Bonus Episode Photos: A visit to the black magic church

Posted on by Natalie Doig
A ruined church no roof or glass in the windows, a brown and cream colour with a brown path snaking up to it's open door. There is grass around the ruin and mole hills in the foreground on the right is an ivy covered tree.
Clophill Old Church surrounded by winter trees

The photos shared on this blog follow the content of the New Years Day bonus episode of Weird in the Wade which you can listen to here.

Grass and grave stones against a low hedge then fields sweeping into the distance. Smoke is rising from below and the sky is grey streaked with white. There are winter trees in the middle distance.
View across the fields

The photograph above is of my view from where I sat on the church step looking out east across the fields.

A grave stone below a evergreen tree and a winter one with no leaves in the foreground to the right are trees still with dead brown leaves in them.
The north east graves

These were the graves my eyes kept being drawn to, where I wandered after resting on the church steps.

The church glimpsed between a large ever green tree on the left and low skeletal winter buses on the right. The door way to the church is open and a dark interior doorway and then mottled paler markings above it can give the impression of a figure in the door way. You may also see other figures on the outside of the door in paler stones.
Can you see the giant?

This was my view of the church when pareidolia made me mistake markings on the wall within the door way for a giant figure. If you try not to focus on the image or screw your eyes up you may get the same effect I did.

A muddy path curving to the right surrounded by low winter vegetation in browns, yellows and greens above which are old winter trees with green ivy, and lichen on them. Above the lane is a grey sky.
Old Church Path heading up to the ruin
A muddy lane curving to the left flanked by tall hedges and skeletal trees. The sky above is grey with a splash of white low down at the end of the lane as it turns.
Old Church Path going away from the ruin

The two above photos are of the Old Church Path leading up to the ruined church and give a good impression of the atmosphere that walk to the church has. The high hedges and trees can feel claustrophobic.

Looking into the tower from inside the church, There is a window in the tower facing on to trees and sky and a gravel path going into the tower. As the square tower rises there is another window showing the interior spiral staircase and cage at the top of the tower. The image is dark and oppressive.
The tower

This is the view into tower from inside the roofless church.

Mottled plaster with lichen and moss growing in breaks in it. In the centre a faint red Maltese cross within a red circle.
Intact Maltese Cross on plaster
A partial Maltese Cross faintly painted on to plaster which is breaking away meaning the right hand side of the cross is missing. Next to the paster are dark stones in gravelly mortar.
Partial Maltese Cross on plaster

Here are the two Maltese Crosses daubed onto the remaining plaster. These types of symbols were popular in medieval times and drawn on the plaster of churches later whitewashed over during the reformation or during the 17th century. These crosses first came to light in 1963 when evidence of rituals and desecration were found at the church. Were the crosses drawn on the walls then in 1963 or had the cold winter of 1963 exposed the plaster for the first time in the ruin?

A small arch way with a step which is bricked up in more modern grey brick inside the church. below it is gravel and grass.
A bricked up doorway

Here’s the archway which has been bricked up. Was it a doorway into a cupboard or ante room?

The corner of an entrance into the church. On a large rectangular grey stone, lines, zigzags, diamonds and V shaped have been drawn. On a separate stone a P has been carved.
Markings etched into the stones of the church walls

The church walls are covered in etched initials and symbols some of the symbols could be old, witch marks, or charms etched into churches to encourage good fortune, protection and plentiful harvests. Many are clearly modern engravings of initials and love hearts.

The ruined church taken from slightly below it with the grass mound it sits on rising. The empty windows line up so that you can see straight through both of them to the winter trees beyond. The square tower is jagged. It is surrounded by winter trees and the sky above is grey with white clouds daubed across it like finger prints.
A final view of the church

A final view of the church against a dramatic grey sky.

If you’d like to see more photographs of St Mary’s check out my Flickr album here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB8H44

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Published by Natalie Doig

"Science and sorcery." It's a quote from a beekeeper I saw on the TV, about how he sees the work he does keeping bees, a balance between science and sorcery. For me it also sums up my experience of life, my interests and my outlook. I love photography which is a perfect blend of science and sorcery, using light and technology to create magical images. But when I'm not taking photos you'll find me making the podcast Weird in the Wade. I'm also often to be found writing, reading, knitting, riding my mountain bike or drinking coffee watching the world go by. By day I fight for disability rights, equality and inclusion for all.

1 thought on “Bonus Episode Photos: A visit to the black magic church”

  1. Just a thought, but the ‘Maltese’ crosses could have been part of The Stations of the Cross. Some Churches have detailed scenes or pictures depicting them, but some older churches (and a few modern one) just have crosses (14 in number) painted at intervals around the interior of the Church, by way of a devotional aid during the Passiontide. That there is evidently more than one cross suggests to me that that’s what they are.

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