On Sunday we were down in Nottingham's Old Market Square for the final day of the Medieval Market and it was excellent, loads of great traders selling some very nice food, clothes and other items – some of which were not quite as medieval as others… as you can see I fell in love with a great Australian leather hat – but hey, who has any objection to an Aussie Robin? Just as long as I have the right accent, life's good! 

Picture by and used with kind permission of Julie from Designcat Photography.

Video from the Nottingham Evening Post article here.

Saturday was just as much fun, as we officially announced the winning name for the Castle Rock Brewery's 'Name my Beer' competition, which is… <drum roll> The Sherwood Archer, brewed by me (and the talented chaps at Castle Rock) and named by Charlotte White from Mapperley, who wins a load of great prizes. The brewery tells me that the beer is selling so well the 6000 pints I brewed may not last the month, but they're already planning to re-release it for this October's Robin Hood Beer Festival! (Pictured, L to R: Colin Wilde from Castle Rock; Adela Hampson, the Sheriff's Lady; Cllr Leon Unczur, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Charlotte White and me)!

We also sprang a surprise party on the departing Sheriff of Nottingham, the brilliant Cllr. Leon Unczur who has done so much to promote Nottingham and Robin Hood over his period of tenure – I was very proud to be able to thank him and his equally hard-working Sheriff's Lady Adela for all the efforts (and successes) they've had over the past twelve months.

At the same event I also got to meet the new Sheriff for the next twelve months, Cllr Penny Griggs  (who actually represents Sherwood!) and her Sheriff's Lady (and daughter) Laura… They seem great too, and it looks like the office is in safe hands!   

(Pictured L to R): The new Sheriff, Cllr. Penny Griggs, me, Sheriff's Lady Laura)

 Picture credits: (top) Graham Percy, Castle Rock; (bottom) Sally Radford, Nottm City Council. Many thanks!

Attended by civic dignitaries, representatives of the Armed Forces and families of the brave men named on the memorial as well as the press, TV and invited guests we watched as the memorial was unveiled, it has a very simple dignity to it and I urge you to visit it if you can; the fund-raising continues too. (Photo by and used with kind permission of Julie from Designcat Photography).

Robin Hood Month

I was there as Robin (with the ever-lovely Sal Chappell as Marian on the Sunday) along with Cllr Leon Unczur, the Sheriff of Nottingham and his beautiful Sheriff's Lady, Adela Hampson. There were TV crews from all over the world there, some covering the forthcoming election and just there to see what was going on and others filming specially.

There was also a great World War Two gathering at the Brewhouse Yard on the Bank Holiday Monday; it's a Nottingham tradition now in its tenth year and there are Home Front vehicles, weapons, troops (including the Yanks!), spivs, munitions workers and civilians all in 1940s dress and having a great time. I was in 1140s dress of course so stood out like a sore thumb, but still managed to have a great time along with all of the other visitors despite the phenomenally changeable weather which went from sun to hail and back several times in the course of the morning! And best of all, I had my photo taken with Winston Churchill!

(All photos by and used with kind permission of Julie from Designcat Photography)

On Friday I joined St George, his squire and a full-sized dragon in the Old Market Square, meeting and greeting thousands of people and spending pretty much all day having our photos taken, shaking hands and having fun.

The excellent Sheriff of Nottingham and his lovely Sheriff's Lady were there too as well as the Lord Mayor (whose chain of office I sadly failed to steal) and hundreds of folks dressed in St George's Cross hats/flags/t-shirts etc. enjoying the English Market from 10am-5pm and good beer at the local pubs too! 

Saturday was even bigger -and the weather even hotter – with re-enactment groups (including the splendid Dogs of War displaying medieval combat), scouts, service cadets, stalls, musicians and at one point comedian Eddie Izzard, although to be fair he was there canvassing for the local Labour party candidate in the forthcoming general election! Best of all though were the thousands of people who turned up just to celebrate, have fun and watch the huge parade from the Castle down to the Square which literally stopped the traffic in town! 

One of the great things about the day was the arrival of small groups of students from Manchester on a Rag Week quest, they'd been bussed to just outside Cambridge at about 1am and given a series of tasks to complete both there and in Nottingham before having to return to Manchester before midnight. The catch was they had to do it all without spending any money, and some of the challenges were quite impressive – of course there was the travel (hitching or scrounging free train trips); meeting Prof. Stephen Hawkings (which at least one group managed) and having an archery lesson from Robin Hood, so I had great fun with that. One group (including Jacob and Catherine) came with us to the Trip to Jerusalem pub at the end of the day too (which was also a task). Jacob persuaded me to lend him my costume so he could dress as Robin Hood for extra credit and Catherine very kindly gave me one of their special t-shirts afterwards though, so I hope they won the competition!

       You can read more in this Evening Post article. 

 Photos: (Top) St George and Robin Hood; (Middle) Trying to steal the Lord Mayor's chain of office; (Bottom left) Jacob bravely wearing my very damp costume whilst I try to keep breathing in; (Bottom right). The Sheriff of Nottingham, his Lady and some happy patriotic revellers!

 Pictures by and used with kind permission of Julie from Designcat.

Starting at 7am the brewing began and Head Brewer Adrian Redgrove was fabulously informative and friendly as he spent a lot of time and trouble guiding me through the process of boiling the malt, adding the hops (indeed, I had to weigh and mix the correct amount of each type and then add it into the huge boiling vat as you can see in the photo) and all the other processes in making the beer, which will be launched on May 1st at Nottingham Castle – it's a light, fruity 4% beer with a slight citrus flavour (due to the addition of a new type of hop).

The one thing the beer doesn't have though is a name, so if you can think of a great name which references something to do with Robin Hood (and isn't already in use) then email it to robinhood@castlerockbrewery.co.uk and you could win, so hurry!  

Photo by and used with kind permission of Graham Pursey for the Castle Rock Brewery.

Maid Marian and Little John will be with me as well and after the parade the day itself will be a big party at the Forest Fields Recreation ground, including a performance by The Cheeky Girls! Check out the Pride website for details!  

In order to recognise their great achievements in their respective fields a very few people have been made Freemen (and Women) of the City, and it was decided that an event where all of them were feted across the city should be held. I was invited to help and so I found myself at the Council House, standing next to the Lord Mayor, Cllr Jeannie Packer  as part of a guard of honour for our very special guests – also there were soldiers from the Mercian Regiment (which used to be Nottingham's Sherwood Foresters), RAF cadets, the Lord Lieutenant  of Nottingham and many other civic dignitaries and special guests. We greeted all of the VIPS and them went upstairs to examine an exhibition on the Nottingham's  civic history (and drink coffee) before the real fun began.

(In the photo above, from left to right: Private Derby and his orderlies; Nottingham businessman Mitch Stevenson OBE; multi-award winning Paralympic swimmer Tim Reddish MBE; Sir Colin Campbell, the University of Nottingham's former vice chancellor; Lord Mayor Cllr. Jeannie Packer and… me)!

It turns out the idea was to travel across Nottingham to various important places for photos and small ceremonies, and the first was to head up to Nottingham Castle for photos with it, and Robin Hood (the statue as well as me). And it must have been a weird sight, because as well as our three besuited guests of honour and their partners the soldiers from the Mercian Regiment were resplendent in Victorian red tunics and accompanying Private Derby, the 22-stone ram who is their mascot! Private Derby was blanketed with regimental honours and even two medals, the Indian and Northern Ireland service medals (which conjures up such fabulous images it's unbelievable)! Add to this the Lord Mayor in her full regalia and several of Nottingham's best CPOs in dress uniform it made quite a sight!

We then headed down to The Trip to Jerusalem where I served everyone (except the Police, but including the ram) with some of the new Robin Hood Ale before we left for the Nottingham Ice Arena for another photoshoot, both outside (which was fine) and then inside, on the ice… I can promise you that you've never seen anything as impressive as a 22-stone ram trying to stand up on freshly laid ice – imagine Riverdance held under a sheepskin and speeded up ten times and you'll almost have the picture! Legs flying everywhere Private Derby eventually just gave up and laid down and needed to be dragged off the ice before he'd try standing up again!

Then we all headed up to Trent Bridge, because one of the benefits of being a Freeman is being allowed to drive sheep across the river, hence Private Derby's presence. After a brief period of setting up and greeting all the folks who'd turned up to see us the Freemen followed the ram down the road across the bridge, filmed by TV and pictured for the local press.

Then we headed off for a ride on one of Nottingham's trams (the first time I've been on one), the Freemen were presented with 'Golden Tickets' allowing them free travel forever and I can only imagine what was going through the minds of the other passengers when we got on, Robin Hood, Lord Mayor, two Victorian soldiers, a decorated ram and a host of other folks and photographers! When some wide-eyed children got on at a later stop I smiled at them and told them the tram they were on was heading to Hogworts – and I'm pretty sure they believed me!

After lunch at the The Bell Inn (where I ended up agreeing to do a charity parachute jump for the Nottingham Victoria Cross Memorial Appeal) we then all headed to the Nottngham Eye, the 60m high Ferris Wheel in the Market Square. We took up three cabins, with the soldiers and Private Derby in the middle one, along with a photographer. Yes, they put a ram on a big wheel. But to be fair, he was extremely well behaved as the wheel took us higher and higher above the Nottingham skyline, it's a great view and I can heartily recommend it. At the top though, Private Derby suddenly decided he didn't like being 60m up in the air and tried (albeit briefly) to get out, which was a sight to behold – a ram kicking off in a big wheel? Just bonkers. He calmed down pretty quickly though and by the time we reached the end, he was utterly fine (promise)!

We then had more photos to help launch a charity appeal for a Nottingham Firefighters appeal, to benefit bereaved families and to raise a monument at the Embankment and then… then the day was over aside from saying hello to and being photographed with loads of teenagers, children and tourists who were enjoying what was a great – and surprisingly sunny – day in Nottingham.

And after that I headed off to do a medieval banquet in Sherwood Forest which was by far the most normal part of my day - I love my job!

All pictures taken by and used with kind permission of Paul Harris from Paul Harris Photography except 'Ram on a Tram', taken by and used with kind permission of Sally Radford. Thanks, guys!

Last Thursday (oddly enough 1st April) myself, the ever-lovely Sal Chappell (Maid Marian) and the excellent Cllr Jeannie Packer, the Lord Mayor of Nottingham were amongst the guests invited to launch a brand new beer at Nottingham's most famous and England's oldest pub, Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which nestles splendidly close beneath the cliffs of Nottingham Castle.

We were guests of it's lovely landlady Rosie, Nottingham Brewery (whose ale it is) and we were joined by councillors and representatives of the Nottingham VC Memorial Fund too.

The beer was great and as well as all the guests, dignitaries and local press there were also quite a few other customers (including some really nice folks from Canada who we chatted to for a while) who seemed quite surprised to see us all, especially when I went behind the bar and started pulling pints myself!

We were also joined by John Holmes and Jo Davies from BBC Radio Nottingham who were broadcasting their afternoon show from the Trip and as well as having a good look around the cellars and varies nooks and crannies of the pub they also interviewed me and Sal about how good the pub was and if we enjoyed the beer – possibly the easiest question to answer in the history of radio!

You can hear the show for the next few days here - and if you get a chance to try a drop of the ale at the Trip, you certainly should!