ErasmusHobart.com

Living through winter in Sherwood, one can’t help but wonder about the hardships of former residents. Robin Hood could not have turned to the central heating when the frosts came, and living on the run in the Royal Forest he’d have had to be pretty careful about lighting camp fires. That said, of course, the odds that a fire in the centre of the forest could be seen twenty miles away in central Nottingham are pretty remote, so perhaps that’s what he did.

In terms of winter weather, Sherwood is actually in a peculiar spot. Because the channel coast is about 150 miles away and the Peak District screens our western flank from weather systems from the Atlantic, it’s unusual to see more than a small sprinkling of snow. The four inches we received last week was, therefore, a surprisingly large amount, even if it does nothing to compare with the deluge falling in Wales or Scotland. Still enough to have Nottinghamshire running out of grit, but maybe that’s because outlaws are stealing it to grit their tracks in the forest or to salt their venison. Stranger things have happened.

Happy New Year everybody.