Approximate Location
OS Grid Reference: SJ 987 656
Latitude: 53.18.78N Longitude: 2.02.08W
A narrow chasm on the Staffordshire Moorlands which was probably created in the post-glacial period by a weakened fracture plane in the underlying bedrock. Ludchurch featured extensively – as Ludcruck – in the parallel story of The Watcher in Boneland. It was the place where his woman and child were found dead in the opening section of the book.
Alan Garner has often written of the importance of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – which was written in the late mediaeval dialect of north Staffordshire and east Cheshire (especially in the collection of essays The Voice That Thunders). The climactic scene of the poem, which takes place in the Chapel of the Green Knight, is widely believed to be based on Ludchurch.