This article examines the esoteric elements contained within the structure of St Mary’s Church, Chilton (near Sudbury), Suffolk and, the surrounding landscape, using historical records, site observations and contextual folklore. It does not attempt to prove paranormal causation, but documents what can and cannot be examined from available evidence. It is intended for readers interested in methodological, historical and sceptical approaches to unusual claims.
What began as a quiet attempt to confirm the location of an 1861 in the village quickly spiralled into one of the most surprising discoveries we’ve made at Chilton.
A lost village pond, a sacred circle embedded in the local landscape and, an avenue appearing to offer safe transit for those who held the secret.
Whispers of something deliberately hidden in plain sight.
In this article we’ll discuss what we’ve uncovered and, our musings as we work towards the goal of unravelling the truth. Come and join us on this journey. We welcome any thoughts you, yourself may have. If so and, you wish to discuss further, please contact us using the email address at the foot of the page.
The search for the location of the 1881 exorcism and, the lost pond.
Our first focus was naturally to attempt to locate the location of the exorcism. We’ve had previous successes in the past in tracing lost sites, so we felt this was entirely possible as we knew from David Burnetts’ account (1) the evil spirit lived near a pond “by the church”.
Sure, Burnett himself, in his book, identified the pond as one of the fish ponds situated in the grounds of Chilton Hall, but for us this doesn’t hold any water (see what we did there…….), the fish ponds are almost half a mile away.
In the context we were looking at, half a mile could not be regarded as close in any stretch of the imagination. However, to our frustration, upon examining the maps and aerial photographs, we could find no pond nearer.
Reaching out to our friend and fellow researcher Jason, I asked him if he knew of any ponds located close to St Marys’? Sadly, he replied to the negative, the fish ponds at Chilton Hall were the closest he knew of.
However, after thinking a little more, he advised the old caretaker, now sadly passed, in a conversation many years ago, had pointed out to him the location of where a pond had once been, near to the gate exiting the burial ground, on the north side of the church.
The old caretaker, when he was very young, had been told of this by the farmer at that time, when he had been complaining that he couldn’t grow anything there, at this spot.
Jason then went on to say that even today, the area is like a boggy marsh at times and, he could not recall any crops ever being grown there and, he had lived in the area all his life until relatively recently.
Interestingly, I myself, after studying the maps, suspected it was near this area and, I couldn’t help but remind Jason it was looking towards the area of the former pond, that ‘Old Bluey’ was captured by him back in 2002.
Furthermore, as I was later to rediscover when reading back Laura’s Remote Viewing session from 2016 – it was near the copse of trees where Laura sensed ‘shadows’ watching, observing, from within the trees.
I also want to mention at this point, it had been noted many times over the years, the wind seemed to rise violently, during ‘calling out’ sessions held there, in spite of it being calm when the sessions started.
This had been observed many times and indeed commented by investigators in the past.
I asked Jason if it was possible to send me an aerial image of the location, with the area of the former pond marked out.
Just to make it more interesting, I thought I could just make out the location via ‘shading’ I could see on Google Earth, along with other features nearby, so I told Jason I would send this to him first, before he sent me the position of the former pond, to see if they coincide.
Perhaps it did not come as any surprise to both of us, the locations matched.
The pond had been located outside the northern perimeter of the church, to the left of the current north east entrance to the graveyard and was on the opposite side of the gate to where the copse of trees stood, to the right of the gate, where Laura had indicated ‘the shadows watch’.
In addition, as later research was to reveal and, as we will discuss later in this article, it was located on the former village green.
What we had just uncovered was a medieval church, next to a (duck) pond, sat on a village green, which was perhaps the archetypical image of the English countryside.
Only this one had an evil spirit now residing in the pond.
Looking back over our research notes, all this only appeared to confirm to us the pond where the evil spirit was rudely deposited following the exorcism was indeed near to the church, where the photograph of ‘Old Bluey’ had been taken, where the Devil overlooked, from his position within the north east window of the Crane Chapel and, the ‘shadows’ watched from the copse nearby.
A lost Village Green
Moving away from the pond for a moment, during my researches I came across an interesting bit of information in that we are now, in contemporary times, looking at the layout of the church and, the wider landscape, back to front.
Our research revealed the church originally sat on the edge of a village green, marked as ‘Church Green’, on an1840 Tithe Map, which lay immediately to the north of the building.
This meant the lost pond, sat just outside the boundary of the church, be located on what was the village green. (2)
Clearly, historically, the lost pond was in reality the village pond, matching the classical setup of a quintessential English Village as I alluded to previously. I pondered over how many people visiting the church today was actually aware of original layout of the landscape surrounding the church?
When viewed in this context, the 1861 exorcism clearly carried more gravitas.
To give the reader a better understanding of the original setting of St Marys, I’ve created the following image, from a 2021 aerial photograph, showing the church and, marking out where the village green, lost pond and other interesting features were located, including the avenue:
As you can see from this image, historically, St Mary’s Church and the area immediately surrounding it was a totally different proposition than we are faced with today (and I’ve not even touched upon the original Anglo-Saxon settlement) that also existed, stretching Westwards from the church.
However, the pond and the village green was only the beginning, what I discovered next, quite literally embedded into the landscape, raised our eyebrows a little, to say the least.
As I poured over the maps and aerial images, something else started to emerge, something in the landscape that very few today would recognise or be able to comprehend – an apparent circle, potentially a Ring of Protection, constructed in the landscape immediately to the north of the church.
It became even more apparent to us that Chilton had more secrets to reveal.
A Ring of Protection revealed?
Studying the relevant Ordnance Survey Explorer Map covering the area, attempting to find any trace of the location of the former pond, I realised the ponds in the surrounding area, from cursory inspection at least, appeared to be arranged in a circle, with both the 15th Century Chilton Hall and the church, sitting on the cusp of the circle, appearing on opposing sides.
Curious, I pulled up the respective online version on the map and, created a digital circle linking all the ponds.
My eyes were not deceiving me, there did indeed appear to be an invisible ring, connecting the ponds, including the ‘lost pond’, where the evil spirit had been disposed of following the 1861 exorcism.
I noted as with Chilton Hall, the church was just outside of this circle. However, in the back of my mind, something rang a bell. I frantically searched through my files for the original transcript of Laura’s 2016 remote viewing experiment.
My memory had served me well.
During the exercise, in relation to the 4th photograph viewed, Laura had picked up upon a number of children, one in particular being a young boy, aged around 7 or 8, who she ‘viewed’ sat on a small pile of stones or broken memorials, that could be seen in the left side of the image.
Laura felt that this boy was sat there, all of the time, watching.
At this point, Laura was receiving the phrase ‘within the ring’, repeatedly and, when I had asked Laura if this was why the boy was watching, she didn’t answer directly, just that he (the boy) was ‘outside of the ring’.
Back then, in spite of undertaking some deep research, we still had no idea what this ring the ‘boy’ was referring to. Was it a ring of graves, a ring of trees? Laura didn’t believe so.
Now, 9 years later, did we finally have the answer? Did a voice from the past provide validation of what we were now observing? A circle or, more correctly a Ring of Protection?
Was this all just coincidence or, something more deliberate at play? All we knew for now was after our discovery with ‘Old Bluey’, no stone could be left unturned anymore. And, there were more secret to be revealed.
The guarded path to Chilton
During the search for the pond, it also became noticeable, particularly in the older aerial photographs we had at our disposal, there was an avenue of trees leading from Chilton Hall directly to St Mary’s Church, grazing the Ring itself as it passed, as if seemingly offering a safe path between the Hall and the Church.
A route guarded by an avenue of trees, a scenic pathway affording a little protection from the elements and, perhaps, a lot more as I was soon to find out.
Today, the avenue appeared to be part of a track leading from the road to Chilton Hall, but it clearly stood out as something that was of different construction to the more modern section.
Curious, having never visited the avenue in all the occasions I’ve been at the site, I went back to Jason and asked if he could recall the type of trees used to form the avenue and, was it an earthen track or, a metalled path? Unfortunately, he couldn’t be certain but, he strongly believed they were mainly limes.
As for the path itself, he confirmed it was still an earthen path.
Upon hearing this, I wondered if there was any significance in the use of limes for an avenue and made a mental note to revisit Chilton as soon as we could, if only just to establish definitively the composition of the avenue.
It didn’t take long to establish that indeed there was, finding that avenues of lime trees, in England at least, had been associated with various occult and mystical beliefs over the centuries, where they had long been associated with protection.
I could continue to wax lyrically on the subject, but this would serve little to progress my research at this point, at least until we’d been able to establish for certain what the situation was.
An occult connection?
The combination of a ring, created in the landscape via ponds and lakes, in addition to a sacred avenue, does seemingly enhance the locations’ overall occult resonance at least.
In many esoteric traditions, the circle, or ring, is a symbol of wholeness, eternity and, of course, protection. In some ways it can be seen as a sacred boundary between different realms.
When water bodies such as lakes and ponds form a circle they often represent a natural ‘magic circle’, in effect a liminal space, where the veil between worlds is believed to be thinner.
In this case, with the church sitting on the circumference, it could even suggest it may have been placed in such a location of natural energetic importance, to serve as a spiritual anchor.
Meanwhile, the manor house positioned directly opposite on the rings’ edge creates a striking duality, something we’ve also observed with the hidden face in the elbow of the blue devil in the medieval stained glass in the Crane Chapel, which we’ve discussed previously.
This repeated duality could perhaps, symbolises the balance or tension between the sacred (St Mary’s Church) and, the secular (Chilton Hall).
There’s also the suggestion this kind of geometric alignment, whether intentional or interpreted through the lens of occult symbolism, can only reinforce the idea that the landscape itself is charged with ritual significance.
Did our ancient ancestors create a ritual landscape that the Crane family rediscovered in the late 15th Century and tapped into for their own means? Was it again utilised in recent years by 20th Century occultists? Sadly, in spite of all this information, I could find no definitive record the avenue was designed with occult rituals in mind.
However, its’ very presence at Chilton only amplified the mystical ambiance of the location. It transformed the space into a kind of threshold or boundary, which, as we know, is common theme in occult symbolism, a place where the ordinary world meets a more enigmatic, possibly supernatural realm.
However, whilst we cannot find any evidence at the moment, all this resonates with local accounts and folklore, which often view such natural alignments as significant.
Ultimately, whilst we cannot say with any certainty medieval builders (or their master) designed the site with occult rituals in mind. These kinds of natural alignments and symbolic placements often invite interpretations of mystical energy and sacred geometry in folklore and indeed modern occult thought.
Reflection
As discussed previously, I’ve been familiar with the location for over 20 years now, with frequent visits, especially in the early days when I was living more locally, whilst Laura has only made occasional visits in the last couple of years, apart from a brief visit back in 2007.
However, in spite of my familiarity with the site, I’ve never really had an interest in it. Sure, others have based their (paranormal) reputations upon it, but for myself, it just didn’t hold any appeal and, if I’m completely honest, still doesn’t really.
Interest, if any, has purely been restricted to the academic historical side, the quest to unravel a possible ancient (and not so ancient) mystery if you like.
When we became re-immersed in the location in 2016, with Laura’s remote viewing session, it presented itself differently to us, no longer was it a cold, inhospitable red brick building that had seen better days, it was now revealing it’s place in history, the importance it held in the lives of the Crane family and, perhaps a hint of a much deeper mystery, that we didn’t comprehend at the time.
As the location opened itself up to us, which I’ve covered in the previous articles in the series, it caused mixed emotions – the facts, its’ secrets (those which we’ve discovered so far at least, stared back at us, but there was still a reluctance to truly accept them. Indeed, when I discussed some of them with Jason, he expressed his own doubts, which we can completely understand, were we just creating a narrative from a few scattered seeds?
However, when diving into the High Strange, you have to be open to the facts you find and, where it is pointing you to go.
Is what we’ve uncovered so far just coincidental? Possibly, but how many coincidences do you really need before you come around to accept, actually, these aren’t coincidences?
For Laura and I at least, these coincidences we are uncovering are leading us somewhere, the question being where exactly
Only time will tell.
Epilogue
As tends to be the usual practice for us, I rarely reveal the subject matter of any research I undertake nor, the details of to Laura, until either she specifically requests information or, I feel it would aid further progress of our research.
This is to avoid the research influencing, even at a sub-conscious level, anything Laura may ‘sense’ or ‘receive’. So naturally we’ve come to the conclusion it is best for myself to undertake the research independently.
And so it was with this research, Laura only had an idea I was researching ‘something’ but as to what exactly, she had no idea.
A couple of days in, I started to ramp down the research. As I’ve mentioned previously, it was not a location I had any particular affinity with – I just needed to take a break and a change of scenery.
But Chilton wasn’t done with us yet.
Then, right on cue, Laura let me know she’d received a vision, a symbol that she wasn’t familiar with (AI approximation below). It was likely, based upon previous ‘visions’ received by Laura when I was researching in the past, linked to Chilton.
The chase had resumed, we really needed to make a location visit. Urgently.
Whatever watches from the shadows still wants to be seen.
Laura and Mark
Our other articles in the series:
Remote Viewing of Redundant Church (St Marys, Chilton) Suffolk Click Here
Validation visit to St Marys, Chilton, Suffolk Click Here
Further research at Chilton – a blue Devil and Victorian Exorcism Click Here
Analysis of photographic anomaly captured at Chilton, Suffolk (Click Here)
References
(1) Chilton -the first three thousand years – David Burnett – p.86 (Pub. 2015)
(2) Chilton- the first three thousand years – David Burnett – p.16 (Pub. 2015)
This article may be cited or referenced for non-commercial research with attribution.
