ess091 robin hood stone
everysinglestreet

#everysinglestreet [24/03/21] Greenhill Road with Robin Hood and Maid Marion

Graham Holland  

I started off on Rose Lane. The new building on the corner of Pitville Road has come on since I was last down this way.

On the corner of Rose Lane and Pitville Avenue is a new cafe called The Little Peacock Coffee Shop. My brother-in-law James Wafer (Bluewhistle Design) created the logo and branding! Down the side of the building you can see a large doorway that’s been bricked up. I wonder what it used to be.

What was noticeable at one end of Wayville Close is that the majority of houses has two cars. The challenge was for the owners to fit all of their cars in the space outside their house.

There were plenty of signs of spring, from Japanese Amelia and common hyacinth, to red flowering currant.

There’s a group of houses on one side of Greenhill Road which stand out due to their flat roofs. They each have a set of stairs that take you up to the roof, although why you’d want a roof garden when you’ve got an actual garden is unknown. I’ve also wondered if they were more susceptible to leaks. Coincidentally, one of the houses is currently having work done by Frank Bird Roofing.

Robin Hood’s Stone stands inside green railings at the corner of Booker Avenue and Archerfield Road. It’s a neolithic monument, possibly from the same group of stones the Calder Stones came from, and is designated a scheduled monument by Historic England. In 1928 it was moved from its original position 198 feet away when the field it was standing in was designated for house building.

It’s known to have been there since it was first recorded in 1771, although it could have been there since at lease 1550. It wasn’t until it was moved to its current location that it was discovered that the buried section of the stone has cup and ring carvings. One theory is that these marks represent ley lines.

One legend says that the long grooves were made by archers sharpening their arrow heads, which is how it ended up being named after Nottingham’s most famous son. Some of the surrounding roads have names linked to this legend – Archerfield Road, Greenwood Road, and Marion Grove.

Another typically dramatic story from Victorian times suggests the grooves existed to drain the blood when druids made human sacrifices on the stone. As you’d expect there’s literally zero evidence that this is even remotely true!

There’s a house on the junction of Mather Avenue and Booker Avenue which is locally famous, not for the ornate gate, security camera and fountain, but for the flagpole in the corner. This morning the Union Flag was flying, but the owner has a vast collection and changes the flag to fit the occasion. There’s currently just the one flagpole but at one point there were three.

Stats

  • Wednesday 24th March 2021
  • 14 streets
    Abbotts Close, Abbottshey Avenue, Archerfield Road, Farmdale Close, Greenhill Close, Greenlake Road, Greenleigh Road, Greenwood Road, Mareth Close, Marion Grove, Mossville Close, Mossville Road, Pitville Avenue, Pitville Close, Storrsdale Road, Vicarage Close, Wayville Close, Wyndale Close.
  • Total: 2,990 (52.77%)
  • Remaining: 2,676

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