There is no credible evidence of a real person named Robin Hood, living in Nottinghamshire, who robbed the rich to pay the poor. It is a folk legend.
What's more, the "Forest" if it existed, was not what we think of as "Forest" today. Historically, a "forest" in English, meant uncultivated rough land. Not agriculture or village. Think of the landscape of the New Forest today. So "Forest" did not necessarily mean trees. Historically, and at the time that Robin Hood was supposed to live (13th century), the area of Nottinghamshire referred to as Sherwood was not mostly woodland; it was mostly heathland (heather and gorse, mixed with tufts of tall grasses).
Underneath nearly all of Nottinghamshire are sandy soils, poor for agriculture, and hence much of the county was usually given over to non-farming uses, such as woodland and grazing (which sheep rapidly turn to heath, as any visitor to upland Britian will see for themselves). Periodically patches of trees would be cut down, the land farmed for a while, then abandoned and it would revert to heath which would eventually develop into woodland. This cycle of landuse continued in rural Notthinghamshire until the advent of modern irrigation methods.
What's more, the "Forest" if it existed, was not what we think of as "Forest" today. Historically, a "forest" in English, meant uncultivated rough land. Not agriculture or village. Think of the landscape of the New Forest today. So "Forest" did not necessarily mean trees. Historically, and at the time that Robin Hood was supposed to live (13th century), the area of Nottinghamshire referred to as Sherwood was not mostly woodland; it was mostly heathland (heather and gorse, mixed with tufts of tall grasses).
Underneath nearly all of Nottinghamshire are sandy soils, poor for agriculture, and hence much of the county was usually given over to non-farming uses, such as woodland and grazing (which sheep rapidly turn to heath, as any visitor to upland Britian will see for themselves). Periodically patches of trees would be cut down, the land farmed for a while, then abandoned and it would revert to heath which would eventually develop into woodland. This cycle of landuse continued in rural Notthinghamshire until the advent of modern irrigation methods.
