The ruins of the church on Clophill are around 400 years old. St Mary’s church was abandoned in 1848 when a Victorian replacement was build in the centre of the nearby village.
Local folklore has some interesting tales as to why the church was left and a new one built.
One rumour suggests that the church was the wrong way around, facing away from God instead of towards God. It was said that this error had forced the church into becoming a holy building for Satan rather than God.
The church is believed to have been built on top of a leper hospital which was run by monks.
The church is sometimes described as being on Deadman’s Hill. This is not correct as Deadman’s Hill is by the A6 road rather than Clophill Village.
Some of the confusion of the church’s location relates to a horrible murder in 1961 when Michael Gregsten was killed at Deadman’s Hill. James Hanratty was found guilty of the murder and hanged. Many believe that Hanratty was innocent.
There have been reported incidents of satanic rituals at Clophill. In 1963 the grave of an apothecary’s wife was broken into, bones removed and placed in a ritual formation in what was once the nave of the church. Bones where again taken from the graveyard on the hill in 1969 and once again ritualistically arranged.
Hauntings
There a number of reported sightings associated with Clophill Church. Many visitors report a chilly and oppressive atmosphere at the church even during warm days.
Visitors report watching a faint light moving up the hill and towards the ruins of the church before vanishing.
The ghost of a monk has been sighted at Clophill Church but some paranormal investigators have also used projections of a robed monk to scare curious teenagers away from the runes.
In Pure Spirit
What do you think about investigators using the monk projection to keep local kids away from the hill? Have you been to the ruined church and experience the familiar chill?
I come from hertford in hertfordshire not far from ware and have been to cold christmas church a few time its a very strange place allways cold even in the summer but i have never felt unsafe there or scared. I have also been to clop hill a few times as well and I dont like it as last time I was there some thing grabed my leg and left deep scratch marks. I also did some history on the place and found the exact location of the grave that was dug up on 3 times. there is a,so another old church ruine not far from clop hill which you get to buy crossing a field and it in in the woods at the top of the hill this ruien is very erry and theres a strang feeling abt it there a monk who hauntes it .
Ali, i think the other church your talking about might be minsden chaple on the edge of the wood, there was a picture taken of a monk standing in the corner back in the 20's, this was proven to be a fake, but there is something up there, lovely old place though.
Sorry to spoil the fun but most of the stories about Clophill church are wrong. The myths that it is wrongly orientated, built on the site of a leper colony run by monks or that villagers were left to die there during the black death were all started in the late 1960s as a practical joke by students at a local college.
Other practical jokers have added to this in recent years by spreading the stories and using hidden projectors to frighten people. There have been no actual authenticated ghost sightings and paranormal investigations have found no evidence of temperature changes or other phenomena.
The orientation is easy to prove by looking at the church on a map: it faces due East as it should by tradition, though there is no church law on the orientation of holy buildings and churches can be found facing all directions.
i went to clop hill recently with friends and we all see something in the top window at the entrance of the church. It looked like the appearance of a woman. We all seemed quite nervous because it seemed to vanish as we walked into the entrance of the church. What this is, we do not really have an explanation for but only wish we took a camera. We did try to obtain a picture using our mobile phones but the picture just appeared purple. Infact every picture taken there had a purple smudge in it.
Me and my friends have been to clop hill almost every night last week, during the easter holidays. We took cameras and when we took pictures of the gates there were lots or orbs in them. My friend also took a photo of me stood infront of the gate to thge grave yard and you can see me clear as day but everything behind me is like a thick white mist, when it was a VERY clear night. And all the other photos around the area were clear.
There was also a figure stood just by the enterance of the grave yard and 2 figures stood infront of the big tree just as you go through the gate to the church that all seemed to stare towards the church constantly.
We saw something in the top window aswell, a figure with long hair. And a red light kept drifting from side to side. One night we saw what looked like someone climbing up the side of the tower and whilst we were watching they got to the top and then they just dropped and we heard a very loud screach.
Just read you opinion of the old church, from my own experience the church was used for occult practices in the 1970s, the police were aware of this,they were present on the road leading from the village to the grass lane leading to the church one night at the end of October 1975. They would not approach the church! One of the pubs in the village had strings of garlic and lumps of coal around the windows and doors that night, i cannot remember which pub. The following day there was much damage to headstones, graves,etc. There was a small amount of bone scattered about. On the inside of the church was graffiti which if i remember correctly read " ne vide". I was told this means "no future".
i went to Clophil in the day took a picture on my phone and there was a lady in a white dress standing at the top window, there is no explaination for this at all…unless you have 1?
I lived in clophill it's a lovely place. And there is nothing wrong with the place.
The church was not actually abandoned in 1848. It was simply too small for the village and agreement could not be found on enlarging it, so a new church was built. The old church continued in use as a mortuary chapel until the 1960s when the lead was stolen from the roof and the parish, lacking funds to repair it, abandoned it to become a ruin.
DNA tests subsequently made in the Hanratty case have proved beyond doubt that Hanraty was guilty of the murder. Moves for a posthumous acquital have now stopped.
im goin clophill 2mo will let ya kno ppls!!!!
ive been 2 clophill a few time and once when i looked up i c a lady in white hangging me and a few mate ave seen it if any1 eles has plz let me no
hi emma, i lived in clophill for years and never really believed the church was haunted. I went up there in 2005 one nov night with 3 others and a dog. The dog went mad so i took some pics, to my surprise there is a lady standing in some mist and a little boy and a couple of old men, these pics are very clear. I think the lady could be jenny humberstone. Ive seen pics of her bones and she had one tooth left in her skull. The ghost pic of the lady has one tooth! scary!
ive seen a lady in white image in the top tower window!
i lived in clophill for years… i have a few pictures of ghost and orbs from there… i beleive that the picture i have is a lady called jenny humberstone..
Hi yes me and a mate have seen this to at the top of the tower bit
What do you think about camping up there?
Good idea or not?
Ive been a few times,
Once we went up and saw Ghost hunter's. Taking pic's with mad flash's. most of the pics had light Orbs all over the place but there was one that was very strange it looked like a big Teddy with a little girl? i shall try and get the pic.
i went up to clophill church on the 23/jun/09 had my picture taken when i was up in the tower of the chuch,but what was wierd there is a stears leadin down and up i have been lookin all over the net to find out about the chuch its self but havent come close 2 finding out whats down there, And all so in the picture there is a round figger in front off me i mean i dont believe in that kinder stuff but i dont have any other way of explainin it if any one could help then please do!!!.
hya i hate to curst your bubble but how did you get up some stair's that lead down an up when it just a shell ? it you keep looking on the net you should be able to find load's of the old church .some on on here was also asking about the grave stones,they were put there because of the black magic that went on .YES it went on as i remember my stepdad coming home an tell us that he went to police but he ssaid basically they were to scaredd to do anythig at time .my nan an grand dad buried there an were dug up befor even 30yrs of there death .hope thiss helps some abit .anymore info i be glad to help .
It isnt a shell there is a spiral stair case behind a wall. If you stand in the tower with you back to the rest of the church and look up at the wall on your left theres a window. It doesnt go to the outside. It goes to a staircase. Some of my friend climbed up there and if you go down it leads to the basement. Lets just say, their not in a hurry to go back down there again.
i think i bee here b4 dus it have grav stones all round he outside bit
The bottom doorway into the staircase was bricked up about 30 years ago to stop people climbing up the tower. The lower part of the stair well is now just filled with rubble. The stairs were checked by the surveyor recently and are very unsafe. There are also owls nesting up there. The rope was removed. Please do not try to climb up the tower. Sooner or later someone will fall and then there really will be a ghost in the church!
Meanwhile there is now CCTV at the church with police monitoring. Plans are in progress to rebuild and restore the church.
I bet the police have some nice paranormal tapes of their own!
aww right i must of left when they borded it up an when come back i took it as just a shell with rubbleall around it .
so their really rebuilding the church? dont suppose you can fill me in on their progress so far could you?
thanks
sean
I WENT TO CLOP HILL LAST NIGHT AND IT WAS ALL FENCED OFF AS THEY SAID ITS BEING KNOCKED DIWN AND THEY'RE BUILDING A HOTEL!
i read on a website yesterday that they had permission to build a hostle of for walkers as it is on a ramblers walk, they would not disrupt the outside of the building
i dont know if this helps? x
I used to go up Clophill every now and then, I think because of all the stories told about the place it has created a very eerie atmosphere when you go, which isn't helped by the fact that its so quiet. But, if you go up there on a nice summers day, its so peaceful, theres just the birds, and the views are amazing when the suns out.
Too many people have spoiled the image of the place, going up there practising black magic and now doing drug trades etc (hence the police presence). The amount of times I'd be walking aimlessly around the area and find black and red candle wax was unbelieveable. But yeah, I will admit it is quite creepy up there if you choose to listen to all the stories.
Any 1 no biggleswade? Ibeen to clophil with mates loadsa times nuffin happend lol what idid find weird tho was that the grave stones were all leaning over and lookd like they wanted to get as far away frm the church as possible spooky haha
i felt the eery feeling up there, its not the nicest place to go but isnt very scary, most of it is figures of your imagination, can anyone tell me of any real haunted places where were allowed to visit?
go to Thundridge Church at Cold Christmas in Heartfordshire its Really scary and very active
i didnt find thudrige that scary wernt there for long though anyone know of any other places?
i went to clophill church today and i have been there a couple of times before today when me and my friends were there we were look around the church and were taking some pictures, there is loads of graffiti on the walls of the church and there was a peice of graffiti on the wall saying 20.7.09 witch was todays date and then under the date it said human sacrafice. There are people wat do black magic and stuff up there so we fort we be go quick. when i looked at a picture wat i took of the church my phone frooze and then turned off witch was weird because my mates phone turned off aswell. i have also got a picture of a girl about 17-19 years old with dark hair and wearing victorian clothes in one of the tower windows.
If anyone else has been there and seen anythink like this plz write on ere
hi me and my partner went there a couple of days ago we both felt we were not wanted there we took photos by mobile phone inside the church we took pics of the windows and were the tower is then we took pics outside the church of the same windows then walked round to take more pics it get really cold up there and it was sunny it wasnt till we got home we looked at pics in the windows, there was wat looked like a face in the window inside the church then when we looked at the other pics the same face is on the outside window it was like it was watching us the face as it was facing outside watching us
`
i took a pic of the human sacrifice graffitti 20.7.09 but it was 27.07.11 and nothing weird happened, maybe because it was that day?
oh yh and andrew lambourne up the top there
The sters that you can see is a spiral stair case witch aparently leads to an underground grave yard but i dont think no one has been down there before coz it to scary i dont advise any1 to go down there iver
My friends have.. And they didnt go down again after that. Before they went down there we used to go loads and scare all the new commers. But since they went down into the basement they wont come back. What ever it was down there spooked them!
There is no underground grave yard the site was a plague pit and this is situated in the field next to the churchs graveyard
who dare come to my and feel my wrath
who dare come to my church and feel my wrath
ROFL
I lived in Clophill for many years and went to the old church regularly. About 1975 they took all of the gravestones that are within the original church grounds and put them around the perimeter, this might explain why some of them are leaning. Many rumours exist about this place but too many people try to go there and expect to find people in the middle of some sort of black magic ceremony. On halloween you get hundreds of people trying to get there but the massive police presence stops anyone from going inside. Adjacent to the churchyard is a secondary burial ground which is still in use ( my frends mum and his brother are buried there), this is why the police are trying to stop people going there just to have a look.
It really is not worth travelling far to see this place, plus it it difficult to find within the village. Plus if you ask a 'local' for directions they will normally send you in the opposite direction – they get asked the same thing all the time and are fed up with it!
I dissagree, Id advise anyone to take at least a look there. Anyone used google earth? you can see the church from the maps! anyone with a GPS reciever and some knowledge of how to get its co-ordinates will be able to easily navigate there. Its definatly worth a visit to anyone who is interested in things like this.
I wouldnt worry about the locals, best thing to do is reserch the location first, so you know exactly where it is, there is nothing more noobish than asking for directions, not only that, but you have advertised your intentions to visit the chrurch, so this could interfere with your mission. you know how quickly this will travel around the local townsfolk, soon everyone will know your plans, this cannot be allowed to happen.
I can understand the halloween thing, and I wouldnt want hordes of raging people walking over graves etc in the middle of the night littering etc, so if you visit be responicble!!! you want to be welcome again???
hi clophill lad i lived in clophill for many years 2 .my sister used 2 baby sit for some strage pepole that
lived in the farm house a mile past the church. on one halloween they were arested at the church for
sacreficeing a goat strange a
regards
clophill crew 69- 03
Hey Clophill Crew! Interesting story – would you be able to tell me any more about that incident. Reason being we're conducting a documentary about the church's past and i'd be eager to hear more. Best, Kevin. [email protected]
does anyone have a postal code for near to the church and is it easy to find?
Yes its easy to find, its just up a rough dirt road off of the highstreet.
yeah its GH0 1ST lol
LOLL
i went to clophill with a few of my friends it was a warm summers evening and my mate kev was climbing on the side of the church when he fell off and broke his ankle he is silly and i told him something like this would happen me and paul found it really hard not to laugh
DO YOU THINK ITS SAFE TO GO UP THEIR ON HALLOWENN ????
Yes as safe as any other day. Make sure you take some garlic and a cross and salt.
I went up their last halloween 2010** and it was all cornered off by police ://
My recent post Picture- Living with Nature
This is for anyone who cannot find this place, seriously, although you dont need a GPS device, we are issued them as standard, so make full use of them, the co-ordinates are;
Latitude 52.03733
Longitude -0.40956
The road leading upto the church is rough, so although this is passable in a car, an off-roader may be needed in winter months, or wet weather. the entrace to the church is just off the highstreet so you may drive past it, so look carfully! And double check your GPS device.
The area is routinely patroled by the police force, so expect to clear the area if instructed.
Like any risky area, carry a first aid kit in the vehicle, or on your person, and charged mobile phone, and possibly a CB or ham radio for extra cautiousness. carry a torch, preferably one of those big steel bodied ones, your GPS reciever, and if you can afford it, a night vision scope. You may even wish to carry some kind of camera or recording device to capture events during your visit. A gieger counter may be used to check the area for radiation levels, although there is notthing expected you never know if radiation may be present.
Remember Play safely.
It's Halloween 2nite, and should you feel this place and the stories about it are pure myth, then please explain this to me: Two friends of mine, write their names on the walls of the ruin, BOTH are now dead and BOTH died the same way!!! FACT!!! TRy to get to the church 2nite, you will find the roads on/out are blocked by police, why would such drastic actions be made, if this place is harmless???
barry i agree with you ,it not just because of the peoplewhom live around the church coz when i lived there police was also called there because of the black magic ,i went up there after an you could see the cauldron was ssitting in the middle big black thing .but police in them days back in 60's 70's were to scared themselves to go there lol.an yes it was true as my stepfatherr come an told us halloween night as he see what they were doing ,but he was like that dont want miss a thing lol
Went to Clophill last night, Police prescence there but only to stop cars, they wernt stopping people walking to the Church…….
Hi there people, i used to go clophill quite alot with my m8s, when i was about 17 till the age of 20ish. havent been there in two years lol. Anyway ive seen alot there during my visits there. one particular night i think it was halloween or sumthing, we heard a baby crying out load from the graveyard. we all run into our cars n left tho we did go up again that night. and sat there with other youths, we saw people in the center of the church worshipping (devil worshippers). We made a night of it until we heard a scream several times and we left, as fast as we could, the screams were coming from the church as we stood by our cars. we didnt return till midday the following day. (This happed was after the worshippers had left) We know there was no-one else there for fact as the police made petrols of the bushes n the hole perimeter. And it was me my friends and other youths, everyone was near there cars all catching jokes till the screams started.
Next morning we took pictures there in many pictures there where shadows of spirits in them especailly one with a young girl wearing a white wedding dress. None of this is made if your thinking its rubbish. If i still had me old fone i would love to show you the pictures to show all my proof. buh i fink its those pictures that where taken that stopped me from going there. Also the old man that use to appear on his gravestone round 1.20am and 1.30am. Its the first black gravestoned grave you see when you go into the main cemetery. Most of it was recorded on tape by a friend on his camcorder, dont know if he still has it or not.
geek
Isn’t it intereasting that all these false facts & stories come from people who don’t come from Clophill or have ever lived there. In a nutshell it was a perfectly normal church until it was abandoned because it became too small for the village. It’s just a shame that the kids ruined it with the graffiti & halloween etc.
During the 1970's I visited the old church a few times with friends – especially at night, hoping to see something strange.
A friend who had lived close-by told me that locals believed that the americans working and living at the Chicksands USAF practiced black magic at the old church.
All these years later, I now have learned that Chicksands was a surveillance centre claimed to be for the american government but in reality was to listen-in on important phone calls involving huge business deals that could benefit corporation-owning freemasons so that freemasonry could gain power in the world, through corporate wealth.
Freemasons happen to be heavily into satanism.
What a coincidence.
I doubt however, that satanism was ever practiced at the old church.
It's more likely that the old church was used as a decoy to where satanism really was being practiced – probably within the site of Chicksands.
My recent post Copenhagen – Brutal danish police behave like agitants instead of police .wmv
The church was used for occult practices in the 1970s. I know!!!!!!!!!!!
Showing your ignorance about freemasonry
back in 1963 me and my friend Calvin went up to the church to have a look around , thats when we found a skull and some bones scattered about inside the ruins we ran and told a couple who were walking towards the church and they went for the vicar . he arrived with 3 policemen, they tried to blame me and Calvin but when we went to the disturbed grave it took the 5 men to move the lid of the tomb and said it could not have been moved by 2 little lads .I remember the name on the tomb it was Jenny Humberstone she was the wife of an Apothecary ,me an calvin were in the national papers and the vicar gave us a book each about the history of Bedfordshire ,Istill have the newspaper cuttings to this day
Dunc.
Hi Duncan, would you be interested in talking about what happened for a TV documentary on the paranormal? If so, please contact me at [email protected]. Thanks, Kevin
Hi Duncan,
I am currently planning to make a film on the history and ancient myths about the church on clophill. If you would be interested in speaking to me about any information you know of, please contact me. [email protected]
thanks, Heidi
i went there yesterday and found it a most enjoyable and pleasent visit ,ghosts ? i dont think so ,orbs ? lol i was a grave digger and ive never seen a ghost in a cemetary ,now in my recent job i have experianced ghosts but they are in shop i deliever to in the dead of night ,oh and one when i was a teenager just about to get me leg over in a countryside car park :)
lol
Went there years ago and can still remember the cold and ungodly place with its menacing forboding atmosphere and stench of partly unearthed human remains – as you can imagine I didn't stick around long, only enough to take a couple of photos. I happened upon the photos the other day and on close inspection I discovered that in the main window at the end of the church you can just make out a large pair of bollocks!
can any one please tell me how to get here i know where clop hill is but not the church thanks
can any one please tell me how to get here i know where clop hill is but not the church thanks
Go into clophill, there is a small dirt track where you can drive a car up half way down the high street (on the right if coming A6 direction) follow it up and park you car.
And yeah, there is a HUGE pair of bollocks graffitied on the church
If anyone is interested in recollecting their Clophill stories, I’m producing a feature length documentary on the history of old St Mary’s church. Please drop me an email at [email protected] as we’d love to hear from local people who would like to share their experiences. Thanks.
Kevin Gates
i used to go there when me and my mates had nuffing better to do, this was about 15 -16 years ago wen you could climbe the tower thu a window, its blocked off now. its a spirel stair case that gose up to open sky, pritty high to.
we whent there at halloween one year. its was party time there must of bin 100 – 150 people turn up. but the strange thing was a van turned up just befor 12. the back doors opend and about 5 or 6 people in there 20s got out all dressed in black bomber jackets and skin tite jeasns wiv knee high d.ms on. thay also had 2 dobermans with them on short leads. i remember the ladys out the van were very sexy. thay never said anything to any1 and thay whent into the church.any1 that was init soon left when thees lot turnd up. it was prity obveus thay were devil worshipers. i dont care wot anybody says about clob hills history, that place is a magnet for devil worshipers and if its good enuff for them…….
this is actually all aload of poo. ive lived in clophill for like 6 years and oftenly walk my dog up to the ‘scary’ church. its not haunted, i believe in ghosts and sporits. but Clophill is definately not haunted. people who visit the ruins, are often dissapointed. :) i plan on sleeping in the church one night this summer, to prove all of you guys wrong :). and also, for all the people that keep spelling it – clop hill. please type it correctly – clophill. thanksss ;) xxx
I would be up for that as well. You should get a group of people togeather and make a big thing of it.
I lived there to at town shott. Nice place my boys loved it. Kids friendly. The police block the drive way up to the church. As its to small for all the cars that go up. And the police love hiding in the bushes. And play games on the peeps that come to our villages. The village does get packed with cars. When people come from far. To see he church.
well, i have been to clophill today with my family and had a picnic by the ruin…it was very pretty and peaceful, i could have sat there all day, but my youngest daughter found it very desturbing and wanted to leave at the earliest oppertunity. Will definatly go back again, beautiful place..shame about the graffiti.
what a load of rubbish, dont strech the truth so much, it is spooky but so is my shed at 2 in the morning….
I’ve been to clophill lots of times but not for about 15 years simply because it really isn’t a nice place
the first time we went we couldn’t find the turning, its quite hard to miss as it looks like it could be someones drive, so we asked a local where the church was he said there isn’t a church in clophill
i can understand they get fed up of people asking but as soon as he said that i was convinced that everyone in clophill was a devil worshipper and covering it up lol anyway i can honestly say i have never seen a ghost there and im not someone that particularly believes in ghosts but it is a scary place and its a fact that there have been satanic rituals there
there couldn’t be devil worshippers there now as theres so many people about and police presence so whoever dug up graves back in the 60’s and 70’s have quite clearly moved somewhere else
having said that i’ve felt the atmosphere there and one night while driving up that horrible old dirt path we saw two people walking along the side of it with their backs to us and wearing black hooded cloaks, yes i know it sounds like bullshit but i swear its true anyway as we got closer to them they turned round and they were two young girls they looked terrified as we drove towards them and their faces were pale white and sweaty
my friend thought it was hilarious that he’d seen two wierdo’s walking up the road and wanted to turn round and have another look at them when we got back there they were nowhere to be seen
being a young girl myself at the time i cant see that any young girls would be walking up that path in the dark at that time of night but like i said i dont believe in ghosts so there must be a logical reason behind it
and i get that anywhere in the dark at night is quite scary but not like that place the last time i went there we went over the road to some field with bushes all around it to see the deers in the dark all you could see was thousands of pairs of green eyes staring out the bushes at us sounds pretty scary but actually it was nice after being at clophill
the place is disturbing
theres a red post box right after the enterence i love it there
When I went there I saw there was somone who got hung in the tower my sister got smacked on the back on the head by somthing.
That chur.ch is serously creepy
A group of us went up there last night and bumped into another group of paranormal investigators. We've had a few sightings and gained lots of information from our investigations. Unfortunately the evening was spoilt by a group of youngsters who decided it would be fun to dance round us shouting abuse with their trousers pulled down exposing themselves! We did call the police and got them a severe talking to, but behaviour like that and in a churchyard too is just proof that people will do anything up there.
Why are people permitted to be so disrespectful to a place where people have been laid to rest? Would any of you who think it's fun to invade the place on Halloween like it if your relatives and friends were buried there? The place should be left in peace and only visited by people who are interested in its history or who are willing to show respect for a former place of worship and a burial ground.
I went to Clophill church last night, and it was one of the scariest things in my life..! We walked up the long road and went up to the church.. when we got there it was absolutely freezing.. it didnt help that it was raining, but there was a definite temperature drop as soon as me and my mates went over the gate to the church. When we got there we all thought we could see a figure in the front window arch at the top of the tower.. but as we got closer it had gone. When walked over to the large back opening of the church and 3 of my mates went inside while 3 of us stayed outside.. One of my friends kept saying he could hear breathing in his ear, like something was standing behind him breathing on him, no one else could hear so we wern't sure whether to believe him or not. Then my 3 mates came out and we walked round to the front of the church. I took a couple of photos (none have anything in them) and then we stood and spoke for a minute. Next thing we hear is a VERY loud breathing/hissing noise coming from from inside the church which echoed all around.. we all ran and got the hell out of there. The strange thing was that out of the six of us that were there only 5 of us heard it, and the 5 of us that did have all done a weegie board before, we don't know if this has anything to do with it, but all i know is that i definitely will not be going there at night again!!
Chels you actually wrote what we went through that night! Scary stuff tbh.
DONT GO!!!!!!!!! my friend has been there 3 times and has failed to go in the church becuase the first time she went she didnt even get out the car becuase her friend heard heavy breathing. the second time i went up there with her and we only walked up a little bit of the path before running back to the car and the third time we went up there we went half way up the path and heard really really heavy brething so we ran back to the car again. but the boy we was with met peopple who was already up there and went into the church with them and said he saw a black figure poking there head in and out of the window at the top so he went and stood under the window with the other people and the breathing got heaiver and faster and we were sitting in the car and rang him to come back because we was to scared. if you want a scary night out id advise you go there, and also the later it is the more haunted it is apparrently. we went around about 2am.
dont like it up there – doesnt feel right
My mother was from Clophill and I have been up to that church loads. The graves were moved to the perimetre by the council in the 60's to stop people digging up bones to practice black magic. The back magic stories from the 60's are true, my mum and nan went up there the day after halloween after hearing rumours and saw burnt out candles and bones arranged. Freaky!
Nowadays it's just a ruin where people go drink etc I don't believe any real black magic goes on up there, however at night it can be a bit spooky as it's very isolated.
I lived in the village of Clophill from the age of 6 to the age of 20. I used to play up Clophill church, we climbed the tower and played in all the fields around it. We never saw anything abnormal! The hole in the tower was bloked up when I was about 16-18 and the pilars around the outside were boarded up to stop people climbing the ruins. My friend and I would sit in the windows for hours just chatting and we would go up there in the dark and lay in the grave yard to watch the stars. On the night of my 18th birthday I camped there in a tent with my now husband and another friend. Clophill church is not scary at all! It has been used for devil worship and the like in the past and when I was a young girl we would find sacrifised goats and the heads of toy dolls with burn marks on them. This was as scary as it got! but it was just the work of teenage cult members and nothing more. I wish the church could be cleaned of Graffitti so that it can be enjoyed by visitors. It is a special place and a beautiful place with a grave yard still used today. Treat it with the respect it deserves. I have many photo's of the church…………….not one has a ghostly face in it!…. not even an orb!
This board is full of people who can't spell words. And for that reason, quite frankly, I don't believe them.
Ten years ago my friend and I visited the grounds to investigate the tower and graves during a cold autumn morning after a party heading back to London. We were definately on our toes and ready for something to happen. After an hour or so everything seemed peaceful, We checked out the tower and its satanic stuff, a bit boring really. The graves were stilted and overgrown. I felt sorry for the buried with all the defamatory stuff going on above them!
We were still jittery and decided to settle our nerves by walking along the track towards the north of the church, just got passed the red post box when we turned to find a very odd couple greet us. They were villagers who lived beyond the church grounds. That was the way they pointed. They were dressed in 70s clothes not disco stuff but everyday clothes huge collars, brown nylon, and their hair was matching in 70 styles. It seemed as if we were going back in time. They had strange faces and talked very slowly. We made small talk for a few minutes but we didn't talk about the history of the place. We did not shake hands but my friend and I were a bit confused and startled really. We had decided to go back to the car before seeing them, yet as we turned back to see if what happened was real sure enough they were no where to be seen!
We looked at each other agasp and walked or dare I say ran back to the car and just upon approaching the car a black cat passed infront of us!! Yikes!! I couldn't wait to get out of that place! We sped away and still share a laugh over this one.
i went to clophill today it was very scary i heard a voice tell me to get out so we did on the way up my husband asked a lady in a shop just at the beginning of clophill were the ruin was she looked like she has been in this shop for years and though she said she didnt know were it was it was obvious she did oh ! anyway we found it in the end when we got there i heard a voice that wasnt human say get out so we did i got a feeling that we wasnt wanted as well though i have been able to see the other side since i was 5 this is the first time i have had a nasty feeling of dread
It is seems like you know my mind! You probably know everything about this.
Hi everyone!
I completely understand the interest in The Old Church in Clophill but to be honest it's not all that exciting! My mum was from Clophill and I went to the Old Church a lot as a child (you can do a nice walk around the village), the gravestones were moved by the council and i never saw anything up there in my 27 years! Black magic was done up there in the 60's but not anymore, my great grandparents are in the graveyard next door to be honest i find it disrespectful to anyone that has family up there that people still go there looking for action when at the end of the day it is a dis-used church!
About 8 years ago, I went down there with a few mates. They locked me in the back of the car and made me sit in the middle so I couldn't escape n I had no choice but to go up there. Upon arriving, we drove up that little dirt track and we saw some of the people come out of their houses, walk halfway down their driveways and just stop and stare at us. They looked really odd and creepy and something really didn't feel right. At that point I wanted to turn round and go back. Then when we stopped outside the church, a couple of my friends got out of the car and walked closer to it. I stayed in the car and when I look out the window I saw a huge black creature glide right past my window, it must of been the size of a panther but it disappeared as quick as it came. At that point, I freaked out and said I wanted to go home NOW, and everyone came back to the car. However when we tried to start the car, it wouldn't start, no matter how many times we tried it. Then something started rocking the car quite violently and I ended up in tears. We were looking out the window but there was nothing there that could have appeared to be rocking the car from side to side. None of our phones would work either! Eventually one of the lads got out of the car and started walking back down the little dirt track to try and get help with his car, but he soon re-appeared saying there was nobody about for miles! So we tried again and the car still wouldn't start, so at this point, the lads got out and pushed the car down the little track and back out onto the road. Then, strangely enough, after we were away from the church grounds, the car started up first time and are phones were all working again. I'm sorry but that freaked me out a gooden and there is no way in hell I would EVER go back up there at night!!!!
However, I have been there during the day and the atmosphere was completely different, so people who have only been there during the day cannot say there is nothing wrong with the place. You would need to visit there at night before you came to that conclusion.
Also, many people I know who have been there have mentioned cars failing to start up in the church grouds, and lots of people have also mentioned their phones not working whilst they're there too!! Seems a bit too much to be a coinidence!
There are definitely evil forces at work up there, and a word of advice, they are definitely forces not to be reckoned with!! Go at your own risk!!!
Nice post. I live a few miles from Clophill and have grown up hearing these stories, it's a very creepy place. I've linked to you on http://www.spookipedia.co.uk
If anyone would like to re-tell their Clophill stories or knowledge of the place and would like to feature in a documentary, please can you contact me immediately by email. I would love to hear from local's!!
[email protected]
Thanks.
I’m 19 and hearing there is a scary church 10 miles from your house is a very interesting night !! A few friends and I decided to go up and check it out , I was very excited so I decided to take my camera and see if we could see any orbs or anything in the mist ! When we got to clophil , as soon as we got to the turning up the dirt track the car felt cold , I wasn’t the only one who felt cold , maybe it was because we knew it was haunted so our mind playing tricks on us or maybe it was somthing else ! I had butterflies in my stomach and I was nervous but excited ! I took some pics in the car no orbs or anything .. We came to the church and it didn’t really look that scary , I told jack ( the driver) to keep the lights on the car on . We had 1 torch between us and lewis ( a friend) had that . I took lots of pictures of the church but found nothing .. After about 10 mins of going inside the church around the church we saw nothing .. We all went over to the grave stones , iv herd some creepy things have been written on them but I forgot to read them. Lewis is a bit of a jack the lad so he decided to try and look cool shouting “come on then you ghosts” and other things , running about in circles being a prat ! We all got in the car , when we got in the car I took a picture of lewis and the orbs decided to appear .. I think we may have annoyed them . The more lewis acted like a pratt the bigger closer and whiter they got , after 1 picture my camera stopped working , this scared me so I shouted to lewis to get back in the car . He got back and we sped off ! When we got to the bottom and on the road my camera immediately started working . I have an album on my facebook if you want to see them serch for charli ‘ charles’ fiume on there x
I only heard about clophil yesterday so me my boyfriend and my friend nicole decided to go and check this place out, there was 3 guys who were in the little car park bit and he showed us around they said they were suposed to stop people going in yet one guy offered to show us around which i thought was quite strange! He took us into the church and showed us around then as we started to walk out the church his mate who was in the car park spoke through to his walkie talkie and said "have you got them in the church yet" this really creeped me out and so we decided to go back to the car! we left and started driving down the little track when all of a sudden the whole of my windows steamed up for no reason then diapeared leaving a face! i thought i was seeing things and didnt say anything untill my friend then started screaming i honestly have no explaination for this and my boyfriend does not belive in this kind of stuff but also does not no how to explain the face!! Has anyone else had any simular experiences???
Spooky bloke hanging around reckoned he was old bill, but encouraged us 2 go up there ? I think he might be a satanist or something. He wasn’t too bothered that I was a kid and it was midnight ! I think he was a weirdo
I have 8 out of 9 chapters written on a book about Clophill. I have been writing it for years. It is about my experiences with visiting the church in the 60's. It challenges the reader to explain whether or not the bazaar things I experienced were man-made, or supernatual. If I ever finish the book, you get to decide for yourselves.
Hey Bill, I'm just finishing a book on Clophill myself about the history of the church and the events that went on up there in 63 with witness interviews, the story of Lewis Barker the rector etc and the legacy that goes on up to present day. Would love to have a chat. Please drop me a line at [email protected]. Thanks, Kevin
I remember Clophill church being a place all us teenagers would go, it;s an eeiry place and because of it being up a long narrow lane gives the feeling of not being able to turn back once heading up there.
Was always too freaked out to go inside the building but think that is just all the stories that are out there about the place.
I never experienced anything untoward while up there just a lingering quiet which make it even more scary.
4 of us went to clophill tonight, it was raining a little not heavily, we walked the church and the perimiter, saw a Barn Owl, was wonderful to see. Took lots of photo`s, we have got some amazing orbs, felt the presence of a Lady, but not much else other than a warmth as we stood in the Church ruin itself, Bit dissapointed, really expexted more. Will try again when the weather is a little more Clement.
i went up there today :). After visiting houghton house in Ampthill yesterday i decided to drive around bedfordshire checking out the old history of the place aswell as supposedly "haunted" area's i must have missed the turn in and ended up driving up what looked like the grassy path through some allotments (which i later found out to be the next turning after the real one heading from the A6 into Clophill) i was riding my sports bike and found it very uncomfortable driving down these paths lol, anyways as i kept to the path i saw this church from a fair distance away and mannaged to drive closer to it when i came to the end of this grassy path there was barbed wire around the allotments and fields and i could only turn left into this forresty area on my bike this looked quite difficult so i thought id take some photos of the church from where i was when i went to get my phone i looked up at the church and saw a white ball shape float from the bottom of the hill upwards towards the rear end of the church and into it and dissapear for a few seconds i was totally wierded out but i put it down to a bird or something and didnt think anything more of it, i then drove through the forrest area with great difficulty and found myself at the end of this forrest area and managed to get down on the path to the old church and got to the front gate i parked up and took a walk around the church and took some photos, this place seemed a little creapy but only because it was a ruin and all of the grafiti and markings on the walls ruining the place other than that i didnt see anything spooky or ghostly while visiting or did anything show up in my photos other than one photo i took from inside St. Mary's turned out totally white with no image but i put this down to either my camera messing up or a glare from the sun coming through a gap in the ruins to my camera lense, but im kinda wierded out now hearing about this myth about the white orb traveling up the hill towards the church strange :S, but other than that the old ruin didnt seem scary or demonic to me just ruined by the amount of grafiti and markings on the walls and youths going up there attempting satanic ritualls and all of these rhumors of the church. a shame really,
Check out http://www.facebook.com/clophill as there's a found footage horror film coming out in 2013 based on the Clophill legend. Looks like it might be rather good!
i have just read the WIKIPEDIA ? on the 1963 incident at St.Mary`s church and what a load of old tosh that is .it states that the 2 boys were playing with the skull in the street , the skull never left the grounds of the church it was taken to a couple who walking up there who then called the vicar . the police were called ,If people what to write about the incident PLEASE get the facts right
regards Dunc
Hey Dunc, The wikipedia page was based on a chapter from a book called Raising the Devil, which sourced one of the local papers of the time, which was incorrect. Try telling that to one of the wikipedia nuts though :)
ive seen them..got the scars in my mind and pics to prove it ..for those who dont believe try it ..go there ..i wont ever again
Hi there I'm thinking of heading up there myself with a few friends soon, I'm quite susceptible to paranormal experiences just wondered if u could let me know a little more about ur time there? I'm very interested, n would like to try to communicate with the spirits there if i can. many thanks!
Wow, some people have fertile imaginations. I just love the way they totally ignore the truth and cling to the myths in a vain hope of attaching some creedence to their mundane lives.
I'm not saying ghosts don't exist, I was supposed to have seen one when I was a wee kid (although I can't remember it), but for crying out loud….read Kicksan's post on page 1. I used to live close to Clophill for many years and we all knew the rumours to be a complete fabrication.
Of course many here will debunk all I say because they know better :)
There’s even a book out now on all the goings on up at old church:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paranormal-Diaries-Clophill-Clophills-Church-ebook/dp/B00O1B1MRE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1412105509&sr=1-1
Sat at  the dinner table with my kids the other night(I live in Italy now originally from  Grafham Water) we got talking about spooky places and I told them my story. As a young 18 year old me and my friends were always looking for things to do which were different. One of these friends was a photographer. We decided to head out to Clophill church or Castle as we called it after midnight to take photos. We left our car at the bottom of this little lane and walked up with only the the moon as our light. We got to the church and I remember not feeling very happy my friend took his photos by which time we were all more than nervey there was a funny feel about the place what it was I dont know. Any how we then started to walk back down the lane when we saw lights coming towards us. They looked like car lights which if I remember correctly would have been impossible as the road was not passable by car(may have that bit wrong). The lights suddenly stopped moving always a long way from us and we all froze. We waited and nothing then we all dived into the ditch scared to death. We waited for the car to drive past …nothing . How much time passed I dont know but the lights suddenly dissappeared and we all jumped out of the ditch and bombed it down to where the car was parked. It was the spookiest experince ever for me and looking it up today brought it all back.
I live around 30 min from clophill and visited there the other day to try and scare my kids after telling them about s few story’s from when I was a child! To my surprise the church has now been cleaned up and made safe for visitors there is even s little visitors centre where u can get a coffee and a piece of cake the setting is beautiful and u can even take a walk up to the top of the tower and check out the area from up there for a small donation at the cafe! Well worth the visit but the spooky eerie feeling is still there and u can’t seem to shake it off even in the middle of a sunny day
We’ve been there several times during walks. Several times batteries in cameras and GPS have been inexplicably drained although fresh. The last time my wife and myself walked past we both spotted a brown robed figure in an upper window of the tower which vanished when we took a second look. We saw this independently and knew that the tower was locked so not sure what we saw.