IT is almost midnight on old Christmas Eve, in the rolling rural 19th Century landscape.

There is a murmuring of voices and pinpricks of light appear as people approach with lanterns and candles, moving towards the skeletal shape of a small tree.

This might be near Colwall or Stoke Edith, or one of many villages in the area. But the faces that are yellow in the lamplight, all watch with the same hope and wonder. The crowds have come to see a Christmas miracle.

The date is not December 24, but January 5, which would have been Christmas Eve before the calendars were altered in the 16th Century.

The tree, which is a kind of hawthorn, still follows the ancient reckoning, and it will bloom in the dead time of the year for the glory of the Christ Child.

Such is the legend of the Holy Thorn, a fable that begins with Joseph of Arimithea, in the tomb of Christ Himself.

Less than half a century ago, the midnight pilgrimages to the Holy Thorns were still worthy of a mention in the local press.

An account in the Worcester Journal of 1959 describes a remarkable midnight flowering at Ripple, near Upton-upon-Severn, where everything seems to have happened according to the legend.

It reads: "Slowly, slowly, the buds unfold and in half an hour the holy tree is white and glistening as a hawthorn tree in main moonlight. Until 1 o'clock the tree remains in bloom, then softly the petals drop like white snowflakes and the tree is black and gaunt and common once more."

The Holy Thorns, some of which may still exist in Herefordshire and Worcestershire, are all thought to be cuttings from the original holy tree, the Glastonbury Thorn, which sprouted - so legend has it - from the planted staff of Joseph of Arimathea, 2,000 years ago.

He was the rich citizen of Jerusalem who begged Pilate for the body of Christ and placed it in a rock tomb, which he had purchased for his own use.

Ancient legends place Arimathea in Glastonbury.

The same legends have the young Christ at Glastonbury too where, as a traveller with the merchant Arimathea, He is said to have built the first Christian church with His own hands. Indeed, an ancient structure fitting the bill is known to have survived into the Middle Ages.

It is this story that inspired the poet William Blake to pen one of his most inspiring lyrics, "And did those feet in ancient times, walk upon England's mountains green?"

There are facts as well as legends. The Holy Trees, at Glastonbury and locally, were of the rare hawthorn species Crataegus Monogyna which does grow in the Holy Land, though not only there.

The Malvern-based folklorist, Roy Palmer, who is currently researching the Holy Thorns for his latest book, Herefordshire Folklore, does not believe the stories concerning Arimathea's visit to England.

He has discovered the tales about the Holy Thorns actually blooming at Christmas can only be traced back to the 16th Century.

But, in an age of much harsher winters, he suggests, the natural phenomenon of blossom in the darkest time of year would have been seen as truly miraculous, and fables would have rushed in to explain it.

As late as 1912 there were several Holy Thorns still surviving in Herefordshire, according to Mr Palmer's research.

A Mrs Leather noted the Bredwardine tree was dead, but stated others survived at Colwall, Stoke Edith, Dorstone, King's Thorn, Rowlstone, Tyberton and Wormsley.

Mr Palmer believes there may be a surviving Holy Thorn in the grounds of the Old Rectory at Much Marcle, though he accepts that most of the trees, by now, are long gone, if only because hawthorns are not famous for longevity.

One is still said to bloom in a narrow lane at Little Birch, but the crowds no longer visit it on Old Christmas Eve, which they did even as late at the 1950s.

It is no mystery how these trees came to the county. Cuttings must have arrived in the late Middle Ages or early Tudor Period from the Glastonbury Thorn itself which, people believed devoutly, provided a clear link between the time of Jesus and the Resurrection.