David Robbie was born in Blyth, Northumberland, and was educated at the local grammar school, then at Edinburgh University, where he gained a Master of Arts degree with Honours in History. He studied for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Hull University and then enjoyed a career of almost forty years as a teacher, first at the Percy Jackson Grammar School, Adwick le Street, near Doncaster, then at Rugeley Grammar School and its successor, Fair Oak School, in Staffordshire. In retirement, he has pursued his interests in local and family history, on which he gives talks and writes articles. He has lived in Great Haywood for over fifty years.
Founded by Angles in the sixth century and recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, Great Haywood, with its manor that included the adjacent estate of Shugborough and the ancient Forest of Cank, became an important political, religious and commercial centre in the Middle Ages. It was involved in the t...