Thursday 17th August 2023
Following our visit to Chicksands Priory on April 4th (see post below), we took a brief detour, on the return journey home, to view the allegedly haunted ruin of Clophill Church. As with many sites – now famous for their ‘ghostly reputation’ – Clophill isn’t a location that gets a mention in any of the more historical literature on paranormal sites. Of course, this is a very common scenario in this day and age and, while not necessarily indicative of anything significant, it is something that my sceptical mind has always noted, I find…
From a rather ‘grim’ angle, Clophill Church – The Church of St. Mary The Virgin, to give its proper name – is a place that has something of a grisly reputation, down to the fact that, over the decades, it has suffered much as a place of considerable desecration. Abandoned as a place of worship in the 1840’s, the reasonably isolated position of the site has probably made it ripe for all kinds of skulduggery and general, dubious activity, over the space of seeming generations…
Writing in 1977, in his book ‘Supernatural England’, the author, Eric Maple, notes that – ‘some 60 years ago’ – a pamphlet that was published in the Clophill locality hinted at ‘Necromancers operating in the area’. He notes that the authors didn’t specify’ what went on’ there, however… but could such suggested ‘long term’ issues perhaps indicate ‘specific usage’ of the location for some particular reasons, perhaps?
I shall refrain from repeating reports pertaining to the instances of recorded desecration here, and simply refer page visitors to the Wiki page for Clophill Church, which can be found HERE
Re-placing my ‘sceptical hat’ momentarily… while the ruin is frequently mentioned in conjunction with claims of ‘Englands Most Haunted’ status, it has to be said that it is another of those sites that ‘all know to be haunted’… but actual accounts of more innocently random, first-hand, ‘ghostly encounters’ are highly conspicuous in their absence! In speaking of our visit on social media, I received a single comment that pointed towards a ‘spooky experience’ here… though even this was one of those 3rd or 4th-hand ‘I once read…’ references.
Apparently, a photographer had visited the location one day and got chatting to a motorcyclist who also appeared to be taking a look around. In taking shots of the area, they had been a touch miffed at noticing that some of their pics contained the bikers crash helmet, that he had seemingly put to one side, atop a pile of stones… After talking for a while, the man seemed to have roamed away and simply disappeared. The photographer was a touch puzzled at this, as they had not heard a motorcycle fire up and leave at any point… but he was gone!?
When they later got home and decided to view the photographs they had taken during their trip, they were baffled to find that – despite their previous, all-too-real frustration – there was no sign of a motorcycle helmet in ANY of the pictures they had taken…!?
There are other ‘spooky’ accounts to be found online, but these fall into the ‘primed’ and / or ‘conspicuous’ categories… being either related to commercial ventures or the ultra-reliable ‘reports from, self-professed, ghost-hunter-types’… (HERE and HERE).
As the site itself stands today: from the little that I had previously seen of the place – even in fairly recent sources, such as the (terrible!) 2013 film ‘Paranormal Diaries: Clophill’ and online images, etc – the overall condition of the ruin has been VASTLY improved and tidied! (No doubt at considerable expense!) Such ministrations have only been executed within the past 10 years or so, it seems. Sadly, this did include the clearing of a great many graves from their original spots within the churchyard… and re-placing them around the periphery of the site. (A MAJOR pet peeve of mine, it must be said!) Apparently, for anyone interested in visiting the location and, perhaps, carrying out a little nocturnal ‘ghost hunting’, another ‘improvement’ to the site has been the introduction of numerous security cameras and signs basically intimating that night time visits are forbidden. The building is ‘alarmed’, apparently! (To be frank, however, given the history of sordid shenanigans at the site, this IS quite understandable, eh?)
John Chance - 'Thank You' again matey! Always a pleasure... and always most appreciated indeed!
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