UK Decay

[werewolf]

Clophill Church

I wonder how many of you out there are aware of Clophill Church of St
Marys, Bedfordshire UK. The ruined Church on UK Decay's 'Black 45' cover?




This church has had a rich history of myths and legends within the world
of the Paranormal and the Occult, eg. it is down on record as being the
site of the last reported incidence of Necromancy in the UK!

Situated 10 miles north of Luton, Clophill Church lies in ruins some 3/4
of mile north east of Clophill village on a lonely hilltop. God only knows
why they chose to build a Church there or why it was abandoned, but it
can be accsesed via an unmettled lane winding its way through deep
ancient hedgerows slowly up a low hill. The Church is situated on a knoll
of high ground near the summit. One mile to the west lies 'Dead Mans Hill'
infamous for the A6 murders that led to the last instance of the death
penalty being impossed on the convicted perpatrator, James Hanratty
These days the gravestones have been moved and the terrain
surrounding the church, flattened and grassed over, so it has lost some
of its former 'spooky' atmosphere.

Clophill Church today
At the time of the photo for the 'Black Cat EP' in late 1979, the
graveyard of the church with decaying tombs and crumbling gravestones
was completely overgrown. The path leading up to the entrance to the
church had sunk 3 or 4 feet below the level of the graveyard and with
mist rolling around, it was truly terrifying to walk up alone on a dark night!


Going there in the dark of the night became a 'rights of passage' ritual
for kids living both locally and in the nearby towns. It is on record that
Black Occultists have also used the church for their ungodly rituals.
At the time that the band took the 'Black Cat EP’ photos, there was a
gigantic pentagram engraved into one of the walls and other occult
symbols placed around!

Shortly after the shot that appeared on the front cover was taken, the
band became spooked, they fled back to the car in blind terror and made
of back down the lane towards the main road. Travelling at speed down
the dirt track the car rounded the bend and came to a screeching halt as
the headlights picked up a magnificent white horse strolling down the lane.

The car came to a halt with hearts pounding and a moment’s pause as
the horse disappeared round the bend a few yards in front. With that the
car pulled of again, the band realising that it must have been an escaped
horse had gathered their senses together again and followed the horse
round the bend, not five or six seconds behind!

There was absolutely no sign of the horse, neither any obvious place
whence it could have escaped in the short time it took to round the bend!
The hedgerows were dense and over 10 feet high with no gates! it was if
it had vanished before their very eyes!

The band were said to be really spooked by this and that it had a
significant influence on the way they approached their music!


Here are some other links on Clophill Church:-
A larger photo of the Church today
Haunted Clophill
Wikipedia
what 'Net goth' says
we think UK Decay were the first band to brave having their photo taken there!
Wiccan experience
Google searc

Has anyone any thoughts, stories or experiences to portray about Clophill Church ?????

Ghoul for Thought!!
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[werewolf]

As a footnote to above 'Clophill Church'
The band felt cursed by the above experience! You know that saying
' when you break a mirror, you get seven years bad luck!' well that
was the impression the band got resulting in the following few months
becoming fraught with bad luck!

A number of years later I told the story to an individual who grew up
in the villages of Bedfordshire of the 'incident' with the white horse
whom on hearing it was not surprised. He had been brought up in the
atmosphere's of 'small-time' village 'myths and folklore' surrounding the
mid Beds villages. To my surprise, he told me that the 'ghostly' white
horse was a well-known local legend of Clophill and the surrounding
area and indeed the memory in folklore still exists in the name of the
village public house, 'The Flying Horse'. This I found incredible until I
visited the Pub for myself a few years back.

The Public Houses sign depicted a flying white horse, reminiscent of
Pegasus. This struck me as odd; it got me thinking about the bands
story of that night of the photo session, where the white horse had
apparently disappeared into thin air. Could it not be possible that the
disappearance of the white horse may be explained, by it’s sprouting
of wings and flying away? Incredible nonsense? Maybe, or maybe not!

Indeed, may the band have been privy to a sighting of Pegasus from
ancient Greek legends. It does seem arguably far-fetched but the Greek
writers based their myths and legends on older and more profane
shamanic deities.
Pegasus

One things for certain, there are very peculiar earth energies that
emanate from the area of Clophill Church, people have seen glowing
orbs, heard strange heavy breathing sounds and many have had mind
altering experiences here.

On a visit there some years ago, I met a chap who was meditating on
the newly grassed over graveyard, he told me that he was a member
of an occult society in nearby Bedford. He said the church was built
there deliberately in the fifteenth century to cap a 'negative energy
vortex'. Before that, it had been a leper colony. He went on to say
that the real reason for the church becoming abandoned, was that
the church authorities had given up the fight to cleanse the 'negative'
energies and had built a new church closer to the village instead!

He went on to say that people who do not see or respect the powers
of the ruins will become 'cursed'. He particularly said that it was e
xtremely unwise to actually touch or 'lay hands' on the stone or
substance of the ruined Church!

Footnote to footnote:

One mile to the south east of Clophill Church on the other side of the
river Flit, lays Cainhoe Castle; today all you will see are ruins in a field
to north of the Shefford road. The hamlet of Cainhoe, is mentioned in
the Domesday Book and William the Conqueror granted this area to
one of his top baron’s. Cainhoe was the center of the Barony of Cainhoe,
held by the d'Aubigny family from the Conquest until the mid thirteenth
century. Nigel d’Albini who probably built the castle, is said to have been
a powerful mover who controlled a huge area and was involved in the
crusades and he was said to have been a member of the order of the
Knights Templar. Around the castle, a small town grew up and for a while
prospered but by 1272 it had vanished! All that’s lefts of Cainhoe today,
are the castle ruins and a large farmhouse that is named Cainhoe Manor,
where legend has it that Queen Anne Boleyn; one of Henry the 8th's six
wives, spent some time.
It is proposed that for some reason that the mysterious disappearance of
Cainhoe may be explained by the relocation of the town, to the higher
ground north of the river. This ‘new’ area was on the hill where the
current ruined church now lies. This did not last long however, as the
village was decimated by the endemic plaques of the Middle Ages.

In the early 16th century, the future site of St. Mary’s Church was said
to have been a leper colony. However, later in that century, the church
of St. Mary’s was built on the site. In Victorian times the village again
relocated from the hillside adjoining the church, to it’s current position;
at the foot of Dead Mans Hill and a new Church built closer to the village
center. Therefore it is probable that the ‘lost’ town of Cainhoe physically
and phonetically mutated into the current village of Clophill.
The Church of St. Mary’s, somehow kept going until the middle of the
last century but sometime during the 1950’s, it fell into disuse.

Clophill Echoes
More info and pictures of Cainho here




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[brilliant guest]

Did you know there was a band called Clophill?
I think they are an industrial gothic techno band from belgium. They also have an album titled dead mans hill, which exists only a mile from clophill church.
I also saw it featured on the net-goth website.

[werewolf]

A Return to Clophill Church
On sunday (May 23rd 2004 )

Spon ( to the left), Hughie Byrne ( on the right, photographic artist ) and Matt Love ( Scotish Film Director, who took the pic!) made a trek to the deepest depths of the occult landscape's of Bedfordshire,UK. namelly Clophill and its mysterious ruined church.

Of course, this is the location of the photo on the front cover of ' The Black 45' which was taken in the Fall 1979,nearly 25 years ago!

Here is Spon posing he is probablly wondering what the other three guys are up to!

It was a pleasant afternoon and the guys took some good shots and marvelled at the combinations of a bright evening light and Urban and Occult graffiti that carressed the multi structured layers of red sandstone masonary of the ruins.
Of there being a certain resonance to the 'sense of place'. Well on a nice sunny day with tourists and dogwalkers enjoying the sunshine it would be difficult to detect the legendry negative or haunted vibes! but as the evening progressed and the sun made its exit the guys made a 'sharp exit'!
As they were leaving, a large white Owl was suprised and flew rapidlly out of the bell tower. The guys gave chase with the cameras cliking but it was too fast for them! Later the same Owl was ducking and diving in the fields next to the lane, perhaps he was out for his evening meal!.
We all had the impression that the bell tower of the church was its Domain and what a fine Gaurdian spirit providing your not a field mouse or vole!
Having told our welsh 'seer' about this, he told us that it was a good omen!..we shall see.


Oh yes we saw our second Magpie of the day a bit further on down the lane!..thank goodness!

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[PJ]

Here is a picture of clophill taken 2003, you can see the shaman cleansing the place croached down in deep meditaion he felt very sick when he arrived here but managed to chase away some of the duppies that where hanging around the place. And he attempted to free up the blocked ley lines that run through the place..

[PJ]

Latest Investigations at Clophill church
[/b]

[PJ]

Lutons new paranormal society

[PJ]

Sandy Toxic goes to Leap Castle in Ireland believed by many to be the most haunted building in Europe

About 3/4 of the way through there is a strange voice on this bbc radio4 show

[werewolf]

Return to Clophill Chuirch[url=http://www.ukdecay.co.uk/mp3/CLOPHILLWEB7MEGS.mov]

Return To Clophill Church[/url]
Matty Hughie and Spon return to Clophill Church
A small video edited by Hugh Byrne
Music..'Rama Theo'..by 'THC'..
please note ..Quicktime is required for this to run
and ideally DSL web connection
Will take about 3 mins to load up!
WATCH MOVIE

The Clophill movie on Youtube

Further Clophill Church Links..
Clophill Church on Google Earth
easupernatural
Geo-Caching
Ex Witch Australia
Institute of Paranormal Research
Wiccan Tradition
Mysterious Britain



Check out the 'City of the Ravens' thread!

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[James Dean]

Hi everyone my name is james and within the hour i have just returned from Clophill. Me and my mate, colin, thought it would be funny to just have a laugh..
so.. we left luton at 6:30pm and arrived at clophill roughly around seven. we was all cammed up and we could barely see eachother.
anyways..
We hid the car in the 'secret location' which you can easily see the church from. We made our way up to the church through a discreet, hidden path. We had to make sure that there was no-one around. So, we had a sweep around the area. After we were certian it was clear, we began to work.
We managed to find two china plates, two beer bottles, a take-away box and some plastic bottles. We then decided to make a dinner party in the middle of the track.
After we had finished settin that up, we then went to hide and wait for a car to some.
Round about 8:15, we saw headlights coming up the track. We knew that this would be funny.
As the car reached the church, the driver noticed the dinner party in the middle of the track. Trying not to laugh, we got closer to the car. The car was a Vauxhall Vectra.
Four people got out of the car and they made their way to the back of the church. Colin came up with an idea. We moved all of the stuff from the dinner party, to right in front of their car. We then heard voices. They were making their way back to the car.
Colin and I then both hid behind a mound. All we could hear was "F**king Hell! DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!!"
As the car sped off down the path, Colin and I were in stitches of laughter.
We then set up the tea party in the middle of the road again waiting for our next victims.
About 9:00pm, we heard another car pull up the track. Colin and I then hid behind the mound.
The car pulled up right beside the mound and the dinner party. Colin, then pulled out his sligshot and picked up a small stone. He then fired the slingshot, and the stone pinged the front door window. The car didn'd hesitate to speed off. All we could see was a pair of red lights turning a bend. We both were in fits! It was soo funny!

After another half an hour, we packed up our stuff and then left the church, making our way back to Luton.

The End

.....Or is it?