From Creswell Crags Visitor Centre there is a short circular walk past caves and crevices under towering cliffs. It will only take an hour or two, even if you go slowly and read the information about cave-dwellers along the way. The scenery evokes the pre-historic age and it is very easy to imagine early man trapping animals in this landscape.
It’s funny who you bump in to on such walks. My daughter and I stumbled upon Robin Hood along with Little John and believe-you-me they can spin a story or two!
Legend has it that they didn’t hit it off straightaway. This is how it goes:
Robin is a-roving around the forest in search of sport (hunting) when he meets a man-mountain on a bridge over a brook who will not give way.
The stranger remarks that Robin is at an advantage with his bow and arrows so he takes up a staff and the two of them go at it (fight) with great vigour. See above.
The stranger cracks Robin on the head and sends him tumbling in to the brook so Robin has the good grace to call a truce.
As soon as Robin gets out of the brook he blows on his horn to summon his men. The men want to punish the man but Robin holds them back saying that he can join the gang and learn to shoot with a bow and arrow. The man tells them his name is John Little which causes much merriment because the bloke is seven feet tall, large-limbed and fearsome to behold.
The re-enactment was heartily entertaining and the men spoke in rhyming verse keeping the oral tradition alive. I liked the cafe, we both enjoyed the exhibition and my daughter loved the shop (remind your kids to take their pocket money).
Slow-Cycle 