You are standing at one of the most famous places in Hathersage. According to long held tradition, this is the final resting place of Little John, the trusted companion of Robin Hood. The grave is strikingly long, and that is fitting, because Little John is said to have been an exceptionally tall man who lived and worked here in the 13th century.
Local tradition says that Little John was both born and buried in Hathersage. His real name may have been John Naylor, as nail making was one of the traditional trades in the village and required great physical strength. Over time, his nickname may have changed from John le Tall, to John Little, and eventually to Little John.
There is also a story that he and Robin Hood fought together at the Battle of Evesham in 1265. When their side was defeated, they were forced to flee, and it is from this moment that the stories of the outlaw band began.
The belief that Little John is buried here is not a modern idea. More than two hundred years ago the people of Hathersage already accepted it as true. The historian J Charles Cox wrote in 1879 that the legend was firmly believed in by the village and that there were better reasons to accept it than to dismiss it as fiction.
Spencer Hall, writing in 1853, visited Hathersage and spoke to Jenny Sherd, who lived in the cottage said to be Little John’s birthplace. Jenny was seventy at the time and completely confident in the truth of the story. When Hall asked if the grave was really Little John’s, she replied that the whole parish knew more about it than any outsider and that learning from books did not always give people good sense.
Jenny also described the day the grave was opened by Captain James Shuttleworth. A huge thigh bone was taken from the grave and placed on her father’s tailoring board. It measured thirty two inches in length. A bone of that size would have belonged to a man at least seven feet tall.
Jenny said that digging the grave was so difficult that two shovels broke on the way down, and a third broke the bone by accident. The pieces still matched perfectly, and she insisted there was no trickery involved.
Jenny also recalled that when she was a young woman, a group of well to do visitors from Yorkshire had the bone taken again, along with two items once kept inside Hathersage Church. These were:
• Little John’s green cap, which everyone in the village remembered
• A large yew bow, recorded as hanging in the church as early as 1652
Both items were taken to Cannon Hall near Barnsley, where they were kept for many years.
Whether Little John is truly buried here may never be proved. Even so, this place carries centuries of local belief, family memory and village tradition. The people of Hathersage have passed down this story from one generation to the next, and that alone gives this grave its deep sense of history.
Standing here, with the church tower above you and the landscape of the Hope Valley around you, it is easy to imagine a very tall man once known as John Naylor, whose life and legend became part of England’s most famous folklore.
