For sale: a piece of Robin Hood history
I have chosen this article, not because, like the author, I grew up near Sherwood Forest (although that is true aswell!!) but because it gives me an opportunity to continue my theme on the under valued beauty of the Southern Pennines. A landscape with little in the way of formal designations but soon hopefully to become a Local Nature Partnership Area. Robin Hood had inside knowledge he retreated here to be nursed only to be tragically done to death! The place in question is the Kirklees Estate near Halifax. The article tells us:
“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. 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.
Whilst I am on the theme of Local Nature Partnerships, one of the biggest challenges those involved in them face is meaningfully engaging the private sector. There has been much rumbling and toing and froing in terms of the relationship between the LNP idea and LEPS in this context. Do any Hinterland readers have a positive experience of engagement between LEPs and pro to LNPs they can offer to me as a positive example of good practice?