Sherwood Forest is a royal forest in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

, England, famous because of its historic association with the

legend A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess ...

of Robin Hood. The area has been wooded since the end of the Last Glacial Period (as attested by pollen sampling cores). Today Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve encompasses , surrounding the village of Edwinstowe, the site of Thoresby Hall. It is a remnant of an older and much larger royal hunting forest, which derived its name from its status as the '' shire (or sher) wood'' of Nottinghamshire, which extended into several neighbouring counties (shires), bordered on the west by the

River Erewash The River Erewash is a river in England, a tributary of the River Trent that flows roughly southwards through Derbyshire, close to its eastern border with Nottinghamshire. Etymology The approximate meaning of the name is not in doubt, b ...

and the Forest of East Derbyshire. When

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

was compiled in 1086 the forest covered perhaps a quarter of Nottinghamshire (approximately 19,000 acres or 7,800 hectares) in woodland and heath subject to the forest laws. The forest gives its name to the

Sherwood Sherwood may refer to: Places Australia *Sherwood, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane * Sherwood, South Australia, a locality *Shire of Sherwood, a former local government area of Queensland * Electoral district of Sherwood, an electoral district fr ...

Parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

Geology

Sherwood Forest is established over an area underlain by the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleo ...

and

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest per ...

age

New Red Sandstone The New Red Sandstone, chiefly in British geology, is composed of beds of red sandstone and associated rocks laid down throughout the Permian (300 million years ago) to the end of the Triassic (about 200 million years ago), that under ...

. The larger part of the Forest is found across the outcrop of pebbly

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicat ...

s known as the Chester Formation. The regional dip is a gentle one to the east, hence younger rocks are found in that direction and older ones exposed to the west. The local stratigraphy is (uppermost/youngest at top): * Mercia Mudstone Group **Tarporley Siltstone Formation ( siltstones, mudstones and sandstones) ***including Retford Member (mudstones) *

Sherwood Sandstone Group The Sherwood Sandstone Group is a Triassic lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) which is widespread in Britain, especially in the English Midlands. The name is derived from Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire which is underlain by r ...

**Chester Formation (pebbly sandstones) **Lenton Sandstone Formation **Edlington Formation (mudstones and sandstones) The sandstone is an

aquifer An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing, permeable rock, rock fractures, or unconsolidated materials ( gravel, sand, or silt). Groundwater from aquifers can be extracted using a water well. Aquifers vary greatly in their characte ...

providing a local water supply. Quaternary deposits include river sands and gravels, river terrace deposits and some scattered mid-

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

glacial till. There are 41 local geodiversity sites within the Sherwood NCA; these are largely quarries and river sections.

Management and conservation

The Sherwood Forest Trust is a small charity that covers the ancient royal boundary and current national character area of Sherwood Forest. Its aims are based on conservation, heritage and communities but also include tourism and the economy. WinterSherwoodGlade

Nottinghamshire County Council and Forestry England jointly manage the ancient remnant of forest north of the village of Edwinstowe, providing walks, footpaths and a host of other activities. This central core of ancient Sherwood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), NNR and Special Area of Conservation (SAC). It is a very important site for ancient oaks, wood pasture, invertebrates and fungi, as well as being linked to the legends of Robin Hood. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

parts of Sherwood Forest were used extensively by the military for ammunition stores, POW camps and training areas. Oil was produced at

Eakring Eakring is a village and civil parish in the Newark and Sherwood district of Nottinghamshire, England. Its population at the 2011 Census was 419. There was sizeable oil production there in the mid-20th century. Geography The village lies betwee ...

. After the war large ammunition dumps were abandoned in the forest and were not cleared until 1952, with at least 46,000 tons of ammunition in them. Part of the forest was opened to the public as a country park in 1969 by Nottinghamshire County Council, which manages a small part of the forest under lease from the Thoresby Estate. In 2002 a portion of Sherwood Forest was designated a national nature reserve by English Nature. In 2007 Natural England officially incorporated the Budby South Forest, Nottinghamshire's largest area of dry lowland heath, into the Nature Reserve, nearly doubling its size from . A new Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre was authorised in 2015. In August 2018 the RSPB opened the new development with a shop and café, having been granted permission to manage the woods in 2015. Part of an agreement with Natural England was that the land where the existing 1970s visitor centre was located would be restored to wood pasture. Some portions of the forest retain many very old oaks, especially in the portion known as the

Dukeries The Dukeries is an area of the county of Nottinghamshire so called because it contained four ducal seats. It is south of Worksop, which has been called its "gateway". The area was included within the ancient Sherwood Forest. The ducal seats wer ...

, south of the town of Worksop, which was so called because it used to contain five ducal residences. The River Idle, a tributary of the Trent, is formed in Sherwood Forest from the confluence of several minor streams.

Tourism

Sherwood attracts around 350,000 tourists annually, many from other countries. Each August the nature reserve hosts a week-long Robin Hood Festival. This event recreates a medieval atmosphere and features the major characters from the Robin Hood legend. The week's entertainment includes jousters and strolling players dressed in medieval attire, in addition to a medieval encampment complete with jesters, musicians,

rat-catcher A rat-catcher is a person who kills or captures rats as a professional form of pest control. Keeping the rat population under control was practiced in Europe to prevent the spread of diseases, most notoriously the Black Death, and to prevent dam ...

alchemists Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim ...

and fire eaters. Throughout the year visitors are attracted to the Sherwood Forest Art and Craft Centre in the former coach house and stables of Edwinstowe Hall in the heart of the Forest. The centre contains art studios and a cafe and hosts special events, including craft demonstrations and exhibitions.

Major Oak

Sherwood Forest is home to the famous

Major Oak The Major Oak is a large English oak (''Quercus robur'') near the village of Edwinstowe in the midst of Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire, England. According to local folklore, it was Robin Hood's shelter where he and his merry men slept. It w ...

, which according to local

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

was Robin Hood's principal hideout. The oak tree is between 800 and 1,000 years old and since the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

its massive limbs have been partially supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding. In February 1998 a local company took cuttings from the Major Oak and began cultivating clones of the famous tree with the intention of sending saplings to be planted in major cities around the world. The Major Oak was featured on the 2005 BBC TV programme ''

Seven Natural Wonders ''Seven Natural Wonders'' is a television series that was broadcast on BBC Two from 3 May to 20 June 2005. The programme takes an area of England each week and, from votes by the people living in that area, shows the 'seven natural wonders' of ...

'' as one of the natural wonders of the

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

Thynghowe

Thynghowe, an important

Danelaw The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...

meeting place where people came to resolve disputes and settle issues, was lost to history until its rediscovery in 2005–06 by local history enthusiasts amidst the old oaks of an area known as the Birklands. Experts believe it may also yield clues about the boundary of the ancient

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

kingdoms of

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , y ...

and

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

inspected the site, confirming that it was known as ‘Thynghowe’ in 1334 and 1609.New £5m Sherwood Forest visitor centre opens
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadc ...

Nottingham'', 27 August 2018 Retrieved 3 June 2020

References

External links

*
Forestry EnglandThe News, History, and Archaeology of The Real Sherwood ForestNottinghamshire County Council's Official Sherwood Forest Page

Sherwood Forest Regeneration PlansSherwood Forest Trust Official WebsiteThe Living Legend
details current plans for the forest.
Official tourism website for Nottinghamshire and Sherwood ForestAccording to Ancient Custom: Research on the possible Origins and Purpose of Thynghowe Sherwood Forest
{{Authority control Country parks in Nottinghamshire English royal forests Forests and woodlands of Nottinghamshire Nature reserves in Nottinghamshire Protected areas established in 1969 Protected areas established in 2002 Protected areas established in 2007 Tourist attractions in Nottinghamshire Edwinstowe