Canewdon is a little village in Essex, which is believed to have been a centre of Witchcraft.  The village is  set on a hill, and is claimed to be the site of an ancient camp used by a Danish King by the name of 'Canute the great', during a battle during his invasion of Essex in 1013.   which is where the name Canewdon is understood to have originated from.

   It has a twelfth century church called St. Nicholas which is said to be haunted by a 'grey lady',  who wanders the graveyard on moonless nights, together with reports of an apparition of a young girl (possibly the same 'lady') having been  seen waiting at the end of the vicarage driveway, next to the graveyard entrance.    

   Legend has it that while the church tower stands, there will always be  six witches living in Canewdon and Local folklore says if you walk anticlockwise around the church seven times on Halloween you will see a witch, and if you walk around it thirteen times you will disappear. The folklore  probably came from a George Pickingill who lived in the village during the late 19th century, apparently still practising pagan rituals in the church grounds. There are only a few old houses left in the village, most houses now there were built in the mid sixties. 

   There are lots of ghost stories surrounding the village, mostly centred around the church. The most famous being the grey lady who reportedly floats down from the church's west gate towards the river Crouch.

   This obviously makes the village a very popular destination at Halloween, so the police have been known to seal off the village to non-residents at this time.

 

Weather - Warm and Dry Evening with clear skies in May 2009

Investigators - Jackie, Bill, Paul and Donna

   When we arrived we decided to have a walk around to see what was in the village and to try and get a 'feel' of the area. We stopped off at the local pub which was friendly and welcoming and nicely decorated with witches. The food smelt good and seemed a popular place to eat, unfortunately we arrived too late to sample any.

  We then walked up to the church of St. Nicholas but found the gates locked in the evenings which was a little disappointing, so we couldn't  walk around the grounds. But we did spend quite a bit of our time by the gates which did feel a little spooky at times and we got some good photos.

   There were also some old Stocks outside the church but these were in a shed which was also locked up for the night.

   We then walked to the village pond where we were told it was used to drown witches. It was beside the road and hard to pick up anything as there was a small amount of traffic. Or could have been due to the possibility of it being an old wife's tale or the villagers having a joke with us. Although we did get this interesting photo, with a large orb and what looks like a face in the reeds.

   The strongest draw for us was towards the church, so we decided to go back and spend more time by the gates and takes as many photos as we could. There are two entrances, one by the stocks and the other one you could only get to by walking out of the village, around lots of houses and along a country lane. This one felt by the team to possibly have the most activity. We started to get some interesting photo's but unfortunately two community support officers arrived as they had seen lots of flashes from our cameras, so we decided to end the nights investigation.  The officers were very friendly and didn't have a problem with us investigating. In fact they spent over an hour with us talking about the different stories associated with Canewden, together with it's history and sharing their own experiences which turned out to be very interesting.  One of the officers was telling us of his experience by the gate in our photo.  The community support officers have to check the gates are locked and everything is secure around the church and vicarage each evening. Apparently one evening while he was doing his normal rounds, he saw a figure near the garden shed but it disappeared towards the gate as he approached it. He said the figure seem to disappear as quickly as it appeared and frightened him, but that he still has an open mind in regards to the paranormal.

 

                                   

   The above photos were taken by Jackie, one after the other all within a minute. They have been cut to try and show as much detail of the mist as possible. As you can see the mist starts to build and by the third photo becomes very strong, together with a large orb appearing but in the fourth it has all completely disappeared again. The interesting thing is that after research we found that sightings have been reported here. (The end of the vicarage driveway)

The above photo was taken by Donna around the same time as those above. As you can see there is an orb or about the same size but in a higher position.

        

   We will return to Canewdon during the day time at some point. It would be nice to have a look around the inside of the church and its grounds. Together with a nice meal in the pub there.

 

2nd Visit

   Investiagtors - Jackie, Bill, Paul, Donna, Kevin, Steve and Cindy.

   Weather - Warm, dry summers night with clear skies in August 2009.

   We returned to Canewden during the afternoon to visit the Church as it is closed at dusk.

   It was a nice dry day as we drove to Canewden. We parked the cars and walked to St. Nicholas church. As we entered the church a few of the group felt they were very unwelcome. The atmosphere felt heavy and cold, which is often the case with large empty buildings.

   There were quite a few visitors but we took as many photos as we could.

   Whilst standing in the pulpit, Jackie felt the presence of a man, of medium build who had suffered a heart condition, which made her breathless. A few of the other members said they also felt something here including Steve who felt a pressure on his head as he got to the 2nd step which stopped him going any further.

   Jackie 'saw' a young man by one of the benches so decided to take some photo's. She captured three orbs in different spots in the same area. These can be seen on the orb page.

   Paul 'saw' a group of people male and female standing looking out one of the windows onto the grounds, this was felt by other members of the team. The temperature also dropped at this location.

 The heaviness of the church seem to lift gradually during our time there, but didn't show any real activity.

 The strange thing was Jackie, Paul and Steve had all fully charged their camera's, yet they all drained at the same time in almost the same location. Paul changed his batteries for the spare ones in his pocket and found these here completely dead.

   We left the church, where Donna and Jackie decided to walk around the outside to see if anything what happen regarding the folk tales. Needless to say it didn't. But then it wasn't Halloween. LOL

   We wandered around taking more photo's before going to the local pub for something to eat. Unfortunately it wasn't as nice as we'd expected and were rather disappointed.

   After we eat we walked around the village again and back up to the church, where it was now, locked and bolted. We then walked to the 2nd gate, where we had been lucky with photos on our previous visit. We didn't get any smoky pictures this time, but did get these two of an orb by the gate, which is interesting as it is in the same spot as the mist and orbs were captured on our last visit.

   

 

Conclusion - We enjoyed both visits to Canewden, it's a lovely old village with friendly residents. Various members picked up on spirit and we did get a few interesting photos of a mist which we can't explain, which were in a reported 'haunted' area.