Hero
The Cave at Wetton Mill
Two caves claim the chapel. The poem will not say.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Limestone outcrop and small caves by the river
- Legend from
- Modern scholarly identification
- Tone
- Curious
Some say Gawain's Green Chapel was not in the woods at all, but in this small white cave.
Lud's Church is not the only Staffordshire Green Chapel. Mabel Day's 1940 introduction to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight suggested the cave where the Hoo Brook meets the Manifold at Wetton Mill, 'a striking cave projecting from the hillside' above a weir. Haden notes she followed Bertram Colgrave (1938) in placing the poem here, and that Kaske developed the Wetton Mill case in 1972; she also confused the cave with nearby Thor's Cave. Wikipedia names the rival site as the Nan Tor cave. Haden also records the Wetton Mill sinkholes, where the river vanishes underground in summer.