As one born in Long Eaton (Derbyshire, but postal address is Nott'm), and one of whose great grandmothers was a Gotham (Nottinghamshire) woman...

There are a few tales about the 3 wise men of Gotham, including the Cuckoo Bush episode (there's a pub of that name in the village). The men saw a cuckoo in a bush, so they encircled the bush with a fence of stakes with the intention of trapping the bird. The tale in my book about the moon episode says that the men were worried about seeing the moon in a pond and decided to rescue it by forming a chain and raking it out. The version of the tale I have says that the anchor man rested his arms and all his friends were drowned! On the same lines there was the man whose horse drank from the pond just as a cloud covered the moon. He thought the horse had swallowed the moon, so chopped it in two with his sword to get the moon back. On another occasion it is said that an eel ate all the fish in one pond, so the angry villagers threw it into another and left it to drown. Then there was the man who felt so sorry for his horse having to carry two bushels of wheat to Nottingham market that he thought he'd carry them himself...while riding the horse.

My book (Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain" pub by Reader's Digest) has one or two other tales, but also gives a possible reason for the legend of the "wise men": One story states that King John wanted to build a hunting lodge at the village, which was understandably unpopular with the locals, so they decided to put the king off by feigning madness when his messengers came. These rode off again to tell the king he had better steer clear of the nutters at Gotham! These stories inspired a quack doctor called Andrew Borde to write his book, "Merrie tales of the Mad Men of Gotham" in the 16th century.

By the way, we used to called the village "Gotham City" when we were young. I only ever went through it once, but I am meaning to go back to search for family history. My mother tells me that my great-grandmother's family were farmers or farmworkers in the area for about 500 years!

This could explain a lot about me.

mouldy

By the way, the name of the village is pronounced Goat-ham, in case there is any doubt and confusion with the cartoon version!