Barnsdale
Barnsdale,
or Barnsdale Forest, is a relatively small area of
Yorkshire,
England which has a rich history and the region is steeped in
folklore.
Barnsdale lies in the immediate vicinity north and north-west of
Doncaster, and which was formerly forested and a place of royal hunts, and also renowned as a haunt of the
outlaw Robin Hood in early
medieval ballads.
Formally an administrative area in itself, Barnsdale has at different points in history come under the jurisdiction of the counties of
Nottinghamshire,
Lincolnshire,
Derbyshire, and Yorskhire.
Barnsdale no longer exists as an administrative region. Villages which once resided in the central and southern part of Barnsdale are now classed as part of
South Yorkshire and come under the administration of
metropolitan borough of Doncaster. Villages and hamlets what once resided in the north of Barnsdale now lie within the
City of Wakefield metropolitan borough of
West Yorkshire.
The small South Yorkshire village of
Hampole is generally considered to lie within the dead centre of what was once the Barnsdale Forest area . It is recorded that
Richard Rolle (1300-1349), the famous
Latin and English religious writer and Bible translator, spent his final years at Hampole as a
hermit, secluded in the dense forest.
The area was once thick woodland, rich with
game and
deer; and the monarchs of England are sometimes recorded as having gone on royal hunts in the Barnsdale forest. It is believed that at some point in the early medieval era, Barnsdale Forest was probably huge and may have covered most of South Yorkshire (in the same manner as the now tiny
Sherwood Forest probably once covered most of Nottinghamshire). It is possible that the large town of
Barnsley, some fifteen kilometres to the west of
Hampole, probably got the name from the forest.
Barnsdale Bar is the site of the junction of the
A1 (the historic
Great North Road), the
A639, and Wrangbrook Lane, Woodfield Road and Long Lane (junction 38 of the A1). Now motorway services lie on the site. It is six miles north-west of Doncaster. Three
limestone quarries exist nearby, and
archeological digs at the site have turned up some fascinating materials,
architecture, and preserved
farmland dating back to the
medieval era, the
Dark Ages, and beyond (read article
here)
All that now exists of Barnsdale Forest is small gatherings of trees at the side of the A1 motorway at Barnsdale Bar . There is however a wooded area around a half a mile wide, lying around a mile south of Hampole. It is called
Hampole Wood, and although a small wood, the trees there may be direct descendants of the trees of Barndale Forest. The same could be said of the woodland that resides around a nearby stately home,
Brodsworth Hall.
In the earliest medieval ballads of Robin Hood, the 'bold outlaw' is stated as having made Barnsdale Forest his abode and base of operations (as an example, see
A Gest of Robyn Hode [
1]). This is in direct contradiction of what many believe - that Robin Hood resided in
Sherwood Forest, some fifty miles to the south of Barnsdale, in Nottinghamshire. Some believe that this is evidence of a historical Robin Hood who was a Yorkshireman. However it is possible that the two forests were so large that they conjoined together at this period in history; indeed, the two forests may even have been one great forest in this respect.
There is also
Robin Hood's Well, a small monument (apparently designed by
John Vanbrugh) lying right next to the A1 between the
Red House junction and Barnsdale Bar; inbetween the villages of
Skelbrooke and
Burghwallis. It was however moved around
1960 when the junction was being constructed, so the real well is now beneath the A1. For an interesting article on the well, see this page: [
2]
Yet another well -
Little John's Well - lies to the west of
Hampole, between
Wrangbrook and
Skelbrooke (but closer to the latter). It is also called Little John's Cave. Situated by the A638, to the west of Barnsdale, it was once engraved with the outlaws' name but is now derelict.
South of Barnsdale Bar, the A1 follows the old
Roman Road of
Ermine Street - at Barnsdale Bar the A639 follows the course of the Roman Road more closely whilst the A1 follows a more recent route. A number of villages and geological features along this route are mentioned in the early ballads of Robin Hood as being places the outlaw would visit.
In
Hanging Wood, which lies between
Hampole and
Highfields, a small stream known as Robin Hood's stream springs from somewhere underneath the Roman Road and runs into
Pickburn.
Perhaps the best known feature of modern-day Barnsdale, is the
model village of
Woodlands which lies about 4 miles south of Barnsdale Bar between the
Roman Road and the historic Great North Road, here numbered as the
A638 following the construction in 1960 of the
A1(M) Doncaster by-pass.
