A new ‘Gawain Country’ picture, not seen before. The ‘Castle Rocks’ near Ludchurch, seen here before overgrowth and perhaps circa 1920 judging by the girl’s attire.

A natural formation. Though perhaps slightly ‘enhanced’ with antiquarian stone-repositioning for visual impact, and denuded by stone-cutting for local walls (see the long groove on the right). It’s relevant to Ralph W. V. Elliott’s 1980s claims for the location of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight at and around the nearby Swithamley (see maps below). Actually that claim is not inconsistent with my recent detailed investigation of the medieval Alton Castle and its family. Because it may have been that the young Gawain poet was educated by boarding a little away from home and in a lower-ranking but worthy house, as was then often the custom. Thus Swithamley — some 14 miles north along the Earlsway from Alton Castle, and on the direct route to the family’s Irish holdings — would seem a possibility for that, and could give the writer a lengthy and formative immersion in the required dialect micro-region. This does, however, of course assume that a substantial house of some kind was at Swithamley before the dissolution of the monasteries.