Simon Mattacks
speaker
2,981 appearances
17 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 6d ago
Simon Mattacks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
as we explore the sleepy history of Robin Hood.
Each year, about 350,000 visitors make their way to Sherwood Forest, which is in Nottinghamshire, located in the East Midlands of England.
Even though it's a fraction of its original 100,000 acres, Sherwood is now a carefully managed and much-loved national nature preserve, occupying a little more than 1,000 acres.
If you navigate to common online sites, information about Sherwood may lead with the fact that it was originally proclaimed by William the Conqueror, or that it was actually mentioned in the famous Doomsday Book in 1086.
You might also find out it contains the highest concentration of ancient trees in Europe.
But of all these fascinating details, the one that probably reigns supreme is that Sherwood Forest is inextricably linked with the legends of Robin Hood and his band of merry men.
In fact, Sherwood Forest and its keepers appear to lean heavily on Robin Hood to keep the public engaged with its many honorable conservation pursuits.
Every summer, the Robin Hood Festival offers visitors a feast of medieval-themed activities that range from jousting to weaponry demonstrations to storytelling.
This is all, of course, to bring Robin Hood's universe to life.
As the website for the forest suggests, his heroic acts still bring an air of magic to the woodlands he is said to have roamed.
In describing the value of this protected woodland, the website says that, as a unique habitat, much of what thrives there is rarely seen outside the forest.
And even here, some of its more elusive species are hard to spot, making sightings all the more exciting and memorable.
Between the rare old oaks and the thriving wildlife,
there is certainly plenty of real magic afoot to Jerwood.
And the rest, the tales of Robin Hood and its keepers tend with such good nature, well, that part of the history of the area is quite a bit less certain than many people might think.
To root out the origins of Robin Hood, it's necessary to return to the earliest recorded mention of the Robin Hood tales.
To do this, we must travel back to a time even before Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales.
Sometime between 1370 and 1386, a man named William Langland composed a narrative poem called Piers Plowman.
In it, there is a passage that says, I do not know my paternoster as the priest sings it, but I do know rhymes of Robin Hood.
Now,
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