A Walk to Lud’s Church, a Mysterious Chasm

We visited Lud’s Church today in Staffordshire, UK which is an 18 metre deep chasm in the gritstone that was caused by a large landslip.

We parked in a small car park and walked along the country lane.

We then entered a wooded area and walked up some steepish inclines, until we finally came to the chasms.

Walking down the stone steps we entered something that resembled the Lord of the Rings and that any minute now I would be bumping into Bilbo Baggins! Lots of moss and fern.

It wasn't too bad underfoot, just a bit sludgy. I can imagine if it had rained hard it would be quite slippy and even inaccessible. We just stuck to the well placed wooden boards on the floor that made life a bit easier.

There was a wooden post that had coins embedded in it. They are supposed to bring you luck and are quite a common sight nowadays.

According to the 'Let's Go Peak District' website, in the 1400s the chasm was supposedly used as a secret place of worship for Lollards (reforming Christians) who were against many practices of the Roman Catholic church and subsequently persecuted for their beliefs.

The ‘Lud’ could have come from Walter de Lud Auk, who was captured at Lud’s Church at one of their days of worship.

One of our favourite myths is that Robin Hood and Friar Tuck hid here whilst hiding from the authorities. Robin Hood certainly got about a bit!

After walking through the chasm which is only 100 metres long, we climbed back out of it.

We followed the footpath back through the wood returning to the car.