read" Jane Eyre myself which is odd since I used to be a fairly prolific reader. However, I digress ;-), this will forever rank as one of my "ahhhhhhhhh" visits.
3 comments:
Ahhh.... yes, Charlotte Brontë stayed in Hathersage during her writing of Jane Eyre... Eyre being a local gentry name.
While outside of Hathersage the surrounding moorland can be quite bleak to the first time visitor, many of the larger houses and places in and around Harthersage were adopted by Charlotte Bronte as locations she used in Jane Eyre.
As for the church yard, it gets a few visitors - but not the hoards of tourists like so many other places.
With ref. to John Little..
Hathersage was indeed his home town...
Many people seem to thing that the Robin Hood stuff happened around Nottingham, but it simply didn't.
Nottingham was basically the local seat of power. It's forest extended for hundreds of miles.
Robin came from the now suburb of Sheffield called Loxley...
On the Peak Park map on a hillside near Hathersage is an ancient marking of Robin Hood's Stoop... This is the place Robin of Loxley fired an arrow into the air and said "Wherever this Arrow lands, bury me"...
They did, and for hundreds of years archaeologists have been trying to find that place ever since.
TWB, thanks for the heads up about this not so well known site :-), I'm sure everyone appreciates the additional narrative as much as I do.
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