In a tiny hamlet west of Truro sits a former church with a fascinating, dubious history.
Baldhu, meaning ‘black mine,’ or Bal Du in Cornish, is a former mining village overlooking the Carnon Valley in Cornwall. The mines now long shut, only a few houses, a methodist chapel and a former church remain.
Now converted into luxury homes, Baldhu church was abandoned for decades until its restoration in 2009. During the 80’s – 00’s it was infamous for paranormal goings on, becoming the favourite place for local teenagers to seek supernatural thrills.
Sat within dark encroaching woodland, uncannily the church itself faces south, a very rare feature, with churches normally facing east or west. This has inspired local lore telling how the church is somehow unholy; known as the ‘gateway to hell,’ or ‘satanic.’ For many years the church was boarded up, having finally shut its doors in the 1970’s, inviting intrepid teens and paranormal seekers to explore the graveyard and the eerie woodland, some even breaking into the church itself.
The church and woodland became associated with dark rituals and paranormal activity. Witnesses tell tales of robed, hooded figures seen in the woodland chanting and conducting rituals. Some believe they saw stick figures and even bird’s feet hanging from trees. Others tell os satanic graffiti daubed inside the church. Wispy images of shadowed and ghostly figures have been captured in the woods and graveyard.
While the anecdotal history of the area is infamous, the recorded history is just as peculiar.
Two suspected bronze age barrows in Baldhu suggest the area has been occupied since prehistoric times. Goodern Manor on the edge of Baldhu is first recorded in the Domesday Book with a settlement of eight houses. The medieval field system was removed to make way for tin and copper mines in the 18th and 19th centuries. Mostly a Methodist area, the miners followed non-conformist faiths and the Viscount Falmouth, who owned the land and mines (and still does own most of the land,) was perturbed by the non-conformist faith of the miners and sought to convert the population back to the Church of England.
To reassert the Anglican Church’s control over the population in 1848 he had a church built and named it The Parish Church of St. Michael and All Angels, now known locally as Baldhu Church (not be mistaken with Baldhu Methodist Chapel which still remains in use today.) With the Cornish apt to reject any anglicisation, the methodist faith was popular in Cornwall, especially among miners and their families. Ironically in its effort maintain its hold the Anglican church became the site of a religious conversion of one of its vicars to the revivalist faith. The Parson William Haslam experienced a spiritual awakening during one of his own sermons believing himself touched by the holy spirit, his cries of joy influenced many worshippers to fall to their knees and cry for mercy as they themselves felt the touch of the holy spirit. A significant event, this ignited a flame of religious fervour which spread across the county with Baldhu church at its epicentre.
To the displeasure of the Anglican church and the Viscount many parishioners became born again, believing themselves touched by the holy spirit and would flock to the church with its aisles overflowing with worshippers after news of Haslam’s conversion spread. Unable to shake off its revivalist history, to this day an obelisk in the church grounds marks the spot of another local charismatic non-conformist preacher Billy Bray. Once a drunkard and a miner, he had a close shave with death and dedicated his life to God’s work building several methodist chapels in the area. Only one survives today at Kerley Downs, one mile from Baldhu.
It would seem Baldhu has been a centre of spirit activity through three centuries. Contradictions of light and dark, from bronze age monuments built to revere the dead, fevered revelations of the holy spirit, and folklore of something far darker from the other side.
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