Hi my name is Kevin Hicks welcome to my YouTube Channel The History Squad,
now today's video has been voted in by my Patreon members, hey guys thanks a million. These are my
personal stories from my time shooting under the Major Oak at Sherwood Forest some of the
stories I have from that time but there's one that sticks in my mind. I'm just climbing over
the fence to go towards the Major Oak when a young lad, number 11 bus running down. “Oi Mister” he
says to me and I looked at him I said “Yeah what do you want son?” “Who are you supposed to be?
You can't be Robin Hood you're too old.” Well my hair had changed color so I looked at him,
I said “You know what son you're right. Can you keep a secret?”
“What's that then?” “I ain't Robin Hood.” “Didn't think you was. Who are you then?”
“I'm Robin Hood's Grandad”. “Wow” he says “That's fantastic” and off he went, made up, waiting
for Robin Hood's Granddad to appear and shoot under the Major Oak, Sherwood Forest, England.
So people will always ask me about Robin Hood and they'd asked my own personal opinion and I'd read
‘The Guest’ you know, the poem of Robin Hood. I'd read all of the outlaw stories and the conclusion
I came to is Robin Hood could be one of many different characters but my favorite candidate for
Robin Hood is Robin of Loxley near Stratford upon Avon, he is documented, never called Robin Hood,
Robin of Loxley and strangely his grave which is in Loxley churchyard resembles the drawings of
Robin Hood's grave which was supposed to be up in Yorkshire and there's a bit of a story around him,
however I've been researching and I found another candidate and it's a bit of a oh.
Robert the Bruce in his exile was down in Yorkshire, his family down in Yorkshire
have an awful lot of connections, one of them if you translate the Modern English
translates to Gisborne. Could it be that Robin Hood was Robin the Bruce? Could it be that that
great Scottish King a hero of mine was actually Robin Hood? Because one statement, and I love this
because this is putting a cat amongst the pigeons, as one Scotsman says to me “Eye, Robin Hood,
Scottish”. But as a Yorkshire man says to me “Ah, Robert the Bruce a true Yorkshire man indeed.” The
legend of Robin Hood, it lives on. You know the rangers at Sherwood Forest used to tell
me that the uh Major Oak there was anything from a thousand to twelve hundred years old
and I worked that out so if Robin Hood really existed, which I of course believe he did, then
that tree would have been a nice mature tree. I was told that it takes 300 years to grow and oak,
300 years to mature and around 300 years to die. Well the Major Oak has been supported propped up
so it isn't dying but I remember going there first time with my Dad, a five six-year-old little lad
and in those days the tree wasn't surrounded by a fence to keep people out and we went right up
to the tree and he put me inside the tree and he says “This is where Robin Hood would hide when
the Sherriff’s men were looking for him.” Oh the legend. As you can appreciate shooting a longbow,
a war bow with pointed arrows, these have got medieval points on them it's very dangerous
and the people at Sherwood, some of them just didn't get it that the arrows can kill for sure
and I was shooting in the early years. I was there shooting away doing a speed shoot and I was
averaging 18 to 20 arrows in a minute over about 35 yards and some good accuracy I was enjoying it
and then the one day a little child just ran and the little girl, three maybe three and a half,
ran straight in front of the arrows just as one had thudded into the target and I didn't see her
until I raised my bow and half drew my next arrow. The parents hadn't noticed that the child was
missing they were so engrossed in what I was doing so I stopped shooting and I asked “Does anybody
know who that sweet little girl is who's standing right next to my target?” The audience laughed
but then when I look and saw the parents they weren't laughing, they were horrified. So that
was lesson number one. So what I used to do at the beginning of every shoot from that day
was “Ladies and gentlemen, what I'm going to do I'm going to shoot, but in the past we've
had children break free with excitement and run towards the target as I'm shooting, so please
keep hold of your children. Now the rest of you, especially those who don't have any children with
you, if you see a child running towards the target can you please, please call out the height of the
child and the direction of the wind so I can stop him getting towards the target. It used
to bring the house down but it had the message, these arrows will kill you. And I was shooting
there the one day at a very, very small target, in fact it was a feather on top of a post so I am so
focused on knocking this feather and the audience were enthralled because the feather was going,
dink, as I was knocking it and then finally the feather, just up into the air and I
stopped shooting I turned to the audience and I went ‘wow’, but the audience were looking at me
they were looking at the people who'd appeared from behind my archery stop net.
They had walked through a no entry zone of the forest all the way to the back of my target to
see where all of the arrows were coming from. Ironically some of the arrows had gone straight
through the net and had gone past the people as they walked towards the back of the target.
People sometimes just do not understand how dangerous my job could be.
Sometimes at Sherwood on bank holidays, the public holidays we have in England, you would have an
entire medieval village set up. Traders, singers, dancers and you get to know these people I mean
Jim and Emma from Trinity Court Pottery, still got the cup, still got the costril and prize
possession, not on film, I still have my puzzle jug. You know Colin who ran his own have a go
archery, the atmosphere was brilliant and we had this community going so I'd be shooting, across
the park there would be jousting, the carpenters would be working away, the singers and dancers,
it really was quite atmospheric, quite lovely and I remember getting ready to shoot the one day,
building the audience up and I reached for my hunting horn, war horn, this is actually a real
cowhorn, this was a lovely cow I knew her name she was called 4802 and I just give it one blast.
And as I did that somebody answered my call from right across the forest, a reenactor,
then another horn, then another horn all the way through Sherwood Forest the horns were sounding
and then I simply sounded back. The audience were absolutely in awe they were just loving the whole
atmosphere of the forest they had been immersed in the tales of Robin Hood, medieval England.
Well, I'll tell you it was hard work. I would sometimes shoot, let's figure this
out fifty, a hundred, anything up to four to five hundred arrows in a day and sometimes my fingers
ached my shoulders definitely ached but I built up the muscles over the years, but what I like to do
was to go and sit behind the Major Oak and I used to sit there eat my sandwiches. There was even a
smaller one next to me because my son Josh used to come to Sherwood Forest and he would sit and
eat his sandwiches, he'd even shoot with me, but this one day I'm on my own. I've relished the idea
of having my lovely sandwiches but all around my feet is powder and I thought oh it must be some
fertilizer or some weed killer or something like that and I just ignored it and there was quite a
lot of it. What I didn't realize I was also sat in it. So there I am, munching away and I took out a
nice doorstop sandwich and I'm about to take a big bite when a kind of a mini whirlwind came
around and blew all of the dust in the air just as I was taking a nice big bite and I took two bites
crunch, crunch and I've got a mouthful of this powder. So I had a drink of water and carried
on eating once the wind had stopped. At the end of the day I always used to get help to take down my
target and my archery stop net. It was the rangers from Sherwood, the guys and the girls and they
were always brilliant, so helpful to me and so good to the public. Never forgotten those people,
yeah guys if you're still around thanks a million. But this one particular day I've asked them,
I says “Why is there all of that fertilizer around the oak?” And they said “What d’you
mean Kevin?” I says “Around the base of the oak over there where I sit there's lots of powder”
And they both smiled at each other and they said “Come on let's go and have a look Kevin”. So I
walked over with the two rangers who are giggling at each other, so they said “Oh you've been sat
there, yeah we can see your bum print in the dust.” And I says “What is it? Why'd you put
it down?” “Oh we don't put it down Kevin”. I said “What do you mean? He says “That isn't fertilizer,
those are human ashes. People who've had Granddad or whoever cremated and their
last wishes is to have their ashes spread around the Major Oak at Sherwood Forest,
this is what they do. They come of a night time and they do it in secret and Grandad's ashes are
spread around. There's never been a problem until Kevin The Bowman came along and sat in Grandad and
then at a little bit of him. So for a short while I had the insider nickname of Kevin the cannibal.
You know there was an incident at Sherwood when I was shooting away and the film Robin Hood,
Prince of Thieves, Kevin Costner hey what a guy, what a film. You can put it apart if you like, you
can say well Robin Hood didn't have an American accent, I don't care. The film brilliant, Kevin
Costner excellent, but there's just one little thing. I always used to get the people at Sherwood
“Can you shoot two arrows at once?” And I'd say to them “Yeah you can” I says “But in the film you'll
notice that Robin Hood pulls these fletchings the feathers off with his teeth, well let me tell you
these are bound, whipped we call it and they are glued, you will be there for about half an hour
chewing away by which time you'd be skewered, however you don't need to take a fletching off.
You just put two arrows on the bow and shoot”. So the audience would go “Come on then”. So I put two
arrows on the bow and I'd shoot full draw. I can do pretty much two arrows would go in the target
35 yards no problems, uh sometimes if I hadn't drawn the arrow far enough one arrow would drop
low but always you got the same comment. “Can you do three? Bet you can't do three. Can you do four?
But I explained to them the one day, why shoot two arrows?
Let's time it and I always had somebody often it was a lady called Kim, she would time for me and
how long it took to put two arrows on the bow and then shoot two arrows separately then put
three arrows on the bow and people are amazed at just how fast you could shoot and of course when I
used to do the speed shoot there it was regularly 18 arrows in a minute into the target and then
I started to get fed up of having the target so it would be a post and I'd put something on top
of the post, a broken arrow or something and I would shoot at that and boy did that bring on my
accuracy and to turn around after 21 arrows I've actually hit skimmed or just missed that post,
boy did I feel good and the audience were blown away. You don't need two arrows, if you've got two
men coming towards you shoot them both as quick as you can, if not be ready with your sword.
Well I hope you enjoy that little video of mine and my time at Sherwood Forest,
if you did like, share and subscribe and if you'd like to support the channel further you
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