Sherwood Forest, ancient royal forest, which originally comprised about one-fifth of Notts and parts of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, extending from Nottingham to Worksop, and thence less strictly to Doncaster and Whitby. Considerable remains of it still exist near Mansfield, around Rotherham, and at the parks of Wentworth and Wharncliffe. Sherwood Forest is celebrated in tradition as the hannt of the dragon of Wantley, and the retreat of Robin Hood and his associates; and it was the scene of several sanguinary engagements during the Wars of the Roses.

(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))