St Bodolphs

If Grace Dieu was uneventful to a newbie such as I in the SPECTA group then St Bodolphs was a baptisim of fire as far as phenomena was concerned. This was an overnight job and quite a fair treck away from Leicester. At the meeting prior to the outing we discussed several reports of investigations that took place there from various groups like ourselves. This promised to be an eventful night by past accounts and although we researched up on the church none of us were prepared for the turn of events from the moment we set foot in the place.


I was very interested in Masonic symbolisim in architecture and was particularly keen to see all the symbols that where inscribed in the stonework and the crude satanic symbols also. As soon as we pulled up to the place I was struck by its complete isolation of its location , well away from any centre of population in fact it stood alone and surrounding it was about a hundred or so acres of wheat fields. There was a beaten path to the gatehouse of the church where we met the Church warden Ralph Benton, 65, who warned us "Satan worshipping has gone on. They come from Grimsby in the evenings, light fires and write symbols on the walls, I have gone to the church at three in the morning to try to move them on, but they swear at me so I don't like to go. I might get knifed'...I had come across such individuals such as satanists in the past before, I did not find them intimidating at all no matter what time of the day it was the only thing I found scary about them was their lack of objectivity.. Anyway St Bodolphs church gained the name as the Demon church as it was regularly used by Satanists in the latter part of the 70's and 80's and in 1998 it looked like it was still a regular place of worship if you'll pardon the pun. I was first to go inside, the church had been subject to mindless vandalism; one of these attacks resulted in the font being pushed from its pillar to shatter on the brickwork floor. The floor itself was covered in dessicated bird skelletons and feathers, hard veins of wax clung to the floor where makeshift altars of bricks lay and poorly painted pentagrams where daubed upon the stone arches. Our Group 'psychic' and the rest of the group went outside to recce the place and I stayed inside. It was still very much daylight and I just wanted to get a general 'feel' for the place. After a few moments or so I thought one of the group had turned on a radio in their car, as I stood under the belfry I could hear a distant beat, a beat that you could only akin to 'rave' music or what I call car alarm music (one sounds the same as the other) but as I listened this seemed to get louder and faster, Like a heart beat, this was too perplexing for me - as I tried reasoning;A we where out in a remote hamlet surrounded by acres of land, B it was a summers evening and there wasnt a mere hint of wind about (the air was like soup with the sultry day that was in it)but as it got louder I also dismissed it could be sound carrying from a parked car somewhere .I went outside, everyone was just chatting opening up their rucksacks, checking for equipment etc I asked them all to step inside and make sure it wasnt me hearing the blood rush inside my head. With no bell in the belfry and no sign of bats up there (still no pun intended)and no wind it was decided with the zero possibilty of the building, wind and tempature making this sound we couldnt explain it. All of a sudden it stopped after a few moments of us all listening. I asked Ralph later about the most 'recent' internments in the graveyard outside where he told me they where unnamed sailors from the war who where washed up on shore and buried there. I wondered if the malevolent forces that where reputed to be here, be a result of their restless souls to be with their kith and kin, who knows I thought..


We waited for the twilight to come and we set up the equipment and did several small vigils.Inside Andrew, John and I set up the video camera , camera and various object tests. In the recess of the church some mist was forming, we were about to dismiss it but looking through the lens we could see tiny flecks of light within the frame and two orbs of light(something which later freaked most of us out when we inspected the footage; apparently what they are discribed as RODS.) As it was a saturday night; the youth of Louth in the linconshire wildes, where the church is located, decided to drive down and inform us that they where the satanists and to leave their church. I was opening the boot of the car to get the traction beam (good ol Johns shop) when two of our guys (ex army) sent the two carloads of drunken gobby youths on their ways when they told them that they where from scotland yard doing an investigation. It was there abouts when the Madness broke out, The psychic whos name escapes me now, we shall call her Beth, started to scream that she was being attacked (by some unseen force)and had fell to the ground- out cold while her husband tried to bring her 'out of it' John grabbed the beam from me and said there was something moving in the wheat fields at incredible rate , he shone the light and several of the group vowed that they seen something like a panther momentarily and one of the army lads roared 'jesus christ!', as he seen a hooded figure by the devils door of St Bodolphs. Beth came to and told us that she felt like she had been badly beaten up and wanted to sit in the car too scared to go back for fear of what might happen her. For about another hour all things seemed to be quite again, and then the noise of the heartbeat started once more. Everyone was really tired and cold and we decided to go home. I guess the scariest thing that happened for me is that John was falling asleep at the wheel of the car on the two hour journey home and we stopped by a cafe for some serious Java for him and respite. Beth came out of the ladies and told us she had a few unexplained bruises on her chest and her back and vowed never again to go back there..I enjoyed the adrenilin charged night and would love to go back there but it seems out of my reach for the moment..

Skidbrooke Church the stripped interior and the missing windows only serve to emphasise the magnificent structure of this church on the great Louth Marsh.The last service was held in 1964 and the church is now in the care of the Redundant Churches Fund.