Heading to the Peak District we took a little detour and visited
Sherwood Forest the home of Robin Hood. Legend has it that Robin Hood would rendezvous
with his merry men at a large old oak tree, today that tree is known as Major
Oak. The tree is estimated to be 1150 years old and anything of that age
deserves to be respected and is worth a visit.
While in the 16th century forest covered most of Nottinghamshire, in the
1950s Sherwood Forest was no more than an open grassland with a few old hollow Oaks.
The forest had since been nurtured and re-generated; it now attracts some
500,000 visitors each year.
To the west, in the Peak District there are many limestone valleys which
in the Victorian era were filled with mills and industry. Today these areas are
sleepy tourist towns with quaint stone cottages and English cottage
gardens.
We cycled the Monsal Trail, a 6.5mile rail trail through the Wye Valley
from Bakewell to Wye Dale; and hiked the peaks and ridge lines near Castleton
and Edale including Mam Tor and the Grand Ridge. The views of the heather on
the hill tops and the lower sheep farms on green rolling hills below were
iconic England.
England is covered with walking paths that give the rambler the right to
cross private farm land on marked trails. We learned from a local that the right
to roam came about because of the Mass Trespass at Kinder Scout in 1932 where
400 ramblers illegally trespassed to hike the mountain. This relatively peaceful
protest was the start of a movement which resulted 17 years later in the
National Park Act 1949, enabling people to access common and private land to
walk through. This was the start of the British long distance footpath such as
the Pennine Way being established.
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