'Invisible evil' felt by visitors at Norfolk church

Joan Forman wrote a number of books about the paranormal, including The Mask of Time (about timeslips), The Haunted South, Royal Hauntings, Haunted Royal Homes and The Golden Shore, a book about first-hand experiences of near-death and death-survival.

She also wrote Haunted East Anglia, in 1974, which included within it a tale of her own.

A member of the Society for Psychical Research, Forman spent a large portion of her life investigating the paranormal, collecting date through on-site investigation and personal interviews.

Her story is from the autumn of 1971: she had moved to Norfolk from Lincolnshire in January of the same year and had not had time to explore much of the county.

When a friend visited for an October weekend, the pair set out on a drive from west of Norwich along a quiet road towards Breckland.

It is possible to work out which village she is speaking of when she describes feeling frightened and oppressed by “active and evil hostility” but it is home to many and Weird Norfolk does not reveal locations in such circumstances.

Joan describes driving and finally finding a quaint Norfolk village complete with pretty cottages, a village green and a welcoming church. They parked on the road near the green and started to walk.

Things immediately began to feel slightly strange: the picturesque cottages looked neglected at close quarters, and many were empty – so they headed for the church.

“We entered the building, stood for several seconds at the bottom of the nave, and then slowly began to walk up it,” she wrote.

“At first, all I felt was a sense of dampness and cold, then I recognised it as something more. There was an oppressive quality in the atmosphere, and whatever the oppression was, grew as the seconds ticked by.

“I glanced at Mary. She had ceased looking at pews and floor inscriptions and was standing stock still in the middle of the nave, a frown of concentration on her face. Our eyes caught and flicked away.

“She said: ‘It’s not very pleasant in here, is it?’. It was far from pleasant, and was getting less so every minute.”

The pair walked up towards the chancel – the part of the church near the altar which is reserved for the clergy and choir during a service – in order to see if the dark feeling would vanish.

A woman praying (Image: Pixabay)

“Instead, it grew more concentrated,” wrote Joan, “by the time we stood in the chancel, the sensation of oppression had changed to one of active and evil hostility. It was almost insupportable.”

Joan’s friend Mary fled, running down the aisle and out of the building. But Joan was made of sterner stuff and stayed still for two or three minutes.

“…once she had left, the full force of the concentration seemed focused on me. It was quite impossible to stay in the place, and I hurried out after my friend,” she wrote.

“Mary, who was waiting for me outside the church door, asked me what I thought we had encountered, but I had no more idea that she, not knowing the history of the place.

“All we knew was that we had experienced some malevolent force. The fact that it was a church apparently made no difference to its power.”

More was to come. Shell-shocked, the friends made their way back to the car as quickly as possible, keen to put distance between them and the evil they had felt in the village.

“But the inexplicable had happened there, also,” wrote Joan, “the roof and bonnet of the car were covered with a rash of green spots or dropping, the liquid being of a sticky, glutinous substance.

“Had it been red, one would have concluded it was blood. The drops ran down the windscreen and windows and were fairly resistant to me attempts to wipe them off.”

Far from other cars, trees or houses and with no one else in sight, the pair agreed they had never seen a substance of a similar kind, or colour.

Joan ‘s friend was quick to come to a conclusion about what had happened.

“My friend’s reaction was that of a Norfolk woman born and raised in a mysterious county, who after many years away from it, returns to find conditions unchanged,” she wrote.

“’I think it’s witchcraft,’ Mary said, ‘the county has a reputation for it.’”

Despite her best attempts, Joan was unable to find any explanation for what happened on that autumnal day when a rural idyll turned into something dark and forboding.

Weird Norfolk has also hit somewhat of a brick wall. Although…very close to the church in question, archaeological digs have discovered early Neolithic settlements – an interesting discovery was a stake-hole in the base of a pit which suggested it may have been “…a marker post or that the pit had a ritual origin”.

Might something have been…summoned?

* Do you have a story for Weird Norfolk? Email stacia.briggs@archant.co.uk