Souvenir Programme

This is a very special Christmas treat for all my blogger buddies via Laurence. This is the original British souvenir programme from Walt Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952). Enjoy!












would like to say a very big thank you to Laurence for sending in yet another gem, for us all to appreciate.

Picture Strip 17 : Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood


Part 17 of Laurence's fabulous picture strip of Walt Disney's original movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). To see previous pages of the picture strip, please click on the label below.

If you want to learn more about the making of this wonderful film or the legend that inspired it, please click on the relevant subjects in the sidebar.

Robin Hood's Death at Kirklees


In about 1138 Robert Le Fleming, Lord of the Manor of Wath and Clifton founded the Cistercian Nunnery of Kirklees (near Brighouse, West Yorkshire), within the western end of Wakefield Manor. It was a very small house; the church itself was only c.80 ft long, consisting of a nave and a chancel of about the same width, without aisles or transepts. It was said that Kirklees possessed a Holy Relic, a ‘Singalum’ reputed to be the girdle of the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the Dissolution, Kirlees contained only seven nuns.

It was in this small nunnery, 20 miles from Barnsdale, that Robin Hood is said to have been murdered. In the Geste of Robyn Hode (C.1450), Feeling ill, Robin Hood visits Kirklees to be let blood by his relative, the Prioress.

Syr Roger of Donkestere,
By the pryoresse he lay,
And there they betrayed good Robyn Hode,
Through theyr false playe.

Cryst have mercy on his soule,
That dyed on the rode !
For he was a good outlawe,
And dyde pore men moch god.

Very little documentation survives of the early days of the nunnery, but in 1306 Archbishop Greenfield wrote to the house bidding them to take back Alice Raggid, who several times had been led astray by the temptations of the flesh, she, “deceived by the allurement of frail flesh, in great levity of mind hath gone forth from her house and hath wandered in great peril having long ago put off her religious habit.’

Professor John Bellamy discovered in 1985 that a Roger de Doncaster had been a chaplain in that area and was sent in 1306 by the Archbishop of York to be a priest of Ruddington church near Nottingham. It is about this time that we start to have evidence of the names of the Prioresses of Kirklees. About 1306 Margaret de Clayton was confirmed and from 1307-50 Alice de Scriven remained Prioress.

In 1315 the Archbishop of York wrote to the Prioress saying that public rumour had reached his ears, “that there are scandalous reports in circulation about the nuns at Kirlees and especially about Elizabeth de Hopton, Alice le Raggede and Joan de Heton, and that they admit both clergy and laymen too often into secret places of the monastery and have private talks with them, from which there is suspicion of sin, and great scandal arises; he commands the prioress to admonish the nuns and especially those above named that they are to admit no one, whether religious or secular, clerk or laymen, unless in a public place and in the presence of the Prioress or Sub Prioress or any two other of the ladies. He specially warns a certain Joan de Wakefield to give up the private room, where she persists in inhabiting by herself. He refers also to the fact that these and other nuns were disobedient to the Prioress, ‘like rebels refusing to accept her discipline and punishment.’’’




Joan de Heton was later convicted of incontinence with a Richard de Lathe and Sir Michael ‘called the Scot’ a priest. Alice le Raggede was also convicted of incontinence with a William de Heton of Mirthfield. Later in 1337 a letter from the Archbishop of York to the Prioress states that Margaret de Burton, a nun had sinned and would only be allowed to return to the priory if she would prostrate herself before the gates and undergo the prescribed penance.

At the Dissolution in 1539 Joan Kyppes (Kypac) the last prioress of Kirklees surrendered the nunnery at the value of £29.8s. 6d. Three years later the King’s Antiquary John Leland (1506-52) spent six years on a tour of England collecting material and visited Kirklees describing it thus :

‘Monastrium monialium ubi Ro. Hood nobillis ille exlex sepultus.’

'The monastery where the famous noble outlaw Robin Hood is buried.'

In 1565 the Armytage family took up residence in the Mansion House at Kirklees built from the stones of the plundered Nunnery and a local public house, nearby is named after three of the evicted nuns. The only remaining relic of Kirklees Nunnery is the Oat House, which was re-built on the original site in late medieval times. Although listed, it is in a derelict condition but has interesting ornamental foliated work carved into the beams, including a hound and stag.

The room in which Robin Hood is said to have died

It is in the upper room, which is reached by an outside staircase, where Robin Hood is thought to have breathed his last. Unfortunately the site of Robin’s grave is about 650 yards away, almost twice the longbow range of a skilled archer!
In the very damaged ballad ‘Robin Hoode his Death’ (which was rescued from being thrown on a fire by Thomas Percy) dated from about the mid seventeenth century, we can see more details of the mysterious death of the famous outlaw, which must have been known to the compiler of the ‘Geste’.

The ballad begins:

‘I will never eate nor drinke,’ Robin Hood said,
‘Nor meate will doo me noe good,
Till I have beene att merry Church Lees,
My vaines for to let blood.’

Eileen Power in her book ‘Medieval Nunneries’ notes that in all the ballad and folk song literature of England and Scotland this ballad has remarkably, the only reference to a nun!

Upon reaching Church Lees, (Kirklees) Robin gives the Prioress twenty pounds in gold and promises her more if she needs it.

And downe then came dame prioresse,
Downe she came in that ilke,
With a pair off blood irons [lancing knives] in her hands
Were wrapped all in silke.

‘Sett a chaffing-dish to the fyer,’ said dame prioresse,
‘And strpp thou up thy sleeve:’
I hold him but an unwise man
That wil noe warning leeve [believe].’

Shee laid the blood irons to Robin Hoods vaine,
Alacke, the more pitye!
And pearct the vaine, and let out the bloode,
That full red was to see.

And first it bled, the thicke, thicke bloode,
And afterwards the thinne,
And well then wist good Robin Hoode
Treason there was within.

The manuscript is badly damaged, but after a fight with ‘Red Roger’ Robin tries to escape from Kirklees, through a ‘shot window.’ Little John asks Robin’s permission to burn the nunnery to the ground but:

‘That I reade not,’ said Robin Hoode then,
'Litle John, for it may not be;
If I shold doe any widow hurt, at my latter end,
God,’ he said, ‘wold blame me;

‘But take me upon thy backe, Litle John,
And beare me to yonder streete,
And there make me a full fayre grave,
Of gravell and of greete [grit].

‘And sett my bright sword at my head,
Mine arrows at my feete,
And lay my vew-bow [yew-bow] by my side,
My met-yard [measuring rod] wi ………………………


(Half a page is missing)

Richard Grafton (1511-1572), King’s Printer to Edward VI wrote in his chronicle that, ‘the sayd Robert Hood, being afterwards troubled with siknesse came to a certain nunry in Yorkshire called Birklies [Kirklees] where desyryng to be let blood, he was betrayed and bled to death..........The prioress of the same place caused him to be buried by the highway side, where he had used to rob and spoyle those that paused that way. And Upon his grave the sayd prioress did lay a very fayre stone, where in the names of Robert Hood, William of Goldsborough and others were graven. And the cause why she buried him there was, for that the common passengers and travailers, knowing and seeing him there buryed, might more safely and without feare take their journeys that way, which they durst not do in the life of the sayd outlawes. And at either ende of the sayd tombe was erected a crosse of stone, which is to be seene at theis present.’

I will include more details of Robin’s tomb in a later post, but in 1706 the gravestone of a prioress of Kirklees was discovered. On the gravestone was carved the figure of a cross of Calvary and around the margin the following inscription in Norman-French in Lombardic letters:

‘DOVCE : JHV : DE: NAZARETH : FUS : DIEV: AYEZ: MERCI : A : ELIZABETH : STAINTON : PRIORES DE CEST MAISON’


'Sweet Jesus of Nazareth Son of God, take mercy on Elizabeth Stainton, Prioress of this house.'

Unfortunately there was no date on the stone. It lies about eighteen yards from the east end of the priory church. As it is the only grave discovered other than the traditional site of Robin’s, it probably led to the belief that she was the prioress who bled the outlaw to death.

From the style of the grave cross and its monastic lettering it has been dated to the fourteenth century and it is believed that Elizabeth was one of four daughters of a John de Staynton who lived at Woolley, near Wakefield in Yorkshire.

In about 1631, probably the greatest ballad-monger, Mathew Parker (c.1600-56) produced ‘The True Tale of Robin Hood.’ It was entered to Francis Grove at Stationers Hall on the 29th February 1632. Parker included at the end of the ballad:

‘the epitaph which the said Prioress of the monastery of Kirkes Lay in Yorkshire set over Robbin Hood, which, as is before mentioned, was to bee reade within these hundred years, though in old broken English, much to the same sence and meaning:

Decembris quarto die 1198 anno regni Richardi Primi 9
Robert Earle of Huntington
Lies under this stone
No archer was like him so good:
His wildnesse named him Robbin Hood
Full thirteen years, and something more,
These northerne parts he vexed sore
Such outlawes as he and his men
May England never know again.'

I will continue on the subject of Robin Hood’s Grave Stone very soon.

Waiting for Robin


I just had to share this masterpiece with you all. Mike never ceases to amaze me with his wonderful talent as an artist, and his painting entitled ‘Waiting for Robin,’ in my opinion is one of his best!
You can see more of his work here: Mike's Paintings

Patrick Barr


The article on Patrick Barr was published in the January 30th 1954 edition of TV Mirror and was very kindly sent in to me by Geoff Waite. It sketches in his career up until that time and includes this excellent photo of him as King Richard.

Strong man of TV

"He appears on screen as a quiet purposeful hero. The stolid policeman type. Or the ‘stiff-upper -lip’ Army officer. Or as Philip Chance, upholder of the right in ‘The Teckman Biography.’

Off screen- and at home, Patrick Barr is much the same. He is one of those people who give the impression that they were born to success. This is probably due to his self confidence, which would have carried him a long way in any walk of life.

Surprising that this self confidence has survived undamaged, considering the knocks he has taken.

Patrick Barr was born in Akola, India, forty-five years ago. His father was a judge. At the age of five he was sent to London to begin his education. By the time he had left Radley School for Oxford he had developed the looks and vigour which have largely survived to this day. His physique was largely responsible for gaining him a place in both the university and rowing teams.

As a boxer, he fought a draw against the Army middleweight champion of the day-not so bad for an amateur. But he was undecided about a career-the urge to act was yet to come.

Became a film “Extra”

Leaving Oxford he surprised his fellow graduates by going to work as a labourer. He joined a big engineering works, intending to start at the bottom and work his way up. This lasted for a year, by which time promotion seemed as remote as ever. The problem was solved for him when a slump forced his firm out of business.

So Patrick Barr decided to become an actor. It was about 1930, when the film industry was still enjoying a boom stimulated by talking pictures. Young and confident, he presented himself at the studios. He was hired as an extra-much to his surprise.

Crowd work in films has sapped the ambition of many an aspiring actor or actress. There is the hope, the chance in a thousand, that the director will notice your face and give you the speaking part that can be a passport to stardom. But what a hope!

New York Success

For two years Patrick Barr persisted. He was one face in a crowd, hoping. But nobody-star, director, or audience-picked him out. By then he was getting very old, twenty-four! And he had three wasted years behind him.

It seemed that his theories about working his way to the top had gone wrong. So he set off along another road, towards the stage. Now he had more success, for in 1932 he made his debut at the Royal Theatre. His first stage part did little more than qualify him for several others. He appeared in a succession of seven plays in London, improving with each one. Suddenly he decided it was time to cross the Atlantic. His idea was to conquer the American stage.

On Broadway, New York, producers turned him down flat! And for the first time young Barr was hungry. Looking back, he recalls: “I managed to get more broke than I thought possible.”

But the crisis passed. Fortune smiled on Patrick Barr and he won a co-starring role with Constance Cummings already a big name in America –in a Broadway play. Inspired by this success, he returned to the London stage and steadily built a reputation in the West End. He became something of a name. And the film industry who rejected him as an unknown, sought his services.

Star Quality

The films Patrick Barr made at this period were far from masterpieces. They were for the most part ‘quickies;’ films made to cash in on the regulations that required cinemas to show a proportion of British pictures in their programmes. Some were turned out by American companies operating in this country. It was in one of these, ‘Cavalier of the Streets,’ that Patrick Barr earned some measure of success as a film star. His talent dominated an otherwise mediocre picture and turned it into a box office success.

Then the war brought that phase of his career to a close. After the war, like so many others, he found he had to re-establish himself in his profession.




Famous Films
 
But in the last two or three years his career has justified its promise. He has an impressive list of film roles, including parts in ‘The Lavender Hill Mob,‘The Story of Robin Hood’ (where his good looks and fine build earned him the part of Richard the Lion Heart), ‘Single-Handed,’ and ‘The Intruder.’
 
Lately [1954] he has concentrated more and more on TV. Last year he was in ‘Two Dozen Red Roses,’ and ‘The Three Hostages.’ This year apart from the present serial, the future is an unknown quantity.
 
But it looks as if we shall be seeing a good deal more of him [1954]. We hope so."
 
By David Leader

Picture Strip 16 : Walt Disney's Story of Robin Hood



Part 16 of Laurence's fabulous picture strip of Walt Disney's original movie the Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952). To see previous pages of the picture strip, please click on the label below.

If you want to learn more about the making of this wonderful film or the legend that inspired it, please click on the relevant subjects in the sidebar.

Robin Hood and Native Americans


Avalon http://avalon-medieval.blogspot.com/ has recently asked me to contribute something for ‘Native American Month,’ and as she is a huge fan of Robin Hood, it rather surprisingly was not too difficult for me to find something that connects the two. In the still from the film ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ (1938) shown above, Errol Flynn can be seen at his best as the iconic outlaw of Sherwood Forest aiming his longbow. But unfortunately he is using a mid-20th Century long American flatbow, instead of a true English longbow that a medieval archer would have used. He also carries his arrows on his back, like many Native American cultures. Mid 14th century illustrations show that English longbowmen carried bundles of arrows in their belts.

A flatbow is a bow with non-recurved, flat, relatively wide limbs that are approximately rectangular in cross-section. Because the limbs are relatively wide, flatbows will usually narrow and become deeper at the handle, with a rounded, non-bending, handle for easier grip. This design differs from that of an English longbow, which has rounded limbs that are circular or D shaped in cross-section, and is usually widest at the handle.

It was flatbows that were used by indigenous peoples of North America, from pre-Columbian times; tribes such as the Hupa, Karok, and Wampanoag, prehistoric ancient Europeans, some Inuit tribes, Finno-Ugric nations and a number of other pre-gunpowder societies for hunting and warfare because, unlike longbows, flatbows can be made from a wide variety of timbers.



The archers of the Americas were masters of the bow long before European cultures began to spread across the continents. In the open plains strong bows of great range were used and in the woodlands where stealth and cunning was needed, lighter bows were used. With our Indian the bow was, first of all, a hunting weapon. Here, in order to be successful, he had to be not only an able bowman, but also a good hunter, able to get within bow range of his game.

The smaller bows made by Native Americans in the west explains that the reason they are short is because they fought and hunted from horseback. However, this explanation does not account for the bows of California, New Mexico, Arizona, the mountainous areas of Colorado, or the desert areas of Nevada or Utah where buffalo hunting from horseback was not common.

The bows made and used by Native Americans were what is commonly called a "self" or "true" bow. This is a bow made from a single piece of wood that is durable and flexible enough to be bent in the proper shape. The string itself was made from the very animals that the Native Americans were hunting. Animal sinew, a fibrous material inside the animal carcass was removed, stretched and twisted into string. This string was highly pliable and retained an enormous amount of tension, perfect for launching an arrow. The arrows themselves were made of small shafts of wood with feathers on the ends to guide the arrow. The head of the arrows were made of stone, most commonly flint. The Native Americans became proficient in both the wooden bow and the composite. The bow became such an important tool that it was regarded as a symbol of magic, power, or prowess.

Hopi Indians used arrows coated with snake venom. Arrow tips were made from flaked slivers of stone (e.g., flint or obsidian), bone or antler and were inserted into shafts made from willow wood. The arrows fit into an open-ended quiver that was worn on the back; this proximity facilitated rapid firing at targets. To guard against these projectiles in battle, warriors used tough bison hides to make their shields impenetrable to arrows.

The bow - in Europe, was a weapon of war. It was used by one group of men against another. Because yew, the wood of choice for English longbows, is light, resilient, and has exceptional compressive strength, the rounded design can be used to produce a smooth shooting, efficient, powerful bow. Other woods were also used, probably for compulsory practice purposes, among them wych-elm, ash and hazel, but to this day the slow-grown mountain yew is the supreme wood for the longbow of traditional English pattern. Longbows made of yew were easier to construct by the hundreds and did not require wide staves.

The legendary last member of the Yahi Indian tribe, known as Ishi, came out of hiding in California in 1911. He lived for the last five years of his life at the Department of Anthropology at the University of California where he was clothed and fed. Sadly Ishi died of tuberculosis in 1916, but before he passed away, he willingly taught his doctor, Saxton Pope, about his culture. From his association with Ishi, Pope concluded that Ishi’s bow and arrow making was the best by far of any examples of Indian bowmaking to be found in American museums.



Pope explained that Ishi would split a limb from a tree and use the outer part of the wood including the sap wood, as does the longbowmaker. He reduced it by scraping and rubbing on sandstone, and made the tips by bending the wood backwards over a heated stone. It was then bound to a wooden ‘former’ and left to season in a dark dry place. After seasoning, he backed the bow with sinew from the leg tendons of deer, held on with glue made from boiled salmon skins. The tendons were chewed, to separate the fibres and made them soft, and then glued to the roughened back of the bow. During the process of drying he bound the sinew tightly to the bow with long thin straps of willow bark. After several days he removed this bandage and smoothed off the edges of the dry sinew, sized the surface with more glue and rubbed everything smooth with sandstone. Then he bound the handgrip for a space of 10.2 cm with a narrow buckskin thong.............the bowstring he made from the finest tendons from the deer shank, again chewed and twisted into a chord, with a loop at one end and a thong for tying at the other.

According to Ishi, a bow left strung or standing in an upright position gets tired and sweats. When not in use it should be left lying down; no one should step over it; no child should handle it, and no woman should touch it. This brings bad luck and makes it shoot crooked. To expunge such an influence it is necessary to wash the bow in sand and water.

Pope also described how Ishi, by placing one end of his bow at the corner of his open mouth, and tapping the string with an arrow, the Yana could make sweet music. To this accompaniment Ishi sang a folk song telling of a great warrior whose bow was so strong that, dipping his arrow first in fire, then in the ocean, he shot at the sun. As swift as the wind, his arrows flew straight in the round open door of the sun and put out its light. Darkness fell upon the earth and men shivered with cold. To prevent themselves from freezing they grew feathers, and thus our brothers the birds were born.

Judi Trott as Marion


One of the most influential versions of the Robin Hood legend in recent times was the hugely successful TV series Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986). This wonderfully mystical production was created by Richard ‘Kip’ Carpenter for Harlech Television and had Michael Praed as Robin of Loxley, Clive Mantle as Little John, Ray Winstone as Will Scarlet and Judi Trott (pictured above) as Marion of Leaford. Today it still has a huge following with an international fan base and an excellent website at http://www.robinofsherwood.org/

This stunning picture of Judi Trott as Marion, was sent in by Mike, who like me is a huge fan of the series. Judi was born in Plymouth, England in 1962 and trained as a ballet dancer before attending the London Studio Centre where she qualified as an actress. After appearing in several TV movies, including ‘Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story’ in 1982 she eventually beat Jenny Seagrove to the role of Marion of Leaford. This according to some sources was because the producers were impressed with her, ‘pre-Raphaelite beauty and her mane of red hair’!

Judi was very familiar with the Robin Hood legend and loved the film ‘Robin and Marian’ (1976) with Audrey Hepburn and Sean Connery (she later worked alongside Sean’s son Jason in the third series). But she confesses that she was never very good when it came to sword play and the production crew had to use clever angles to make it look good. She did enjoy the archery and impressed her instructor with her natural posture, which was partly due to her ballet training. But sometimes things did go wrong!

"They used to put plastic around the cameras so nobody would get hurt”, Judi said “although many of the arrows had rubber tips. But, they used to barricade themselves in when they knew I was going to be firing and arrow! Once, I went over the barrier. It was a beautiful shot - went miles! Some spark [electrician] was sitting in his generator some 200 yards away and suddenly felt a thud!. My arrow had gone straight through the bushes and hit the van! Fortunately, he was inside the van at the time."

Azul Maria

I always like to feature the talents of my regular visitors to this blog and this particular member of The Whistling Arrows has a special place in my heart, as she has helped me through some very rough times recently. Maria, who some will know as Azul Maria, visited this site a couple of years ago, when she translated a Spanish Robin Hood poster for me. She is a keen photographer and a lot of her stunning work can be seen here: http://www.fotolog.com/blue_mary/53222272.





Maria, or Montse as she is known on Facebook, also has her own interesting blog at http://tierradelasmildanzas.blogspot.com/, which often has a mixture of historical, musical and artistic features. She also has a love of the Robin Hood legend and hopes to visit England and in particular, Sherwood Forest very soon.

It must have been those artistic eyes of hers that noticed a blooper in the Whistle My Love sequence from Disney’s Story of Robin Hood. Something I had never seen before! But if you watch as Robin (Richard Todd) starts to carry Marian (Joan Rice) across the stream, the camera angle behind them shows Marian’s arms around Robin’s neck, but when it switches to the front Joan has her arm hanging down. This is now the second blooper discovered, thank you Maria!




 One of the many interesting pictures that Maria has taken is this image of a gigantic Ceiba. The tree is growing near Maria’s hometown of Tapachula in Mexico, in the backyard of someone’s house! She had to struggle through the undergrowth and extreme heat to be able to capture this amazing image. We don't get these in Sherwood Forest!