Lincoln green

Lincoln green is the colour of dyed woollen cloth associated with Robin Hood and his merry men in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. The dyers of Lincoln, a cloth town in the high Middle Ages, produced the cloth by dyeing it with woad (Isatis tinctoria) to give it a strong blue, then overdyeing it yellow with weld (Reseda luteola) or dyers' broom, Genista tinctoria. "Coventry blue" and "Kendall green" were also colours linked with the dyers of English towns.

The colour is a deep warm olive green.

The first recorded use of Lincoln green as a colour name in English was in 1510.

By the late sixteenth century, Lincoln green was a thing of the past, for Michael Drayton provided a sidenote in his Poly-Olbion (published 1612): "Lincoln anciently dyed the best green in England." Cloth of Lincoln green was more pleasing than undyed shepherd's gray cloth: "When they were clothed in Lyncolne grene they kest away their gray", according to A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, ca 1510, and Lincoln green betokened an old-fashioned forester even in the fancy dress of Edmund Spenser's The Faery Queene:

Lincoln Green

Coordinates: 53°48′18″N 1°31′08″W / 53.805°N 1.519°W / 53.805; -1.519

Lincoln Green is an area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is mainly residential with a small local shopping centre. The area also has a public house, The Harp, and a working men's club, The North Leeds WMC. Most housing in Lincoln Green is council-owned high-rise flats; these are in a significantly worse condition then those in other areas of the city. Lincoln Green is one of the most deprived areas of the city. Lincoln Green used to have a secondary school, Agnes Stewart C of E Secondary School, but this closed in July 2006.Primrose High School in neighbouring Burmantofts is close by. Lincoln Green is to be featured on the ITV programme Seven Days on the Breadline.

The area's shopping centre was opened on 3 November 1962 by Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner from Coronation Street ).

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References

Robin Hood

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green, he is often portrayed as "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor" alongside his band of Merry Men. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the late-medieval period, and continues to be widely represented in literature, films and television.

Ballads and tales

The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from c1377, the late-14th-century poem Piers Plowman, but the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the second half of 15th century (i.e. the 1400s), or the first decade of the 16th century (1500s). In these early accounts, Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his Marianism and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an archer, his anti-clericalism, and his particular animosity towards the Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear.Little John, Much the Miller's Son and Will Scarlet (as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck. It is not certain what should be made of these latter two absences as it is known that Friar Tuck, for one, has been part of the legend since at least the later 15th century where he is mentioned in a Robin Hood play script.