HICKLETON CHURCH DONCASTER | The Church with SKULLS

St Wilfrid’s in Hickleton – Doncaster, has existed since the norman times but some evidence suggests it could go back further.

The church was put under the influence of the priory of Monk Bretton for over three centuries, from the 13th to the 16th until the priory was dissolved and the Crown disposed of its land and wealth.

The church sits on the grounds of Hickleton Hall, the site of the ancestral home of the Lords of the Manor since the Saxon times.

It was at first a single cell sanctuary and was extended in the 1400s which meant that some of the structure which exists today would have existed during the civil war and even the black death it was again extended later that century.

The Skulls
The lychgate to the north-west of the church has three skulls set behind a grille. It is thought there was originally three humans skulls but now the middle one is made of stone and that the two which remain, belong to sheep rustlers who was hung at nearby melton high.

The inscription which is below the skulls is in Latin and reads

“Today for me, Tomorrow for thee”

Ghostly reports

The crossroads which face the church is where many of the ghostly reports are.

Crossroads was often a site to bury suicide victims or even erect a gibbet to dish out punishment.

Paranormal investigator and author Terence Whitaker witnessed a ghostly figure on horseback.

“I cycled up the tree-lined road towards the church, I could see between the trees on my left, the road which would cross my path outside the church. I was surprised to see a figure on horseback, trotting quite leisurely towards the junction.

The horseman came to the crossroads and stopped, looking down the road up which I was cycling, suddenly the horse shied and I was able to distinguish quite clearly a billowing cape and tricorn hat…then to my absolute terror both horse and rider vanished.”

Terence researched the area and several people in the village reported that they too had seen the figure on horseback. One theory was that it was the ghost of a man ambushed by troops and killed on that spot.

In 1977 a lorry driver reported braking hard at the crossroads when a figure on horseback suddenly appeared from nowhere and vanished just as quickly as it appeared.

A couple also reported seeing two ghostly figures of men walking up the road dressed in unusual old fashioned clothes. One was sat in an old fashioned wicker chair with large wheels. The couple sat and watched as they pulled out the junction and before they knew the two old men had just disappeared.

The ghostly figure of a headless man has also been reported to be seen believed to be seeking his head that was taken from him during the 12th century as a punishment for his crimes.

Our investigation

It was a last minute dash here because the other location we had in mind we couldn’t access to and the last minute investigations are sometimes the best and this was certainly one of them.

We did a walk around of the church and we decided to do an ITC session using the afterlight box where the skulls are.

The ITC seemed to produce some interesting replies, the first word it produced was poem (could this relate to the inscription on the wall?), when asked what happened it replied ‘ I was hanged’, I asked what they were hung for and it replied ‘sheep’, I asked for a name and the names Thomas was heard by the live viewers quite a few times.

We moved further on and came to a grave where people on the live was picking up on a lady and a man. The name Thomas came through again along with the names Joseph and Ann. Aimee checked the surrounding graves and two had the name Thomas engraved on and two others next to each other was of a Joseph and an Ann.

(This is interesting because unless apps have eyes how could this have produced this in this area unless of course, it was just a pure conscience.)

Myself and others watching heard help come through a lot and when I asked what they needed help with the word generator produced the word ‘crossover’.

Team member Philip Williams has previously visited this location and he stated he had caught a ghostly figure of a monk here and funnily enough the live audience watching was sensing two men watching from the road who they sensed was possibly monks!

(Researching today this does all fit with the history and one of the reported hauntings above)

We then move closer to the corner where people were sensing these two and the live audience reported hearing humming and moaning sounds.

What happened next was quite interesting…..

We decided to play church music, as soon as we did the ITC produced the word ‘Lower’. When I asked if they wanted us to turn down the music and why the response heard was ‘respect’ the bells of the church then started to ring and we later realised that the light which is on a timer facing the Jesus turns off at the strike of 11.

The ITC then remarked about it being night time when we asked if they thought we were being disrespectful and when asked if we could come back in the day….the word ‘Day’ was produced.

We decided to end our investigation here and ended the live.

We then conducted a circle which Chrissie our team member undertook. We did this circle in case, anything or anyone in the spirit world did need help to crossover then such a circle may help with that and this is where it got even more interesting….

We closed our eyes and as Chrissie began to walk I heard walking which sounded like it came from behind Aimee around Chrissie and stop next to me. I then feel and hear like scratching on my coat, this happened twice and on the third time I had to open my eyes and checked to see it wasn’t my hair rubbing against my coat, it wasn’t my hair was in my coat. Nothing was there so I closed them again and it happened once again so at this point I said can anybody else hear what I’m hearing and Aimee, John and Chrissie all said yes walking and a ruffle. We closed our eyes again and has Chrissie says I think something is trying to prevent what we are doing all 4 of us heard what sounded like a moan or a hum…what ever it was we all stated we heard the exact same thing coming from the same direction and the only thing that was in that direction was the window of the church.

In my opinion that was something paranormal…there was nothing around that could have produced that sound other than a person and from where the sound came from I am 100% certain that there was nobody stood there that we could see with our eyes at least!

Typically this was off camera and some may believe or not believe this happened but for the 4 of us that experienced it we all know what we experienced and heard and we all stood and looked at each other in pure shock….it actually gave us all chills…..

If you miss the facebook live feed and want to check it out, here is the link to do so

Anyone wanting to download the afterlight app click the link below

The AFTERLIGHT Box – Free Download!