AMy face feels tightened by the chill wind as I climb uphill to the narrow, long wood that leads to Keenley. I am captivated by the Scots pines’ swaying trunks and dark-colored needles against a blue sky as I stand under them. Although the wind is howling in the treetops it is calm and sheltered down here.
Between the arching brambles and glossy-leaved Hollys, a thin path weaves between them. There is a mass underfoot of winter storm debris: large limbs, sticks, cones, and cones. The decaying branches of previous gales are covered by honeysuckle, which is now supporting mosses and fungi.
Today’s weather is confusing. The sunlit fields are filled with sheep, but tiny snowflakes are gently falling through the trees like dust motes. They continue to echo white as snowdrops, singles or doubles, glide up and down the woodland floor. They have pushed their way up through the nettle stalks in a chaotic fashion, through the twisting brown leaves, between stones, and ferns in a massed dangle full of clear white petals.
A large area of moss shines bright emerald when the light hits it. This is the waved silk-moss. Plagiothecium andulatumSpreads over the acidic soil below the pines, its flattened spearshaped stems creating rhythmic patterns similar to a shaggy rug.
Keenley Methodist chapel is located just above the wood. It is a simple stone structure in a grass clearing, surrounded by tall beeches and goblet-shaped trees. The brown painted door is reached by a narrow flagstone path. It has a date of 1750 embedded into it. Above is a carved sign – Wesleyan Chapel rebuild 1874
This modest building is the oldest Methodist Church still in use around the globe. John Wesley traveled through the North Pennines in 1761 to preach under a Sycamore tree. Many local miners and subsistence farmers adopted Methodism as a result. The Isaacs Tea Trail, named after a 19th century itinerant tea seller/philanthropist, is located nearby.
