Council gives update on investigation into former Sheriff of Nottingham

Following dozens of nominations from oppressed serfs in Sherwood Forest, West Bridgford Wire wins our Headline of the Day Award.

The Major Oak is dead and Phil Harding has discovered another ancient site near Stonehenge

Forget Sycamore Gap: this is real tragedy. The Major Oak in Sherwood Forest is dead.

The Guardian reports:

The Major oak, one of Europe’s oldest, largest and most celebrated ancient trees, has died.

The huge tree, which has grown in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, for at least 1,000 years, failed to produce any leaves this year, after becoming stressed by a series of hot, dry summers.

Thousands of visitors admire the oak each year, with its great age, enormous 11-metre girth and 28-metre canopy inspiring a forest of folklore. Although the oak would not have been hollow in Robin Hood’s day, it was said to have provided a sanctuary for the outlaw and his gang when fleeing the tyrannical Sheriff of Nottingham.

Of course it did.

The paper's report blames the tree's demise on climate change and "well-intentioned historical interventions":

Experts believe that the props that continued to support the tree’s mighty limbs also placed it under strain. Left alone, ancient oaks shed their limbs and “grow down”, retreating into their trunk and thereby requiring less water and nutrients as they age.

There's more on Sherwood Forest and the Major Oak in my post about an old travelogue.

Now the good news. A team of archaeologists led by the mighty Phil Harding has discovered an ancient site close to and even older than Stonehenge.

Harding told the Salisbury Journal:

"In a few days’ time, Stonehenge will be filled with people celebrating midsummer solstice.

"But what few will realise is that 5,000 years ago on a nearby hillside overlooking modern day Bulford, people were doing the exact same thing – revering and celebrating the sunrise on midsummer’s day.

"This discovery is probably one of the greatest finds of my career and what makes it so important is just how early it is.

"Up till now, our knowledge of this ancient feat of astronomy was based on Stonehenge and other monuments of a similar period, but what we’ve discovered at Bulford is 500 years earlier than the famous stones we know so well.

"It makes me incredibly proud to be an archaeologist."

St George finishes behind Robin Hood and King Arthur – and I'm not surprised

Fortean Times reports the findings of the 2026 National Folklore Survey for England and it's bad news for St George as he only gets the bronze medal:

The figure gaining highest recognition was not King Arthur or St George, as many might have expected, but Robin Hood, who almost 90 per cent of the people in the poll sample had heard of. Arthur came second, recognised by 84 per cent, while St George trailed in third place, with around two thirds of respondents recognising him.

It's no surprise that Robin Hood is in our minds when British society is becoming so unequal, but I wouldn't have expected St George to come any better than third in that company. As I blogged back 2008:

The idea of celebrating our national saint's day is a new one for most of us English. I can remember the St George's Day parade being a big deal when I was in the Cubs, but beyond that I have never taken much notice of it.

My impression that the idea of celebrating 23 April is a new one was strengthened when the Leicester Mercury published this on that day in 2014:

So. This was the plan. We'd dig out a spiffy old photo of St George's Day in Leicester, bash out a few bruised lines wondering why it isn't a bank holiday in England, then slink off early to the pub. Job's a good 'un. Well, a passable one, at least. 

But here's the thing. We couldn't find many old pics of St George's Day. And none that we muster much enthusiasm for showing you.

There have been more St George's Day events in recent years. As this is in line with the splendid Leicester approach to multiculturalism, which celebrates every festival going rather than ignoring them for fear of offending someone, I am pleased. And, lurking in the background somewhere, there's also the fear that if people of good will don't celebrate it then the far right will.

But when I've been to these events, there's generally been a shortage of ideas about what to do beyond having lots of morris dancers along. Because, mercifully, the English have never taken up the idea of stabbing iguanas with a toasting fork.

Some staggering moments from 75 years of The Archers

A fellow Liberal Alliance councillor told me back in the Eighties that, when he was a small boy, he and his friends were avid listeners to Dick Barton – Special Agent. 

When they heard that a new series called The Archers was to occupy its slot, they naturally assumed it would be about Robin Hood and his Merrie Men.

Imagine their disappointment when they tuned in for the first episode...

At the start of this year, the Guardian celebrated 75 years of The Archers with 75 of its most staggering moments. Here are few they chose:

• Outsiders have always been treated with suspicion in Ambridge. In its first year, unrepentant townie Bill Slater was fatally injured in a brawl outside the Bull.
• Nelson Gabriel, once voted the Greatest Rogue in the series’ history, vanished in an alleged plane crash in 1967. Implicated in the Great Borchester Mail Van Robbery, he was eventually returned by Interpol.
• Adam Macy’s overprotective parenting style might be partly explained by the fact that in 1970, at the age of three, he was kidnapped from the Bull by a couple of Brummie bunglers hoping to blackmail his wealthy paternal grandfather. Three days later, he was rescued from the big bad city thanks to a tip-off from Sid Perks.
• Fresh from her adventures at Greenham Common, Guardian-subscriber Pat Archer almost left Express-reader Tony for her women’s studies lecturer in 1984 … until Tony wooed her back with a bold plan to go organic. (On the farm, not in the bedroom.)
• Four years after their first kiss, Emma and Ed Grundy made their relationship public – a delay explained by the fact that in the meantime she had married and had a baby with his brother Will.

The Joy of Six 1216

Sian Norris meets the Polish activists supporting Ukrainian women fleeing war horrors.

"We are in the midst of a major shift in the way we think about mental distress, away from unproven theories about 'chemical imbalances' or genetic flaws and towards a closer look at the circumstances of people’s lives." Lucy Johnstone on changing understandings of mental distress.

"The justification for early boarding is based on a massive but common misconception. Because physical hardship in childhood makes you physically tough, the founders of the system believed that emotional hardship must make you emotionally tough. It does the opposite. It causes psychological damage that only years of love and therapy can later repair." George Monbiot makes the case against sending young children to boarding school.

Owen Hatherley argues that it's possible to provide social housing at scale without making the design mistakes of the past.

"Many venues have their time in the sun as the place to see new bands on the up, but then their roles roles change - covers and pub rock bands might not be my cup of tea, but they perform an important function for everyone involved." Luke Turner says we must value music venues for what they are, not as stops on the road to fame.  

Kevin Sturton marks the 40th anniversary of Robin of Sherwood with a post on The King’s Fool, the final episode in series 1. It subverts the traditional telling of the encounter between Robin Hood and Richard the Lionheart in Sherwood Forest.

Labour suspends Sheriff of Nottingham over budget cuts vote

Embed from Getty Images

I won't say Keir Starmer's Labour Party is right wing, but it's just expelled the Sheriff of Nottingham for being too much of a socialist.

From BBC News:

The Sheriff of Nottingham has been suspended from the Labour Party for opposing a huge package of council cuts.

Shuguftah Quddoos was the only member of the party who voted against savings approved by Labour-run Nottingham City Council on Monday.

She said she could not "in good conscience" support cuts she felt would harm the city.

Labour said it expected its members to set a "responsible and legal budget".

Mrs Quddoos has now been suspended from the council's Labour group and the party as a whole, a spokesperson said.

This is a dilemma all councillors face when central government puts them in an impossible position.

I may have voted to set the Poll Tax for Harborough while holding up a 'No Poll Tax' poster that a demonstrator had left in the chamber, but I still voted to set it.

Still, Labour and BBC News have given us our Headline of the Day. The judges were last seen riding through the glen with the Sheriff.

Sherwood Forest and the Dukeries in 1957

Click on the still above to view this film on the British Film Institute site.

There the blurb runs:

This silent travelogue intended to familiarise ITV audiences with their new Midlands region takes us to north Nottinghamshire - a part of the country that ATV in reality rarely visited. Contemporary audiences knew all about local hero Robin Hood from the hugely successful ITV series starring Richard Greene. The Robin Hood Pantry at Edwinstowe nods towards the enduring popularity of the outlaw, even though their afternoon teas lack a certain rebellious zeal.

Other landmarks featured include Lord Byron's home at Newstead Abbey and Thoresby Hall at Budby. The film was shot by Birmingham Commercial Films who had the contract for producing filmed items for Associated Television's Midlands' region during the period.

We now think of North Nottinghamshire as mining country, but in the 19th century it was famed for its beauty and called 'the Dukeries' because it was home to so many aristocratic estates. But then those aristocrats decided to cash in and sold the mineral rights...

The only thing that worries me about this film is the scene shown in the still. We see two boys about to climb up inside the hollow Major Oak in a way that would never be allowed today. Ah well, small boys, grazed knees, 1950s, isn't it?

But I have a horrible feelings that what we are seeing is a form of child sacrifice that has allowed the tree to live for a thousand years. When the authorities searched the site the next day all they found was the first boy's school cap.

Six of the Best 616

"The mood wasn’t defensive, but confident, even swaggering. Corbyn had claimed on stage that he ‘wasn’t going to get down in the gutter with anybody’, but his fellow speakers were much less scrupulous." Tom Crewe has been to some Corbyn rallies.

Anya investigates Shami Chakrabarti: "I don’t think the peerage was a reward for writing a report that concluded that the Labour Party is not overrun by antisemitism (it’s hardly a ringing endorsement if you think about it.) But I do think Chakrabarti should not have been asked to conduct an independent inquiry when she had already agreed to accept a Labour peerage. And she should not have agreed to do so."

"After brutal spending cuts, rural bus services have reached the end of the line," says John Disney.

Freddy Mayhew mourns the departure of the last reporters in Fleet Street.

Sam Kriss is fed up with people who cite their own children to back their own political opinions.

"Much of the success of the show was down to the spot-on casting and the chemistry between the performers. Michael Praed’s charismatic-yet-otherworldly presence as Robin was the perfect match for the show’s aesthetic." Llinos Cathryn Thomas looks back at Robin of Sherwood.