Shades of Tolkien in a Northumbrian mire

Whitley Chapel, Northumberland Water drains from surrounding sandy banks into a peaty bowl where it is held by underlying clayThe area south of Hexham known as the Shire is an undulating landscape of fields and woods threaded by minor roads. It has a homely quality, a hint of Tolkien’s Shire. Among its small settlements is Whitley Chapel, where the church of St Helen squats on the knoll of Chapel Hill. In the 17th century the Society of Friends held their meetings on Chapel Hill and the bo