Editing Robin Hood (section)

===Barnsdale===
[[File:Wentbridge Robin Hood blue plaque (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|[[Blue Plaque]] commemorating Wentbridge's Robin Hood connections]]
A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives Robin Hood's birthplace as [[Loxley, South Yorkshire|Loxley]], [[Sheffield]], in South Yorkshire. The original Robin Hood ballads, which originate from the fifteenth century, set events in the medieval forest of [[Barnsdale]]. Barnsdale was a wooded area covering an expanse of no more than thirty square miles, ranging six miles from north to south, with the [[River Went]] at Wentbridge near [[Pontefract]] forming its northern boundary and the villages of [[Skelbrooke]] and [[Hampole]] forming the southernmost region. From east to west the forest extended about five miles, from [[Askern]] on the east to [[Badsworth]] in the west.<ref>Bradbury, p. 180.</ref> At the northernmost edge of the forest of Barnsdale, in the heart of the Went Valley, resides the village of [[Wentbridge]]. Wentbridge is a village in the City of Wakefield district of West Yorkshire, England. It lies around {{convert|3|mi|0}} southeast of its nearest township of size, Pontefract, close to the A1 road. During the medieval age Wentbridge was sometimes locally referred to by the name of Barnsdale because it was the predominant settlement in the forest.<ref>Dr Eric Houlder, PontArch Archaeological Society.</ref> Wentbridge is mentioned in an early Robin Hood ballad, entitled, ''Robin Hood and the Potter'', which reads, "Y mete hem bot at Went breg,' syde Lyttyl John". And, while Wentbridge is not directly named in ''A Gest of Robyn Hode'', the poem does appear to make a cryptic reference to the locality by depicting a poor knight explaining to Robin Hood that he 'went at a bridge' where there was wrestling'.<ref>''The Gest'', stanza 135, p. 88.</ref> A commemorative [[Blue Plaque]] has been placed on the bridge that crosses the [[River Went]] by Wakefield City Council.