A History of BIRMINGHAM Places & Placenames . . . from A to Y

William Dargue - A History of Birmingham Places & Placenames . . .  from A to Y

 

Robin Hood

B28 - Grid reference SP111804

Use the grid reference on the Ordnance Survey website - Get-a-map. 

First record c1800

Robin Hood Lane © Copyright Darius Khan and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic. Geograph OS reference SP1080. See Acknowledgements for a link to the Geograph website. Robin Hood Lane © Copyright Darius Khan and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic. Geograph OS reference SP1080. See Acknowledgements for a link to the Geograph website.

 

The name, Robin Hood, refers to the junction of the Stratford Road and Robin Hood Lane and the surrounding shopping centre. Dating from c1800 this name has no connection with the English hero of Sherwood Forest but is probably a misreading of Robin Wood.

 

This woodland stretched from Stratford Road/ Highfield Road junction down to the River Cole at Trittiford. At some time in the 19th century the name was misread or miswritten as Robin Hood.


The name was subsequently adopted by the Robin Hood public house. This was built as a large private house and was converted into a pub in the 1920s when the tram-lines from Birmingham City Centre reached here. It was then a countryside attraction for tourists from Birmingham.

 

The name was later applied to the nearby cemetery and golf course. Robin Hood Farm stood off the Stratford Road just south of Baldwins Lane until c1933 when it was demolished for the construction of the Robin Hood roundabout, at the time the largest in the city.

The Robin Hood golf course. © Copyright David Stowell and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic. Geograph OS reference SP1280. See Acknowledgements to link directly to the Geograph website.The Robin Hood golf course. © Copyright David Stowell and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons Licence: Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic. Geograph OS reference SP1280. See Acknowledgements to link directly to the Geograph website.

In the Middle Ages a croft ie. an enclosed field, is doumented as Conygre meaning 'rabbit warren'. Rabbits were first introduced from the Mediterranean in early Norman times and farmed commercially on a wide scale by the 13th century. Whether for food or fur they were an expensive luxury for the rich.

 

However, these were not the fast-burrowing, fast-breeding rabbits that are now naturalised in Britain, but a species that needed to be carefully nurtured in the English climate. Warrens, sometimes known as pillow mounds, were created for them, and a light soil was ideal. Nearby Sandy Hill Road indicates the nature of the soil in this area, good rabbit territory.

 

 

 

William Dargue 14.03.09

 

 

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For 19th-century Ordnance Survey maps of Birmingham go to British History Online - Maps.

Map below reproduced from Andrew Rowbottom’s website of Old Ordnance Survey maps Popular Edition, Birmingham 1921. See Acknowledgements. Click the map to link to that website.