Lud's Church

Lud’s Church (SJ987656) lies hidden on the western slopes of Back Forest in the Dane Valley, near Wincle and Gradbach.  Over the ages Lud’s Church has offered shelter to all sorts of renegades. There is a tradition that Robin Hood used it and even Bonnie Prince Charlie spent the night hiding in here during the Jacobite rebellion. It is a strange and mysterious spot, draped with ferns and mosses.  At one time a pony and trap brought trippers from Buxton, who were charged a fee to visit Lud’s Church and see a wooden statue, known as Lady Lud, in a high rocky cleft above the chasm. Visitors to Lud’s Church were led to believe it depicted Alice de Lud Auk, a sweet young girl and the granddaughter of Walter de Lad Auk, who was killed when the king's soldiers raided a secret service held in the ravine. Her ghost haunts the "church" to this day. However the statue of the lady clad in white nestling in the rocks of Lud’s Church was actually the figurehead of the ship the Swythamley.

The Lud’s Church is thought to have acted as the model for the 'Green Chapel' in the classic mediaeval poem 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight', and the aura of mediaeval romance still seems to stick to it. The moment you descend the granite steps into Lud's Church it is clear why it has inspired so many myths and legends. Daylight becomes a primeval gloom, condensation drips from the walls, the echoes are heavy and deathly. No wonder, then, that it is believed to be the Green Chapel, the setting for the final dramatic scene in the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight".

In the anonymous 14th century poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", much of which is very clearly set in the real northwest of England, the route to the mysterious "Chapel" in which Gawain confronts the supernatural Green Knight in fulfilment of his oath is described in great detail. The path leads straight to Lud's Church. The description of the "Chapel" itself is also reminiscent of the mouth of Lud's Church. The Gawain poet calls the opening:

Nothing but an old cave/Or a crevice in an old crag.

This is an accurate description of the entrance to Lud’s Church. As you enter the stone cleft and descend the worn rock steps, you encounter a place of quite unexpected magnificence. Fifty feet deep and 200ft long, with vaulted sides covered in moss and lichens, it has an immense natural grandeur. Not a place you'd want to meet a “fearsome figure” by night or darkened day.

Sir Gawain's first impressions are wonderfully direct. He describes it as a "chapel of misfortune” an “accursed church”. However even  600 years after the words were written, it still possesses a rugged, rough-hewn, cathedral-like beauty, its walls covered in green velvet mosses and liverworts, the greenish sunlight forces its way through the canopy of branches high above and casts dappled shadows on the chasm walls. To Sir Gawain it must have felt godforsaken, but to many it seems to be a place built by God.

Inside Lud's Church The deep chasm of Lud's Church Can you see the Green knight?

Although it should only take a minute or two to walk through Lud's Church, you are forced to linger and explore it, bewitched by its ancient atmosphere and powerful sense of mystery. Every aspect of Lud's Church still conjures up lingering images of its fabled history.  Even if it is no longer used for secret services it still produces that spiritual reverence that all great churches seem to inspire.

 

Recommended Walk
Roaming the Roaches

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