DT's main ranging area was the bottom end of the Old North Road (Ermine Street) and into Essex (he had a hideaway in Epping Forest).

My village (Caxton, Cambs) is on Ermine Street and there was quite a lot of local folklore when I was a child. Till I was about 10 or 11, Dick Turpin always came at the end of the village fete (held in June) on a black horse, dressed in black with a black mask and handed out presents to the children from a sack. Rather like Father Christmas.

:-)
Ian