Canewdon Church

We’ve visited Canewdon church a few times now and we find the location a little spooky. However, we’re yet to experienced something unexplainable. We have heard a few noises, which sound unusual, but we have come to the conclusion that it’s the wind blowing through the fins at the top of the church tower.

Canewdon, in Essex, has gained the reputation of being the most haunted place in the U.K. The village has been long associated with historic witches and witchcraft; as well as the occult and paranormal phenomena, which includes ghosts and much other unexplained activity.

The church (the 12th century Church of St. Nicholas) appears to be the focus of events and even has folk-lore attached to it – if you run round it three times in an anti-clockwise direction on Halloween, you will travel backwards in time. This has added to the reputation of the church being a portal to other dimensions.

Another part of the church’s folk-lore relates to the occult. Being a hotbed for witchcraft, it was claimed that any female novice seeking membership of the dark coven had to dance round the church twelve times at midnight; by doing so, she summoned the devil who appeared in order to perform her initiation into the sisterhood. Occult indeed.

Legends and witches have another twist here. If you see a stone fall from the church tower, you can be certain that a witch has died, but another has replaced her in her coven.