By Martin Jeffrey

Nobody has researched and promoted the fact that Robin Hood was a Yorkshireman and even buried in West Yorkshire, as much as Barbara Green. For the last twenty five years she has tirelessly fought the authorities to obtain recognition of Robin Hood’s grave.

Kindly, Barbara has provided for Mysterymag.com details of the hauntings of the grave.

‘The Armytage family lived over the brow of the hill on a splendid site once occupied by Cistercian nuns. It was called Kirklees. There was more than an insularity which set the mansion apart. There was a mystery about it which local people only reluctantly tried to penetrate. The mystery was helped physically by the thick shroud of trees that surrounded the place and was sustained by local tales of ghosts of prioresses and nuns and or the death of Robin Hood whose grave is so imperturbably marked as lying within Kirklees grounds in spite of any facts which might suggest to the contrary. ” THE LAND OF LOST CONTENT.

This appears to be the first reported mention of ghostly activity around Robin Hood’s Grave, but considering the history of Robin’s death – cursed by a witch on his way to the nunnery, murdered by an apostate nun and cast into an unhallowed grave, it is hardly surprising that the site is reputed to have unquiet spirits hovering around.

An elderly lady, Mrs Edith Ellis witnessed silver arrows in the sky above Kirklees when visiting her old aunt at Hartshead in the early years of the last century. She also reports hearing Robin calling for Marian. Another sighting was made by a tenant farmer of Kirklees in 1926, ”One day, he recalls, ‘ I was sitting on the grave shooting rabbits. As I was about to shoot I felt a tap on my shoulder, and my shotgun went off accidentally, removing two of my front teeth on its recoil. There was nobody to be seen at the time.

On another occasion I was on my way home from the Three Nuns. As I was walking through the woods something fell out of a tree and knocked me to the ground. When I got up I could see the old gatehouse. In the window I could clearly see a man with a bow. My family always said it was the drink, but it was Robin Hood’s ghost”.

In 1963 guitarist Roger Williams took an unofficial stroll up to Robin’s grave with a friend. About twenty yards from the grave he saw a white robed woman who suddenly seemed to glide towards the two men. What made Roger’s hair stand on end was how silently she moved over the twigs and bracken. Roger saw the same apparition again in 1972, in full daylight, and again she stopped a few yards from him and his companion. This time Roger remembered a few more details. The woman was wearing a long white dress with a square neck and long sleeves which accords with the habit of a Cistercian nun. The eerie sequel to this experience was that Roger’s house then experienced a series of strange noises and bangings. After this. Roger swore that ”wild horses would not drag me up there again.”

Shortly after this a reporter, Judith Broadbent, from the Dewsbury Reporter,and a photographer colleague, Sue Ellis were allowed to visit the gravesite by the owner. While wandering around she heard heavy footsteps behind her and she was pulled to the ground by invisible forces. She shouted “get away” and her friend came rushing to help her. Her camera had jammed while trying to photograph the grave. A week later Sue was taken seriously ill and was paralysed from the neck downwards for two weeks.

A further sighting by another nocturnal visitor proved a terrifying experience when she saw two figures hovering in the trees surrounding the grave ,who she took to be the evil prioress and her paramour Red Roger of Doncaster.” I felt, and saw, what I can only describe streams of evil pouring out of the trees towards me” the witness stated.

The list of Fortean incidents that are related to the grave continues to include an exorcism by Rev Sean Manchester (Highgate Vampire), suggested ley line alignments with the grave and poltergeist activity. I suggest that you visit Barbara’s site www.robinhoodyorkshire.co.uk and find out the real story behind Robin Hood and his grave.