Sherwood and Robin Hood

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After a mediocre breakfast in the hotel restaurant (we should have ordered just the continental) we moved on to Robin Hood country. First stop was at the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre where we took a walk through the forest to the Major Oak (named after a Major in the British army not because of its size). At about 1000 years old, it has a large cavity in the middle of the trunk and its huge branches are propped up all around to try to conserve it. Several other trees are between 400 and 800 years old and are tended by the conservation staff to try to keep them thriving with mixed success. The forest was not what we expected of Sherwood with more open spaces and they even let cattle in to graze in some areas. The visitor’s centre itself has a small theatre showing a film about the history of the area including the most famous local – Robin Hood!

Apparently the stories are based in fact, although greatly embellished over the years. The Sherwood area was once owned by the church and when King Henry VIII took over all the church property in England, it became a playground for the royals and their wealthy friends. A rich hunting ground, it was illegal to poach the King’s deer and it appears that for a period of around 300 years, there were poachers and bandits living in the Sherwood Forest and each took the name Robin Hood to extend the legend.

The park also has a cool little low rope course for kids and Em was great at negotiating the obstacles with only a little encouragement. We had lunch nearby and then it was off to find the Gruffalo…

Around the corner a ways is Sherwood Pines. This is a large area of plantation pines that has been taken over as a bit of a kid’s adventure-land. There are high ropes courses and off-road Segway trails and a couple of huge adventure playground areas, one for the little kids and one for the bigger kids. There is also a short walk finding all the creatures from the Gruffalo story. Em races off to find each of them and then we had a wander through the forest and played on the playgrounds for a bit.

Accommodation was in Loughborough near Nottingham with a Chinese shop down the road for dinner.

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