Undisclosed Church - Kent

Unfortunately the identity of this venue cannot be disclosed, neither would we want to, as we cannot not condone the activities of others in the future resulting in potential damage to the site and the inconvenience to local residents. When you are trusted and given access to a site such as this you do your best to protect it. We were fortunate to have been contacted and offered access to this location to try to explain the nervous feelings experience by people here, there have also been accounts of items being disturbed overnight and not found as they were left.

What can we say of this venue? Well, all we can say is that it is a church. In fact this report is being typed whilst the author is parked outside it. It’s a sunny day, the views are wonderful but still there is an element of uncertainty being here alone, even during the day. It is a beautiful yet foreboding place at times, and it is also very old. It was first mentioned in the Doomsday Book (1086), which proves that there was a structure on this site since then. There is also a lot of folk law from the surrounding the area and tales of mysterious goings on. We were very much looking forward to investigating what was an unusual venue for Ghost Connections, this was going to be a first for us.

The Investigation

Camcorders:
Sony DCR HC-24E with night vision and Sony HVL-IRM IR light
Sony DCR-HC19 with night vision and Sony HVL- IRM IR light
Digital Camera:
Fuji Fine Pix S5000
Fuji Fine Pix S5500
Fuji Fine Pix S5500
Voice recorder:
Olympus VN-2100PC
Olympus DM20
Other:
IR Emitter Sony HVL-IRM
Tripods
Torches
Video tapes (MiniDV)Investigators:
Ian, Kim, Paddy, and Dave.

Method:
GCUK's normal approach to investigations is purely from a scientific point of view. We were to spend the night as we normally do by starting firstly with some quiet time adjusting to our surroundings and the natural conditions around us, and later on by calling for potential spirit activity in order to provoke what could be termed a "paranormal" response. Then by using our equipment we hoped to capture this either photographically or on audio or video media. We do not usually include in our reports any information of a clairvoyant nature as we do not believe this has valid evidential credibility. However, this may be included if it bears a relevance to an occurrence on the night.

Investigation:
We arrived on a cold, still and foggy night. We had a walk about the exterior of the building then decided it was time to enter. We had been trusted with the key for the night so it was an unnerving experience unlocking the heavy door and entering the church at night solely by torch light. After a brief look around we set up camp at the base of the bell tower. We set up some equipment around the church with Kim’s downloaded choral music gently playing in the background. It was the Kings College choir singing traditional Christmas carols, so being three days before Christmas Day this provided a beautiful yet slightly eerie ambience to the place. Also it had occurred to us that given the time of year, this ambience might provoke a little response.

After setting the audio up Paddy and Kim sat in the adjacent pews while Dave and Ian walked towards the far end. During this time two loud bangs were heard from the area where the audio was set up, which Kim and Paddy investigated. So convinced were they that this was done by someone, Paddy even ventured back outside to look for someone that might have knocked on the door, no one or any reason for this was found.

Whilst in the pews Ian thought he saw movement from the direction of the altar and choir stalls, so this is where we decided to have our first seated session. Dave also felt and saw a sense of movement in the same area.

We took our time to just sit and adjust to the natural noises and atmosphere of the place. Ian and Kim had there backs to the north wall and Dave and Paddy were seated in the south side on the chancel. Paddy had previously taken a picture of Dave by the door and found an odd anomaly in it, therefore, Ian set his cam up on this area during this session.

Part way in Ian noted a sharp quick movement at the far west end of the church by the last pillar, this took his attention for quite some time. Shortly after this Kim thought she could hear breathing. After a few more minutes there was a large audible knock from the same location that was heard by all the team. Dave noticed Ian’s interest and commented that he too had previously had a clairvoyant impression of a man standing in that area. We add a reminder that we do not use clairvoyant information in our reports as a rule but in instances where this links with non-clairvoyant information we feel it is worthy of
note.

We decided to turn the music off and try complete silence, the temperature felt as though it had dropped considerably but for the remainder of this session there was nothing else to note.

After a break we walked slowly around the building towards the area where Ian saw the movement mentioned earlier. There was nothing further to note but as we did Dave felt the urge to walk around and around the pews, talking out aloud and almost preaching as he went. He was in fact calling for activity from those he felt certain were with us and was becoming quite insistent as he went. Needless to say there were no responses and the early excitement and activity seemed to decline. Dave did sense a particular cold area in the pews where he believed someone to be sitting. The team each approached the area and all agreed there was a marked change, so we decided to hold a séance in this area of the pews. Dave, Ian and Kim linked hands, Paddy did not join in, instead choosing to video the séance from outside the circle. Despite numerous requests for activity or communication of some sort nothing was forthcoming.

It was by now the early hours of Sunday morning, and despite our earlier enthusiasm we were all starting to feel fatigued so decided it was time to call it a night, so cleared our equipment packed up and locked the place securely behind us.

But it is interesting that one of the team independently received clairvoyant information about a man who was in the exact location where other members of the team were certain to have seen movement.

Nothing was captured on any of our still pictures, video and audio recordings. The only thing we could loosely call results were of a psychic or clairvoyant kind. However, given GCUK’s mandate of being a scientifically based rather than a spiritual organisation we cannot present these as any form of “evidence” of paranormal activity.