True Hauntings

Case 154: Black Magic Church Clopp Hill UK

The ruins of the Old St Mary's Church in Clophill, Bedfordshire, UK has an enormous reputation for the occult and paranormal.

In 1963, an incident made headlines across the world and put the fear of God into the local community.

The incidents gave rise to a huge black magic outbreak across the country.

Sinister events have continued at Clophill to this day and the constant defiling of graves has led to an unprecedented number of ghostly sightings at the lonely hilltop setting.

In this episode of the True Haunting Podcast we will explore the events that took place over 60 years ago, why this little church became the epicentre for satanism and necromancy, and why it is now known as one of the most haunted places in the UK.

We hope you enjoy this episode - please leave a review and jump on over to our True Hauntings Fans Facebook page and tell us.

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Duration:: 1h 15m
Broadcast on:: 21 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This summer Instacart presents famous summer flavors come into your front door or pool or Hotel your grocery delivery has arrived, sir. That was faster than room service No violence in the lobby. Oh seriously Anyway sit back relax and get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes Starring your favorite snacks tricks and more download and start for free delivery on your first three orders Where did age for hungry audiences offer valid for a limited time minimum ten dollars per order excludes restaurants additional terms in fee supply? Hey, it's Sharon and here's where it gets interesting Raise your hand if you want salon perfect nails for just two dollars a manicure Yeah, me too with the all of them June Manny system You can say goodbye to expensive services that take hours and hours and love your nails more than ever I would know I've been doing it for years get 20% off your first Manny system with code perfect Manny 20 at all Vangoon calm slash perfect Manny 20 that's perfect Manny 20 at all Vangoon calm slash perfect Manny 20 True hauntings is a frightfully good production The ruins of the old St. Mary's Church in the clock Hill Bedfordshire UK has an enormous reputation for the occult and paranormal in 1963 an incident made headlines across the world and put the fear of God into the local community The incidents gave rise to a huge black magic outbreak across the country Sinister events have continued at Club Hill to this day and the constant defiling of graves has led to an Unprecedented number of ghostly sightings at the lonely hilltop setting Hi, I'm Renata and I'm Anne and in this episode of the true hauntings podcast We will explore the events that took place over 60 years ago Why this little church became the epicenter for Satanism and necromancy? And why it is now known as one of the most haunted places in the UK And in Renata have been investigating paranormal occurrences for the past 20 years They have been at the center of various unexplained phenomena and have witnessed countless ghostly experiences The duo now turned to high-profile cases that have attracted the eyes of the world Between the dimensions we see and the dimensions we don't supernatural forces are at play Evil lurks within the shadows of our homes and in the darkest corners of our minds. It follows us like a shadow forever This is where nightmares become reality This is true hauntings So I'm British. I grew up in Bedford, UK during the 80s 90s We all grew up hearing stories at school about the church in Club Hill being haunted and a place of devil worship We obviously were infactuated, but all assumed it was just a joke to scare the kids When we became teenagers, we learned that the police really did surround the church on Halloween Driving tests passed me and my cousins drove to Clop Hill for the first time late one winter's night Clop Hill is a nothing village about 30 kilometers from our hometown in Bedford We mainly knew Clop Hill for the woods and main road that surrounded it The ruin of St. Mary's Church Club Hill sits atop a hill only reached by a single dirt track like something out of a movie As you drive up the tracks surrounded by trees noose hanging making the place super creepy I remember the butterflies in my stomach Excitement and nervous anticipation I spent the whole time waiting for something to happen even when I was in the car The place was very creepy, weird, profitey looks Latin Written in who knows what? Bones and all sorts of weird shit But weird people scattered around the place all the times I visited I never had a standard experience What I was not sure about is why the church has such significance I tried to research at asking my parents and grandparents who all said they had no idea I did find a book written by a local dude Eric Maple Talking about satanic riots including bird sacrifice and blood rituals This made national headlines and it was a big issue I do find it strange that neither of my grandparents would have mentioned this if it were true They were pretty religious and I was definitely a full-on Marilyn Manson goth teenager I guess they may have thought it was too encouraging to tell me about it I also heard that body parts were found in the woods around the church and so much more Bedfordshire has a lot of haunted areas But this is the weirdest by far I haven't been to Club Hill in years And I know the local authorities had tried to stop people visiting the site as the village still uses the graveyard up on the hill I am aware of a bad movie documentary that's been made about Club Hill I've only seen what looks like a worse, if possible, Blair Witch style movie I have no idea how factual it is If anyone knows more as I can't find much about it other than on Wikipedia It would be cool to let me know Welcome back to the studio Anne. Oh, thank you Renata. Hey, you doing girlfriend? Just super. Thank you. How are you? Oh, I'm actually really good. That's great Where did your Thingy come from? What thingy? Oh, why'd bring it out in public? I'm like embarrassing. Oh, no. Oh, you mean the soundscape? That's it. That's it. Yeah, that was actually from Reddit and that was Amelie, A-M-E-L-I-E was her username and She was reporting. I had to fix up some of the English on there But that was her little story about growing up in that area. Well, thank you, Amelie And we are going to answer all of your questions tonight. So hopefully Hopefully you will come back at some stage and go Strange Australian people telling me all about Clop Hill. Good day. Good day So Clop Hill is indeed in Bedfordshire as you said in your introduction and it is a small rural town And you know, she described it pretty well. Although now I really want to go there Really? Yeah, I do. I want to go and visit this place. I don't love it She said it's 30 kilometers from nowhere and nothing or something like that. Yeah, it's a bit rough I did have a look at how many people live there and It kind of said about 2000, which is yeah, it's not too bad. It's about an hour drive north of London Oh, it's not too bad. It doesn't get many tourists But if you are visiting the likelihood is that you are there because you want to check out this famous black magic church Which is locally known as the old saint mary's church Now there are two churches by this name the presence of mary's church is located More in the center of the small village and it is still regularly used by the village congregation So they have fairs their fates. They of course have their services And everything that you know a local church needs to have for its village But there is also the oldest and mary's church Which is fairly close by but as again you mentioned it is up a steep hill and hidden around This winding road if you look at pictures, it does look like you're going up And you're going to disappear off the face of the earth as you go around the corner And uh the old parish church as it was called the old parish church of saint mary the virgin Was built around 1350 see I love that to you. Yeah, I just love the the Ancient history that they do have there. Oh, I thought you were talking about the name of the church No, no, I don't wait. I'm not gonna go on about the virgin. It was honestly mother. It was an angel that did it honestly It's not going to be Um, I did find a really interesting snippet about all of that because it said that there is a legend That the townspeople moved to the valley in order to escape the black death Which occurred somewhere between 1348 and 1350 And they left the city folk Or what probably they thought was city folk they lived in the center of the township locked in the church to die Oh, that's horrible. Oh Maybe that's your first layer. There's a stain of yeah of horrid things So some mary's is entirely made up of sandstone And there is a tall tower that stands at the western the church that can give you a beautiful view of the valley If you go there Now the old some mary's church was built way too small In the first instance and uh, it it adequately did not serve the village And the rector at the time had plans to expand the building, but he fell ill and he died in 1843 That's a curse And when the new rector arrived, he decided not to expand the old building at all Maybe stuff that i'm not doing that work Yeah, maybe he thought that it was all too hard for people to climb the hill where the church stood Or maybe he just wanted it to be in the middle of the village Which was a better location it's easier to get people to go to church if you're walking past it I don't have to make an effort. Mm. Yes or too much about effort If you can hear the bell ring and you're walking past it and the pastor or the rector is standing out there with an evil eye As you go past and he's calling you in God is calling you So the new church was built in about 1848 and as i mentioned, it's still the one that's being used today Now eventually the old church was converted to a mortuary chapel while its graveyard remained in use So a mortuary chapel does that mean they held funerals there? No, it meant that they held the bodies in the coffins That were there before the burial in the cemetery Right so people in the graveyard and pray To the or say goodbye to them or whatever Yeah, it was really a place for holding the bodies before the burial It was the cool room Now in 1956 the lead from the roof was stolen as probably everything else over the years And that left the inside of the church quite exposed to the weather And that's what really sort of killed off the building. You know when it Started to really deteriorate badly and it's it's It's sad when you think that the building stood for 600 years And you had thieves come in and do that and that's why it got to a point of Waste no one on i suppose is what they thought they couldn't afford to buy the things themselves and think that's just sitting there going to waste That's what happened out at um Morissette too with the asylum they had out there. It was beautiful buildings and people have just gone and taken it Yes brick by brick. Mm-hmm. It's not right people I wasn't saying that they should go do that But that's what they thought in their head. That's how they justified it. Mm-hmm Now look there have been things written about this church and written about the history of Bedfordshire over the years And uh, I found a piece of information dating back to 1908 from a booklet called the history of the county of Bedford volume two. Oh, that's a riveting read that one And it actually said the churchyard possessed the unenviable reputation of being a haunt of Body snatches and many human bones have been dug up in the fields of brick wall farm So again another layer of weird stuff happening Now in 1854 the remains of the original church consisted of little more than the nave And the tower and it was described as a poor small church on top of a very high hill Having only a nave and a tower and the chance for having been destroyed and the church being wholly abandoned So this is not holy is in h o l y w h. Yes And so you kind of have again this thing of this little road and At the hill being something that seems to have stopped people going up to the church Over the year. So a good thing and a bad thing Yeah, uh in the 1960s the church became a focus of media attention So this is where we get to this thing that's the starting to the thing Yeah bringing all the ghosty stories in And there was a reported incident of graveyard desecration And that of course followed some copycat Incidents and literally copycat who know allegedly yeah both at cop hill and across britain So there was suspicions of satanism And black masses And of course the locals would start to gossip and just make things worse Oh locals don't gossip for nada No, they've got no they had no tv. They had nothing no radio No Netflix and well, they probably had some some stuff, but they had pigeons They had pigeons and they had ponies that they could send messages by Yeah, so they wouldn't gossip. They had plenty of things to do. Yeah But I mean we're going into the 1960s here. So yes newspapers and newspaper articles were the big thing Now on the 16th of march 1963 In a street in clop hill there were there was a local couple who saw two young boys riding their bikes from luton Which wasn't too far. No, but it took about an hour. So it was about 12 miles So these two young boys calvin smith who was 12 and duncan stein who were 13 Got new bikes and they decided to explore around the area. They want they went for a long ride Adelutin into clop hill and when they got there They had a bit of a look around and they sort of wanted to find a interesting spot to stop and have lunch I think we've had the first weird Fing that happened there in other Well 12 and 13 year olds were excited to get a new bike as a present This is the 1960s remember Imagine giving a 13 year old today. He's a new bike for your birthday Hmm Take it back. I want to I want any phone Sorry, I've interrupted your flow Well, they decided to explore the old ruin church on the hill. So they went Up through the churchyard. They climbed over above wire fence and they stepped into the church and Have a bit of a look around and they discovered a circle of bones in the center of the church And not only that but there was a skull stuck on the end of an iron spike in the center of the circle of bones Now also around the bones there were some feathers that were laid out in a lovely design And what looked like blood spatter all over the design. It could have just been a Designer artist coming through sort of getting some creativity and it might be in red paint All of assumptions made there go on. They could have Now as two young boys 12 and 13, they would have thought that this was pretty cool And they examined the skull. They eventually Took it off the spike. So got it off the spike. They gathered up some of the bones And then they went outside of the church. This is hilarious. They went outside of the church and um Kind of had all the stuff sitting next to them And they were sitting on a gravestone one of those table top gravestones. Yup And um broke out some sandwiches for lunch We'll just do it on a boat with this sandwich Oh, jeez, we haven't had anything to eat. Let's let's have some food before we head back And uh just Unfortunately at that time there was a couple that were coming up to actually put flowers on a grave Stone that was in the graveyard. Horrific. And they've gone What the hell? What are you boys been doing exactly? And uh, they approached the boys and they realized that the boys were holding onto some old bones Naughty boys. So they immediately thought that the boys had been stealing The bones from the grave sites And they grabbed the two boys and they took them down the hill to confront the rector reverend barker Now barker called the police and after talking to the boys he believed Um Their story that they had actually found the bones and not Had them and not taken them out of the graves. So he kind of let them go So he had a lot of faith in what the boys were saying Um, and I guess they they also told them about the whole, you know Ritualistic site that appeared there. No, so he could have gone up and checked now um But this kind of leaves the whole thing about how did the skull get onto the spike in the middle of the church in the first place Interestingly enough How this information got down to the village I blamed the couple who went down there and probably told the neighbor and said, you know, guess what? Guess what? We've just, I saw Harry and Fred up in the cemetery Guess what just happened? And uh, these things don't take long to sort of filter around the whole village by the time It would be those whispers that keep on changing. Yeah By the time the police got up to the church the local media had already been Told about it all And uh, this what this is what went up on the front page of the local news the next day So the police found more bones. They also found symbols on the door drawn in white white paint They looked for where the bones might have come from And they realized that six had six of the grave stones Um, or grave sites had been broken into but one tomb had been opened completely And that was the cover Of the tomb that belonged to Jenny humber stone And she had died in 1770 age just 22 years old And the owner of the bones had finally been found And so the easiest thing to do would be sort of just to pop the bones back in just with barrier and say sorry yeah, um, but You know, one of the things that um, they proved there was it was definitely not the young boys that it did it because it took Five men to actually put the top of the stone back onto the grave site And Revan barker did not decide to put the bones back in As he covered the grave site he wanted to do it with more respect and so he was going to contact someone of a um A a greater religious person Um, an arch an arch deacon And he was going to get this arch deacon to come through and do a bishop do a proper religious burial So reporters came to see if they could stir up a good story and so they asked if Black magic might be the motive for those disturbances and reverend leslie barker um told them that they there were six graves of females that had been tampered with um, and about the seventh And of course he also added that satan worshipers are known to always use a female at the center of their ceremonies So It's because the worshipers are normally males Now he also uh, also in the report It stated that uh, as animal sacrifice was commonly described in accounts of satanic rights the cockrool Was possibly sacrificial and the crosses were possibly painted with animal blood Although he kind of barker actually kind of said i really think it's probably more red paint as you mentioned I don't think it would be blood Do you think reverend barker might have been trying to Scare the people in the village to come back to church and start being good godfearing people. I don't know So the remains of jenny humberstone were reinterred on the 23rd of march Uh, but the incident didn't end up being an isolated one Especially when rumors started to abound about a witch coven that was uh working in the nearby town and um Yeah, there were some really interesting pieces of information that uh, were also released in the newspaper reports That no one should have known about they would have only known about it if they had something to do with it And so this was another conundrum How did this information get out to the newspapers? Is uh, was this around the time that the gardenerian witches were starting up? Yes Yes Somebody didn't probably like that idea. No, they wouldn't have no So stories about the black magic church Which it that's the name that it got spread and people start to arrive in the village to take a look for themselves Oh now unfortunately jenny's grave wasn't desecrated. Just once. Uh, it was desecrated again Just one day after she'd been buried or to me and once again, uh, the bones were scattered inside the church Uh, barker did not enter the bones this time this time he hid them out of sight And a week later the grave site was again vandalized and the church had now become a night time scary attraction for local teenagers Yeah, now hombestens grave was resealed, but it was reopened again On the night of the following full moon Um, which added to the whole idea that it must be some sort of satanic ritual that was going on But interestingly the central library in the area had a big run on books about magic at that time They could not keep up surprise Was this also Crowley's time? Mmm. That was to Crowley See in the 60s. I can't remember. I can't remember. I'll google it while you keep talking Yeah, so just a week later on the 9th of April the discovery of the heads of six cows and a horse in blue bellwood Caddington south of luton Was also linked to the desecration at st. Mary's And this just added to the whole intrigue of what was going on. So I mean with Cow mutilations, what's this typical of when you listen to stories? Oh ufo ufo so maybe it wasn't satanic rituals at all Maybe was linked to some sort of ufo sightings. Mm-hmm. So maybe it was Extra-terrestrial um Crowley died in 1947, but um it's probably his work Sort of kept on going for quite some time. You have a little drink there Renata. Yes, sorry. We'll have a little Swig. It's honestly it is just Pepsi everyone. She's it's not anything. Well, I haven't sniffed it. I've made it too. No, it just fits Um, so let's go on. Got it a little bit more. Yep By then a local newspaper had interviewed a student from Sousso agricultural college Which is very close by the clop hill who had admitted because again they they're looking around for what in the hell's going on This young guy puts his hand up from Sousso agricultural college And he admitted to have visited the church two years previously with a group of students Now they had killed a chicken spread its feathers and blood around and drawn a Celtic cross Which at the time seemed like a huge joke But as this story blew out of proportion, it didn't seem funny At that point in time But You know it gets to a point when people put their hands up and say well, I did this The story has just gotten too big. It's escaped. Yeah, and people kind of go they they just literally Slip over that bit as if nothing had ever been said or they didn't hear anything and they go back to what the the big Drama is they want to keep that cycle going So, um, yeah despite all of these stories about St. Mary's and about clop hill in general The whole story about the black magic church still continued now there was also a spate of weird breakings At other local churches for the next few months and churches started to lock their doors at night Interesting. So this is where they actually yeah would not let people in at night time. That's right good Well, they used to it was a thing the church was always your safe place. You could go to yeah Now by christmas in 1963 people were getting bolder and desigrating churches during the day There was a story that I read about a group of Satan worshipers that went in during the middle of the day in one particular church in their robes and everything and started to do Satanistic chants or whatever And the the press that came in literally had to come in and move them on Because they were there in the middle of the day. It's a bit rough That's rude to someone else's belief system. I don't look Satanist you Do what you want. That doesn't worry me, but it's Both sides don't push it in your face if this is not your space of faith move on And uh, don't annoy others. Yeah, they would not have been real Satanists anyway because real Satanists don't do that Wouldn't do it. No, they they were just assholes Um, they were dickheads, Renata dickheads. That's exactly right Now all of this led to and this didn't help there was a coffee table book on witchcraft That was released by a folklorist called eric maple in the 1960s And he described desolate clop hill as a wilderness of desecrated and looted tombs Symbols of the revival of black magic in the 20th century And if you want to go and have a really truly gothic experience head out there and visit it Yeah, I tried so hard to get that book. I um, I was able to get if I changed my Well, you know vpn, um, it would come up. I could buy it and I'd go to buy it and then because my addresses were wrong It wouldn't let me buy it and then it locked me out. I'm I tried so hard to get it on kindle and I just couldn't Damn, I saved my money. I think damn So there were more black magic rights in churches around the area in 1963 1964 There was a series of desecrations in Lancashire. There were symbols painted on the porch in a church in Sussex A pentagram and a sheep's heart pieced with 13 thorns. It's in clemets in lee onc Now interestingly enough there was one priest that got so angry about it that he cast a curse On one person who might come in and harm or break anything inside the church that he was assigned to Do you know harm priest? Look, I hope you all die in hell more or less Here's what he said. They weren't his exact words. It's an old break I hope every burn in your body breaks if you come in and you do any damage to this church Let's burn now. Let's go back to Leslie Barker for a minute here at high in chap isn't he in 1969 paul fella Um, and you the retiree in 69 Yeah, there had been many numerous instances of graves been breaking in into and some sort of right performed all the way through He kind of said that really over his time that he was there There wasn't a month where there wouldn't be something that had you know happened in that area He really kind of thought that this whole thing was really just so horrible that And he felt cursed as well because number one He hadn't had a pleasant time in his life. He had been divorced from his wife And then unfortunately she took her life from ingesting poison shortly after they divorced That's that's tough. That's tough and not only that but a short time later his daughter was killed By a hit and run and when she was crossing the street in another small village And he just kept on receiving huge amounts of letters from people who were interested at what had happened And from people who threatened him with more black magic So, you know, he just kind of He he ended up and this is weird. He ended up for a period of time being so Really distressed about all of this that remember Um, the bones of the woman. Yep, Jenny. Jenny. He kept them in a tarpaulin in the back of his car Yeah, but then but then He would go to the local pubs And say to people if you want to see the bones of this woman I'll bring him out for you if you buy me a beer. Oh god So I I think that um, what was his last name again? Barker, I think he became barking mad to the truth. Yeah, it seemed to lose it. Um, I think it was all too much and he had a bit of a Um, I mean, this is just hearsay I'm just looking at what's happened around him and I think he's lost his marbles a little bit Yeah, poor fellow In 1969 and a cult group was going to hold a black mess They must have told everyone and Reverend Barker. Hey everyone. We're gonna have a black mess. You want to come and join us? He this is his last stand. He decided to Organize a vigil and he asked the local people to help him Stay up at the church all night and in the end no one came and the poor bloke Did three nights three nights staying up till 3 a.m. Every night to make sure the church was secure the weirdest thing though that on the last night of the vigil he went home and came back to find that um More skulls in the gravestones had and in the graveyard had been removed and black candles had been set up within the church so It distressed him even more to think that there was someone in the woods watching him and waiting for him to leave So that this could be set up and like he said, he I think he just lost his Lost his cool and lost his mind and after that he retired the marbles ran away up on the st Mary's yeah, the un-doctor's advice he retired and moved away from clop hill Interestingly, he kind of thought that maybe possibly him moving away stopped stuff happening because it kind of really died off or as far as he knew had died off after that uh, and he was the epicenter maybe him leaving Saved the church for more desecration um Just a couple of things the graveyard was leveled and the markers were taken away in the bedford She county council acquired the area in 1977 uh, but if you think being decommissioned was going to dampen old st Mary's dark spirit you'd be wrong because now It is the place for extreme paranormal activity and all of the ghost hunt is sitting here Yeah, yeah, they're up there going for their lives and the um Film that you mentioned is a 2013 film called the paranormal diaries clop hill Yes, and that's what the book is called. That was written by that person and that's me Okay, I have a tomato. Oh, I've got some juicy things for you So like any good researcher rinata I struck out onto the computer and and commenced my research and went with a Look at reddit to see what experiences people have had or what stories were associated with clop hill. So I thought we'll start with some Uh, yeah, I witness accounts and that sort of thing Personal experience. Yes. Uh, this one was from a sunday ray is their name I lived in clop hill and walked my dog past this church several times a week It actually has a really peaceful atmosphere. I never felt spooked or creeped out at all Uh, he's wrong. He doesn't know anything. Absolutely wrong. Totally not woke Uh, then we have um, gtb we w we gtb gtb w en. I can't make out anything of what that might be I've been here a few times and some weird shit was experienced There's a legend in a half there. Someone said, oh really? What happened? And it does have a really strange atmosphere around it. So gtb w en replied me and the mate That's always a bad way to start the story Uh went there as we were bored. There's only about 20 minute drive away took a couple of stone of friends with us I feel this is reliable. This is yeah. This is gold Come on. Let me have it They were around 100 meters from us in the car rolling up me and another friend proceeded to go through the small wooded area to the south side of the building I think We heard a loud noise Like a brick or something having heavy being thrown through the bushes next to us I'm talking about five foot from me. It wasn't just an animal move in something suddenly slammed I wasn't too scared Because I just assumed it was either my mate who was just behind me or one of the guys in the car messing around Okay, I dig it when I saw my friend's face bearing in mind. He's a big guy. 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For a limited time get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more with code listen at blue Nile calm That's $50 off with code listen at blue Nile calm Hey, i'm Ryan Reynolds recently I asked mint mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation They said yes And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous to your contracts They said what the are you talking about you insane Hollywood? So to recap we're cutting the price of mint unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month Give it a try at mint mobile calm slash switch $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 a month new customers on first three month plan only taxes and fees extra speed slower above 40 gigabyte c details Oh And how scared he was we just ran when we got back to the car the other guy The other guys were in at the same position. We left them and apparently we were totally white Kind of freaked me out more knowing it couldn't have been them still gives me chills to this day Ah nothing to do with the way they were smoking no absolutely um this one was from seven years ago and more Underscore villa or satanic church bed for cheer. I watched a documentary on it once Don't think it's up anymore But it said about how satanas satanists used used to sacrifice virgin women up there Oh, why do they get this story? But you know what has started off all the rumors and everything about this particular church Is that somebody built it the wrong way around? Yes, they built it facing the west and that means it faces the devil And that was one of the reasons why it was abandoned because somebody got it wrong Another report was it's believed the church was built on top of a leper hospital that was run by monks of course These stories get these are good. Yeah, I know Fabulous read it is just great for everything. Um now this one is an ancient Indian burial brand We're working on oh, no, we've got something good here. Yeah, so, you know, we do have the story about poor old jenny's bones being dug up Says in 1963 in 1966 the grave of an apocathery's wife was desecrated Yes, so he was an apocathery The bones arranged in a strange ritualistic passion in the name passion pattern in the nave of the church So they found a link to something that would seem to be a cult apothecary Yeah, I thought it'd be more for mixing mixing spells and what was your pharmacist really? Yes. Yes. Go on. I think of that way um uh How was this one reported? Sputastic experiences a monk A light that travels up the hill towards the ruins before vanishing a strange cold within the walls even during summer But I found this great report here. I'll just put that bit of paper down Um, you know, it it makes you sort of realize who the experts are in this area So this one um said the church was actually built facing the wrong direction away from the sun um Visitors have reported spot in tall dark shadows and mysterious hooded finger Oh, I'm waiting for the coffee to kick in wooded fingers fingers roaming both inside and outside the building Adamean Odell head of anglia paranormal investigation society apis previously Told bedford should live About a theory that the hauntings are remains of black magic rituals from decades ago. He explained There's definitely something strange going on at that church And my personal view is that it's down to black magic practices held there I think it's possible for a group of satanists to conjure up something and leave it behind Sort of a guardian or elemental If this is the case, it certainly does its job because it frightens the living daylights out of people In fact travel experts at stressfree car rentals dot com Right You have determined it to be one of the creepiest places in the uk Also the team from stressfree car it was dot com There was long history of hauntings dark magic satanic rituals um built on top of an ancient leprechaun Where there's suffering people um as well as those suffering from the plague who were left to die Now we did get that little bit of information. That's a legend Yes, um and of course the attacking of the graves and desecration and witchcraft. Oh, they they got everything in there But then my next level of Research getting more intense. Oh, yes. Okay. You know where we go to after that, don't you? I don't know. Yeah, I think you've ticked all the boxes. I have no idea We've we've covered virgin mr. main one of covered virgins chat JPT a leprechaun a leprechaun All right, so um They've they've sort of given us a list of the hauntings That have happened there now. I got very specific with it and I said I need you to give descriptions and sources. We're available Um, so it does mention the grave desecration rituals of 1963 Widely reported in the media at the time local newspapers paranormal researchers enthusiasts And of course they all started documenting the hauntings based on that. Yes. That was pretty good. Mm-hmm. I'll give it that Um It said it's sources were historical articles and local folklore discussions Um, mid mid-summer's eve apparitions in 1969 Oh That was a bang. Do we all hear the bang? Very exciting. Um, it's probably my husband Or a dog outside the door uh witness witnesses reported seeing ghostly figures in robes and hearing eerie chanting during a ritualistic gathering This was reported by local residents and covered in the press and again paranormal investigators pick it up And the source for that was news reports and paranormal documentation Halloween gunshots and rituals in 1975. This is the only one I found on gunshots Um sites with black mass ritual reported intensifying the church's eerie legends It was called into the local police and it was noted in police reports and then later covered in books On the haunted location. Right We have reports of shadowy figures and hooded monks particularly at night Uh various witnesses over the years personal accounts is the source So personal accounts see why I want to get see why I want to go here See why I want to go here. Yeah, because it's just everyone's hearsay Um, and there's the curse of the westward facing church We've done that and we've talked about the lights and the the the cold spots and all that sort of thing But a lot of it seems to come down to personal blogs Documentaries and I'm going to use that word very loosely Um local accounts and yeah all that sort of stuff. So that was chatgpt um then I found this awesome awesome, um podcast thing uh on YouTube And I've just got a fight. I think I just threw the piece of paper that had that bit of information on it Where oh, it's called cursed. Yes By reverend peter and then it had frightful And he actually goes through uh, it's a two-parter And um, he does a really good summary of the things that have happened there Uh, and I of course i'm picking it up from where you left it and the first thing he talked about Was that there were actually some uh Alleged hauntings and things that happened before this 1960 stuff 1950 The local vicar Decided to put out a rumor to deter trespasses and vandals because he maybe this was because his church was facing the wrong way Um, but he was putting out this thing about oh, it's cursed or there's ghosts up there. Don't go up there. You Um, is it him that started off this whole Law about the the place being haunted and drew in the people to go there Wow, so this would have been the the erector before barker. Yeah, 1950 Uh, so he died mysteriously Yes, he did Uh, 1963 apparently there was a tv crew from a show called this week that went up there And they were doing the cop hill black mass report And they they now this there's some inconsistencies with the stories here Uh, they went to jenny's grave and they climbed into it to stand amongst her bones To do the report no and the uh report of fainted twice They had their camera gear that was malfunctioning. They felt like there was somebody watching them Um, there was definitely a sense of evil a presence there Uh eric maple was the reporter and said he felt absolute evil and would never set foot in the place again, but apparently he did But you know, I did some research on that trying to find out about that story and about that reporter I can't find anything and you would think if they did a story on it And that sort of thing was happening that it would be well reported Uh, also word jenny's bones elsewhere Yes Not in the first not in the first instance 1963 Yeah in the first instance when She her bones were reburied Um, or it depends on when they went Yeah At which point of the desecrations that occurred because there were about three did they go? Because there was only really one where her bones were reburied in and in the other ones they were kept Yeah Separate now there were some accounts also of incidences that happened nearby This was a road that ran parallel to the church And there was somebody driving along. This is in 1969 Um delivering papers apparently and they saw a small light coming towards them and they thought oh, yes Probably a cyclist or you know somebody going for an early morning run And as the light got closer they realized it was actually a man on horseback carrying a lantern They thought oh don't want to upset the horse and freak them out So they've pulled over to the side of the road turned their lights off Very lovely people to do that may I add Um, and they didn't want to spook the horse But the the horse and the man came straight towards them They had like a hooded something on carrying a lantern. They said it could have been a monk But the horse and rider ran straight through them. Oh Now they freaked out a bit I should would they bolted they didn't tell anyone because they thought who's going to believe them anyway A year later one of their neighbors saw the same apparition So they've obviously got together and talked about it Uh, and there was somebody who said hang on. I've got an old lantern Is it does it look like this and they've held up the lantern and I went yes, that's the lantern Apparently it was at 200 year old lantern Same era has been jenny died Do you like that link? Yes I can I just we go back to when you were talking about the newspaper article and the The tv crew tv crew and eric maple. Yeah, I mentioned him in my part And this is where we said that he did a coffee table book. Mm-hmm Naughty naughty eric. Oh, whoa Yes, what a lot of bullshit. Oh, another kid who really gets to the end of it. Oh I've got so much more riveting evidence to go through here head now. Oh, I haven't even got to Janet and Colin He he freaking did this and and went into if he did into somebody's grave Just to get photos for his freaking book Anyway, speaking of photos. Yeah, go ahead in January 1972 Janet and Colin. Oh, there's a story They went to take some photos. It's actually apparently a beautiful place to take photographs And it's quite often you have people going there to do that Now when they went they felt there was an overwhelming presence there. They felt like someone was watching them Um They left and developed their film because that was back in the days when you had to develop it Renata knows all about that they do and they're on one of their photos just one There was a strange mark. Mm-hmm. That was inexplicable That's it. Oh, okay. That's riveting, isn't it? Can you get strange marks on films when you're developing them or taking photos? Um, it shouldn't be. It's quite rare for the film itself to be damaged in some way, but also depends on who is Doing it. It there was obviously a time when you were doing it by hand So you had to actually load the film into a canister And do all the developing and everything so there could be you know human interaction with that That would leave some sort of a dark stain or spot, but it's rare. Okay Then we go on to Tony and Georgina Still in 1972. Tony and Georgina taking photos. Nothing happened. No Um, they developed the film and found a photo of someone Standing with their head bowed through the window in Victorian clothes would possibly have be a vicar Um, when you look at the photo, um, I have to try and remember to find that photo It's very obviously the trees and the shadows through the window on the other side Um, it is not a ghost, but everyone's called it Sophie's ghost Sophie Sophie's ghost and she's rumored to haunt there Then we have UK delay. Do you know who UK delay was? No A punk band and they were doing a photo shoot there in 1975 and something terrifying happened to them I'm not quite sure what but it was terrifying allegedly They jumped in their car and took off And then they slammed on the brakes before getting back into town Because the head of them was a white horse Just trotting down the road. They went, what's that? They were shocked. They're intrigued. Um, was there a rider with the lamp? No, they followed it and it disappeared around the bend so they went looking for it around the bend Gone gone Gone Now interestingly there is a pub there called the flying horse After that event The band had a run of bad luck And they blamed it on the curse of the church wouldn't have anything to do with their shitty music So I don't know if I'm not actually listening to their music, but you know Let's blame the curse of the church rather than take responsibility for your actions and bad business boys Uh, oh yes Um, then I found a different account. This is not from this podcast um Uh haunted places podcast this one was from and they've got this little story there And it involves a horse, which I thought was interesting Uh, Neil's mother always told him his head was in the clouds He examined every fairy ring for a spritz That's what it said in some sprites. Oh, oh, all right. Okay. It says a spritz and search for spirits around every turn It wasn't hard to imagine them lurking around a town like clop hill His favorite story was about the flying horse And unearthly and they can't write and unearthly white beast that could be seen on the old church path Neil had never seen it, but he certainly gave it every opportunity to appear Neil didn't have many friends For Neil. So we tended to walk But don't bring up a lot. Oh, poor Neil. Neil. Send his email. Neil. Oh, his favorite walk was from high street up to old st Mary's Uh It was would have taken 15 minutes It wasn't long maybe 30 minutes If you took your time and for once the horse was there Oh white stallion glittering in the afternoon sun There's a strange cold surrounding the animal the kind that burned your nose and Chinks, what the hell that sounds like a chemical spill but But now He had an opportunity here Neil was an entrepreneur So he saw one he pulled out his phone and took a selfie with it Oh no, he lined up the shot prepared to prove everyone wrong. His mother's he's teachers even that girl that he dashed out Poor Neil. He's having a pet. He's got no friends Once he hit the button the flash fired on the camera Sorry, the flash fired the camera fell to the ground frame empty. Oh, no Oh, Neil that was your what not He was gonna get a million hits on that Um, but for old st. Mary's church looming at the top of the hill the horse was gone And Neil was too. I'm sad. Remember he was taking a selfie. Yeah, he wasn't in it I know So, um, let's now keep moving on. I hope you all enjoyed that little I hope Neil's okay. That's a t-shirt there. I hope Neil's okay And he lost the love of his life because he couldn't get the selfie with the magic horse All right, so in 1990s now, of course The rumors of everything that started never got the ghost hunting tv shows that are kicking off and people are finding locations They can go and investigate and they've they've got um, people starting to come in and investigate But the kids of the town Started up this particular story that If you stared long enough at a particular grave, it would reveal the year you were going to die You have to run around the church 13 times anti-clockwise Guess here in the pier. That's not Neil It's the devil himself. Oh my god Well the lady kids Right, um Now it of course our Investigators are up there and they've seen the apparition of a hooded monk and apparently it actually ended up being a projection of a hooded monk Never mind. Oh really? Yes. Oh, no. Oh somebody put a projector up there. It was hoaxing them. Now. We're going to talk about Lynette Yeah, go ahead. Lynette in 1996. She too was taking photos bless And she saw a young man who was sitting there wearing Oh, so she was just taking photos and all of a sudden she turned around and there was a young man sitting there He was dressed in his full motorcycle leathers And the thing was she didn't hear him arrive. She was the only person there And it was a really hot summer's day in England. So it must've been 22 Yeah, so she was in her like singlet top and little shorts and he was in full leathers And thought wow that must be baking to be wearing that sort of stuff now And uh, he talked to her and said um, what you doing? So I'm just taking photos. I'm a photography Person and I'm putting a thing together And oh, it's really interesting And she sort of noticed that he's motorbike helmet was sitting in one of the windows that she had been for photographing photography She thought oh, that's gonna ruin all my photos I didn't notice that before I bet that's been in all my photos. She turned around to him to say Would you mind grabbing that because I'd need to take photos And he was gone. Oh, well, see that's good. That's nice. I like that Um, so she thought well hang on a second. So she's raced down the track to try and find him No sign of him. There was no sign of a motorbike. There was no noise of a motorbike So she said hang on she went back through the photos to see if the helmet was there No helmet. Oh, see I like that. That's good. Yeah, that's good. Um, now he had in the conversation Apparently said to her that some of his relatives were buried there So that was interesting Um, locals said that others have seen a mysterious ride near that church And it's possibly a young man who crashed his bike near clop hill Oh Of course I then went and did some research to try and find out about this young chap and the the motorbike accident and people who had seen the motorbike accident and No, nothing couldn't find anything And I even asked chat jpt And it said there was no reports of motorcycle riders in that area So I don't know what to make about that It's a good one though. I like that one. Yeah Uh Now we also have a report of some figures who went figures some people who went up there at night And to see if anything would happen. So they've had a night time visual. Nothing was happening. So they just Sided to get asleep. Um, nothing happened while they were sleeping. They woke up about 8 a.m They nothing particular woke them up. They just woke up, which I think is actually quite late considering you're sleeping outside rough Uh, they went home They'd taken some photos while they were there. They developed the photos And what they found were six photos That somebody had taken of them while they were asleep With some figures and white sitting next to them. Oh, no, that's Creepy So I thought oh those those photos will be online somewhere. I'll go find them No, no, oh damn. No, I saw one that looks like a recreation of a photo. I don't think it was the photo um There was another story there about um Some young girls and guys that had gone up to the cemetery at night. I think it must mean around Halloween or something Um, but there was a group of guys And there was a group of girls the guys didn't know the girls though up there sort of carrying it anyways somebody came along to chase them off the locals and Uh, you know, they all split up and ran in different directions and he ran off with one of the girls into the bushes as you do uh and They sat there really quietly until the people had left and they thought that left anyway, the girls started to giggle And it was a really strange read Creepy giggle And she touched his hand Yeah, it was cold and dead. Yeah He felt disturbed by this Anyway, um He he sort of saw his friends uh often the moonlight and he thought I'm gonna go ahead over to there because this girl's weird and torn turned back to say by And instead of the girl There was a white rabbit The girl had gone right That's weird Now The church At the moment has uh been restored so people can go and visit you can go and take photos They're quite happy the locals are happy for you to go and visit during the day When they say restored it still doesn't have a roof it hasn't got any of the It's no longer a working church or will ever be because it's a ruin But they don't want people going up there at night because of The shenanigans have been going on and they've actually got to the stage dev now alarmed it. They've got cameras up there So in my research, I found a youtube video These two knobs, I'm sorry dickheads that we're paranormal investigators going up into it They're filming themselves saying we're here at st. Mary's at colopial and we're going to be entering the church tonight It says he you're not allowed to enter at night and his cameras look there's the cameras up there But we're not doing any harm. We're okay. We're just going in to investigate and i'm thinking You're the dickheads. They're trying to keep out mate. Mm. Yeah, just you're ruining it for everyone else You're the reason why they've had to put the cameras up. Yeah I was so annoyed Of course every noise was a ghost and um, anyway Um, but what they have done which I found very interesting They've built ecologes up there Little one room cabins Right next to it and you can sort of see the church from there and you can go stay there the night Oh, eh, oh wait We're gonna go. We're gonna go. I knew you'd love that, but he stayed there the night and he sort of explained his What happened to him? Um, so he was he was given permission to go and stand in the church at midnight and just see what happened He didn't have video footage of it or anything like that. I thought the way he delivered the stories were very respectful Um There was no religious really aspects of it. He was just telling the stories And from what I can work out the stories had come from the paranormal files the book about cloppill right, which is the Documentary to documentary. Mm-hmm. I don't think it's a documentary. No, no Anyway, he said that Nothing much happened. He just felt like he was being watched probably the cameras Um, he heard footsteps circling. Oh, sorry. He went back to bed and while he was in bed He heard footsteps circling his lodge Uh, the footsteps footsteps stopped He went to the window to have a look and there was nothing there. Mm-hmm Now the next morning got up and each little lodge Has a sign on to indicate, you know, this is lodge one or lodge two or lodge three And his lodge sign had become unscrewed and was dangling down Um, was it a ghost? He doesn't know But uh, I thought that was very interesting. Yes, at least I'm just going to finish off with one more little story, which comes from the very reputable daily mail dot co dot uk everything Um, so apparently there were some ghost busters that went up to the church Um, the ghost hunting duo claimed we've captured the image of a hooded monk in a church with a satanic past according to the daily mail Uh, paranormal investigator dean johnson 48 visited the abandoned church with partner charlie last week After reading about it on specialist websites. I bet that was that that car dot com website Uh, so anyway, they took some photos Um, we we hadn't even had a chance to set up our three cameras with their tripods They're showing off nice Uh, when charlie looked back at his camera footage there appeared to be a black hooded monk Walking across an archway Nice They rushed back to the church and there was no one near the tower was locked so whatever it was Was heading to a dead end Now ronata have you seen this photo? No, please let me show you All right, here we go. I just have to quickly get it up so you can have a look ronata There you are an expert in this field. So i'm just going to uh zoom in you can see they've got a red circle around it So that makes it legit. Mm-hmm. So you can see the the black figure that's there Let me zoom in. So it's a it's a colored photo We have a put it up in the true hauntings fan group. Yeah, we have um a pathway leading into Oh Yep, what is it? It's nothing. It's a tunnel. It's it's yeah It's you can see the archway the top of the archway that is leading down to a darker space um Inside the church, but there is nothing there at all They've run up to check there wasn't a monk there and there wasn't because there wasn't No Yeah, that's a bit sad. You do have to um, I mean we we don't know we we don't know this site Um, we'd have to go and check ourselves to see but to me that looks like the entrance to an underground passage Yeah, yeah or not underground, but just a little lower level. Yeah. Yeah, and it's just the the brickwork is forming the shop Anyway, we'll pop it up on to the we do suggest that you enlarge it so that you can see zoom in at a distance It looks like there is a a darkness that that is there Uh, but yeah a simple zoom in. Yeah, it would have told you that anyway. We've gone a bit over time. We need to wrap up Renata is this a true haunting? Oh Probably not Probably not I feel sad for the place. I do too I'd love to go and see it because I do love to take photographs of places like that Well, I look we always need to go and check we need to go and check that photo just because we might be Um saying rotten things about these lovely investigators with their three camera cameras and three tripods Um Hey three cameras and three tripods cost a lot of money. No, especially your farm team. Oh But yeah, I I think it's been blown out of all proportion And uh, it's unfortunate for the church It does have some interesting history and those things did happen with the bones being brought up Yes, and uh, so something did happen whether it was kids mucking around or whether it was oh there I forgot my bombshell. Oh, I forgot the bombshell Renata I in my research stumbled across another little aspect here. Oh, I've got to find my notes For a moment. I thought my bit of paper disappeared magically Now I stumbled across this Apparently there was in the area someone who was known as the a6 Murderer who was a british criminal was one of the final eight people in the UK to be executed Uh, there were many people who thought he was not guilty, but I mean many people do uh, his name was james hand ratty And he murdered Um, he hang on. Let's we've got this here Um, he was hanged at bed for jail on the 4th of April 62 after being convicted of the murder of scientist michael Gregston age 36. We're shot dead in the car At dead men's hill near clop hill now people get these two locations muddled up They think that clop hill is dead men's hill, but it's two different places um poor Greg steins girlfriend Um had horrible things done to her I'm not going to say what it is But you can imagine what it is ladies and then was shot five times and left paralyzed. Yeah, now When was the groves desiccate created? 1963 because I thought Maybe there was a link that if This type of character may have done some satanic rights or things like that elsewhere And then people may have copied them, but there is no actual reference to that But I did after I sort of made that link Um, I did find other people who had suggested there was a link between What happened at st mary's and that particular character, but it can't have happened No, it was executed Yeah, and it was because it happened close to clop hill And because he drove around for a couple of hours before he did it I mean how terrorizing it must have been for that um that couple to have gone through that Um, I read that story. I decided not to Tack it into what we were doing because I personally felt that it had nothing to do with it I can see how people can put it together Yep, um, because it would have put a stain on that whole area Yeah, but with regard to that There's enough of a stain on there already Yeah, the poor people I wish um, the ghost hunters would leave them alone But these ghost hunters are going to go there and take photos during the daytime We will not go in there without permission at night because that's the right thing to do Anyway, that's the end of this episode of the true hauntings podcast I don't think it's haunted either, but uh, it's certainly had enough layers of yuck put on it by the mundane muggles and um We'll be back next week with another episode in the meantime Please share the podcast around if you want to buy us a cup of coffee We won't say no be a grand pooper on our patreon's fair grand pooper All those links down the bottom you get all the inside costs there And uh, we'll be uh seeing you on the dark side Back soon and uh, stay spooky and tag be a dickhead Poor meal. Bye Thank you for listening to this episode of true hauntings If you like the show give us a five star rating and leave a review Subscribe on apple podcasts to modify or wherever you're listening right now For more on an and ronata follow at an and ronata on facebook instagram tick tock and youtube Or visit their website www.an and ronata.com [Music] Never sleep hot again with bowl and branches best-selling naturally cooling sheets They feel super crisp and cool to the touch and are expertly designed for enhanced breathability so you don't overheat at night Start getting your best night's sleep this summer with cooling sheets Made with the highest quality materials Try bowl and branch with a 30 night worry-free guarantee Plus get 15% off and free shipping on your first set of sheets at bowlandbranch.com with code buttery Exclusions apply seasight for details If there's one thing that my family and friends know me for It's being an amazing gift giver I owe it all to celebrations passport from 1800flowers.com My one stop shopping site that has amazing gifts for every occasion With celebrations passport I get free shipping on thousands of amazing gifts And the more gifts I give the more perks and rewards I earn To learn more and take your gift giving to the next level Visit 1800flowers.com/acast That's 1800flowers.com/acast