麻豆社

The Royal Hunting Lodge in Bestwood is where King John and his brother Richard stayed to get away from Nottingham. The main purpose of their visits was for hunting.

Bestwood Country Park was a royal deer park - one of the best parks in Sherwood Forest. It was very strongly guarded and kept very well stocked.

The Lodge was originally the seat of the Duke of St Albans but because of its heritage it's full of echoes from the time of Robin Hood.

The park wouldn't have been the most hospitable place to live in winter. At the time of Robin Hood the River Trent actually froze!

It would have been a good place for Robin and his men to camp as it was close to two main roads and the deer would have been plentiful.

In the early Christian era, or the dark ages, people would not have ventured into the park at night, not because of outlaws but because of ghosts and werewolves.

There were still many pagan beliefs at this time and it's thought malevolent spirits would be lurking; also, since people were buried in the park it's thought the flesh would attract werewolves.

Outlaws who lived in the woods would use these stories to stop people from going in to discover them.

Blacke Dickon's tour of Robin Hood's county

Robin Hood expert, Richard Rutherford-Moore in the guise of one of the Sherwood Foresters takes us around Bestwood Lodge and Country Park.

"Being heavily guarded you would have thought that the Royal Hunting Lodge would have been a no go area for Robin Hood..."