Canewdon Church
Canewdon church, or St. Nicholas church as it should be called, is located in the small village of Canewdon in deepest rural Essex, England. It was built in the 12th century with its tower having been built by Henry V to mark his victory at the battle of Agincourt. The church stands proud at the top of a hill overlooking the village. The whole village of Canewdon has had more than its fair share of ghost sitings, ranging from horseman being seen down country lanes to witches being seen at Halloween. I myself in fact, grew up not too far down the road from Canewdon, and have heard of numerous accounts of ghost sitings and witchcraft in the area. Legend has it that if a woman dances around the church at midnight on halloween, the devil will appear! However, I personally believe that a lot of things associated with this church are myth but not all of them. I believe that there are some ghosts that walk the church because there have been many seperate accounts of the same type of events. There are three ghosts which I do think exist in Canewdon, The first being the 'Old Hag'. This ghost is reputedely meant to be the spirit of someone executed for witchcraft. Secondly, the 'Grey Lady' is meant to be a ghost that roams the graveyard on clear nights. Thirdly, a small girl has been seen on several occasions at the end of the vicarage driveway.
The investigation
Because of all its history we simply had to investigate the area. there were three of us in the team on this occasion, Tony, Dave(psychic), and myself. During the investigation we used photography, infra red filming and E V P recording. During the investigation all three of us felt as if there was an uneasy presence in certain places of the church. I myself saw on two occasions a small misty form go past me fairly quickly. The others also had similar experiences. At one point in the night, there was a rapid drop in temperature and this also coincided with the misty sightings. When we got back to review the evidence, there was nothing visual caught on camera but on two occasions we have picked up EVP. The first was at the start of the night, just as I was setting up the camera. The noise was of a groan just after I had spoken. The second recording we took was in amongst some headstones. We placed the camera on top of a crypt and left it alone for about twenty minutes. When we reviewed the tape, there was a whispery voice saying what we think is 'soon be back'. It wasn't any of us as no one was near the camera. Anyway this evidence will be shown on the ghost hunter extraordinaire site. We intend to return to Canewdon soon for more investigations!
The return trip
Above is a few pics of some of the team by the church. This was a strange night as it did feel oddly comfortable. Nothing was actually captured on film this time but there was a very unusal event that happened whilst the cameras weren't rolling. The three of us there decided to conduct a bit of a meditation, basicly to try and get in tune with the place. A couple of minutes into it , Tony and Dave (pictured above left) jumped only to see a large dark mass in front of us. As soon as this mass realised we had seen it, it bolted as quick as you can imagine in total silence. What was it? We are still not sure, possibly a phantom, ghost shadow or really anything our minds cant comprehend. If anyone else has had similar experiences, let me know fishingfanatic@btinternet.com.
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