The
Green Chapel
Map coordinates: OSE 268: locator 96 horizontal, 65 vertical.
Route: There are two candidates for the Green Chapel. One, Ludchurch,
is within 30 minutes' walk of Swythamley. The other, Wetton Mill, is several
miles to the south. To get to Ludchurch, we followed the footpath along the
north side of Swythamley; signs point the way to Ludchurch. To get to Wetton
Mill, we had to drive to the village of Wetton Mill, along the River Manifold,
then ask permission from the farmer on whose property the cave lies.
Log: We continued along the stone wall at Swythamley to a house called
Paddock, whose owner whetted our interest in Ludchurch with wry allusions to
the neo-pagan ceremonies held there, while at the same time scolding us for
crossing his property--even though he admitted that the public footpath went
right through it. The footpath follows a ridge above a steep valley, and the
path grows narrower and rockier, the valley below you ever steeper, as you approach
Ludchurch. The entrance to Ludchurch is obscured by trees, but it has the aura
of liminality that validates Gawain's observation (2187-88) that "here
might the devil recite his matins at midnight." Ludchurch is a split in
an outcropping of rock which although open to the sky allows little daylight
in, and that at angles. Mosses and ferns (it was July) in a variety of shades
of green protrude from the walls everywhere. If you walk thorough, you come
out the other side to a dead-end in the footpath.
The temperature inside is fully 15 or more degrees cooler than on the footpath,
so cool in fact that we could see our breaths.
The site would be ideal for the Green Chapel, except that in too many details it doesn't fit the poet's account of what Gawain saw when he arrived at the Green Chapel. It is too close to Swythamley, and there is no cave beyond the brook or stream from which the Green knight could emerge. Wetton Mill fits the poet's description of the place somewhat better.
Wetton Mill is east of Leek, which in the 14th century
housed a cell of Poulton Abbey called Dieulacres. The Swythamley Grange site
was hunting grounds for the monks and abbotts of Dieulacres (Elliott 1984, 63-70).
By a series of one-lane roads, one comes to the River Manifold--more like a
stream or a creek, really--and arrives at the Wetton Mill Tea Room, above which
in a cow pasture sits the cave. Like the Green
Chapel, it lies above a stream, projecting above
the surrounding terrain (2171-74), it is open at both ends and overgrown
on top, and it has openings on two sides (2180-84) . Standing at the entrance
of Wetton Mill Cave and looking across the Manifold
valley, one can see Thor's Cave (earlier name:
Thurse Cave ‘giant’s cave’) and easily imagine the Green Knight sharpening his
axe there (2199-2200).