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After visiting Whorlton Castle, where I spoke to someone who informed myself of another location nearby alleged to be Haunted I decided to take a look. The witness only spoke to myself informing me that he had saw an intruder in the said Graveyard and entered to make sure it was not a vandal. He followed the intruder along a footpath but when he approached the door of the derelict church the figure simply vanished into thin air. I am not a big believer in visiting Graveyards as I often feel most of it is in the persons imagination, (That does not mean however Ghosts or Spirits cannot be witnessed), but on this occasion I had no reason to doubt the witnesses testimony, and decided to follow it up. I had no expectations whatsoever feeling nothing would be found, How wrong can one be. I have heard a tale of this Graveyard before regarding alleged Witchcraft or Devil Worship taking place. So once we finished at Whorlton we got back in our cars and drove to the said location.
Present from AGH; Mark, Jazz, Andy, Alan we were also also joined By Des.
We arrived at the Graveyard only to discover there were at least four entrances, so we were unsure as to which one our witness had seen the intruder through, I decided to go through the first entrance and work our way around, possibly trying the other entrances later on. We made our way through until we reached the remains of the derelict church, finding the church dates to the twelth century. The graveyard is still used to this day and the chancel which is still in tact serves as a mortuary chapel. The building itself consisted of chancel with a chapel on the north side, a nave, with north and south aisles, and a tower on the south side forming a porch. The nave is now entirely dismantled, the aisle walls now disappeared, although the arcades still stand. The chancel is said to have been rebuilt and lengthened c.1300, and the tower dates from c.1400. The chapel on the north side of the chancel was eventually pulled down in the year 1877.
I knew we had reached the area our witness had seen the intruder simply vanish, as we stood for a while taking some photographs whilst we did. It was very peaceful as one would expect it to be. We were drawn through one of the arches to a headstone that had a skull and crossbones on, as some of the team had never seen one like this before. I/Mark wandered to the far end of the church to take some more photos, when suddenly as I raised his arm to do so, I was disturbed by the sound of someone or something being directly to my right side, as I looked to find nothing I heard a very unusual 'Growl' yes a Growl. Knowing what I have heard before of this place I told the team it was time to leave, As we made our way out both Andy and Des then also heard a Growling sound, this was followed by four heavy footsteps which I heard myself. When vacated the Graveyard making our way back to the cars, when our attention was drawn back into the grounds by some movement. We were stood by another of the entrances by now and looking along the footpath there was some movement. I reentered the grounds eager to see what it was, the others stayed by the entrance, I followed the path to a section were two trees overhung one another, when my attention was drawn to my left which ironically was the Church entrance again, I clearly saw a figure walk to the door and vanish. Trying in vain to photograph it but sadly nothing has shown on the photos much to my disappointment and yours.
Realising very quickly I was now back near to where I heard the sound, that remaining so was not best thing to do, not until I have had time to research it further anyway, I made my way back to the others. We stayed for another half hour observing the footpaths whilst discussing what had happened. Then left.
Since then this is
what I have been able to find out:
Folklore tradition
says churchyards are guarded from both the Devil and Witches by a spirit taking
the form of a big black dog, there are variations of this tale, the more widely
known is that when a new churchyard was opened, it was strongly believed that
the first man buried there was given the duty of protecting the bodies against
the Devil and Witches. Some people believed in order to save the human soul
from this duty, a pure black dog was buried in the north part of the graveyard
as a formidable substitute.. Most who saw it took it as a death omen. Folklorists
believe this to be a foundation sacrifice pointing out that the Kyrkogrim of
Sweden takes the form of a lamb, because in early Christianity in Sweden, a
lamb would be buried under the altar, whereas in Denmark the Kirkegrim takes
the form of a grave-sow. Yorkshire folklorists say that in Yorkshire churches
the grim can often be seen wandering about the churchyard during dark stormy
weather, be it day or night. It is also said the grim is responsible for the
tolls of the bell at midnight prior to a death, and during the funeral clergyman
would see them looking out from the tower, by observing the Grim’s posture
they could tell whether the soul of that corpse was destined for Heaven or Hell.
According to a source I spoke to, during some dark ritualistic practice they replaced the Guardian protector with a demonic black beast during a Satanic ritual, both dogs would then engage in battle, the winner becoming the new keeper of the graveyard !! Some say this would never happen with Witchcraft or Devil Worship taking place in a Graveyard due to it being Consecrated ground, but it would and has, we even know that Witchcraft and Devil worship have been discovered within the church in England more than once, with parishioners and the clergy taken part in Satanic Practices.
FINAL THOUGHT: HEARING A SOUND I WOULD HAVE NEVER HAVE EXPECTED TO HEAR. LEAD MY INSTINCTS TO THINK OF THE SAFETY OF THE TEAM AND LEAVE. UNTIL WE KNEW OR UNDERSTOOD MORE ON THE PARTICULAR SUBJECT. NO MATTER WHAT YOUR BELIEF IS ON DEMONIC NO POSSIBILTY WHOULD EVER BE DISREGARDED AND NO TEAM MEMBER SHOULD BE PUT IN DANGER.