TOTALLY HAUNTED

COLD CHRISTMAS CHURCH 

The derelict remains of St Mary's and All Saints Church is situated in rural Thundridge, Hertfordshire. Although the building is Grade II listed all that remains is the old stone tower and abandoned graveyard.

These ruins are often known to the locals as Cold Christmas Church, adopting the name of the nearby village of the same name.

Cold Christmas Church dates back to 1086 and was built in the grounds of the estate which was owned by Hugh De Desmaisnil. The church was built and intended for private family use only. The church was eventually demolished in 1853 leaving only the 15th century tower that you can still see there today. The church was said to have been built on the wrong alignment which was North to South instead of East to West like many other churches. Many medieval churches were built in this way and later in time people believed that this was the sign of the devil.  

Along with the ruined tower the graveyard still remains. These have not been maintained over the years, many headstones have fallen down and have been broken. Nature and the elements have now taken over. It has been said that there is a Mausoleum in the graveyard and mass burial graves lie under where the old church once stood.

It is believed that the graves which lie in the abandoned graveyard belong mainly to young children. It is said that one very cold Christmas time, the children of the village were hit the worst by the cold weather and it lead to their deaths. It was after this supposed tragedy the villagers decided to change the name of the village to Cold Christmas.

The church has been well documented as being used by witches to preform certain rituals. it is also said that it has been used by devil worshippers and the occult.

There are many stories of alleged paranormal activity happening in and around the tower. These range from sounds of growling reportedly coming from within the tower, to beep breathy sounds which have often been heard by people around the area of the graves. In 1978 a lady walking through grounds of the church was reported to have come face to face with a marching army. They appeared to have come from come from through the door of the tower and marched up to the lady and straight through her. There are numerous other reports of strange and unexplained things happening in and around the tower. 

We visited Cold Christmas Church during February 2012

Conducting the investigation with me (Lorraine) was Helen and Becky K, and this was Becky’s first investigation with Totally Haunted.

We arrived in Cold Christmas Lane at approximately 2 am. We parked the car and made our way down the track which led to the abandoned and ruined church. It was a very dark night and slightly cold.

Once in the grounds we saw the tower standing in front us and noticed many broken gravestones. The atmosphere seemed really heavy and not very inviting.

We started our investigation inside the tower and started calling out. At first we heard nothing but after a short while we heard a sound which sounded like a very faint screeching sound coming from the top of the tower. We sat and listened and it stopped so we asked for it to happen again. This screeching noise went on the whole time we were in the tower but in spurts. We definitely felt very uneasy and it did not have a nice atmosphere at all – very oppressive.

Becky seemed to be hearing the sound close to her and said that it sounded like it was getting lower and closer to us. During the investigation inside the tower I heard what sounded like a deep breath coming from behind where Helen was sat but we could not see anything and we didn't hear it again.

We spent almost an hour inside the tower and we didn’t experience any more possible paranormal activity, other than the quiet screeching sound we had heard the whole time we were in there. We then decided to make our way back out to the graveyard and try out there.

The graves were all very old and in a bad state, and we noticed there were quite a few as we walked round. We called out while walking but didn’t seem to pick anything up.

We called it a night after about 45 mins outside as we did not seem to be picking anything paranormal up and it was getting cold!

More photos of the church