Church of St Oswald, Lythe
Not too far from Whitby, we had our most terrifying ghost experience to date. This was on parr with Dering Woods, but it is one that we don't really like talking about as it really scared us.
Located in the village of Lythe, the Church of St Oswald has been around since the 13th century, but the version we see today came along in 1910 when Sir Walter Tapper adapted the old church to meet more modern times.
The most interesting thing about this church other than the spectre we found, is that the church is located on a Viking Burial Ground. Stones found in the early 20th century gave through to this fact and might be the reason for the eerie feel.
We didn't know about the site prior to our visit, but as soon as we stepped on site something felt off. We knew there was more to the site than just the church and its garden of rest. So finding out that there was remnants of a Viking Burial Ground lurking underfoot that had been disturbed by what lies there now made a lot of sense!
The church has had a lot of work done over the years to get to where it is today. The original tower was renovated in 1769 after the top was removed the year before in case it fell on someone, and then again with the rest of the church in 1819. The church was then enlarged in 1887 and a lych-gate was added. Then when Sir Walter Tapper got his hands on it he rebuilt the whole thing in 1910, keeping the north wall and east end of the chancel. He then adapted the Norman tower to fit a spire which like West Cliff in Whitby is used by trawlermen and sailors alike to navigate the dangerous coast.
The church received its dedication during the time of Pope Alexander III when it was run by the monks of Nostell Priory. Their patron was St Oswald so it made sense to dedicate the church to St Oswald also. When the 1530s rolled around the church ended up property of the crown following the execution of Sir Francis Bigod who was its benefactor, he was hung for high treason.
St Oswald's has a quiet yet large churchyard. It did almost seem a little empty from memory, as in there are plenty of plots still to have considering it is a parish church. But the family of note who has several plots within this space are the Phipps family who own Mulgrave Castle, including Oswald Phipps, 4th Marquess of Normanby.
But plots here arent exclusive to locals. In fact, St Oswald's became the final resting place of the seven unknown sailors who washed up on the shore during WWI as well as the memorial to the 17 men from Lythe killed. It also took in three dead sailors from the Belgian trawler Jeanne that was wrecked on the dangerous coast below in 1932.
Most recently, the site was used as one of the settings in the film Phantom Thread which released in 2017. But it was of course 2025 in November when we visited. The coast was quiet, it was off season for the nearby town and we thought we'd see a few other churches in the area before going for a long stroll within Whitby and a fish supper. We'd stopped here and it felt like the world was holding its breath. As we walked around the church we noticed through the windows a dark figure keeping pace with us, then stopping to watch us as we looked at the graves and moved away from the church. It was one of those things that after you saw it head on it ducked out of scope, so after the first siting it was only from the corner of our eye that we saw it. But Yogi started going mad and didn't want to be there anymore and after we'd noticed it the first time the hairs on the back of our necks were raising and we felt a little strange. It was pure chance that Ren saw a black figure leap from the CLOSED church doors and behind some graves before we heard something running and Jamie saw something shadow like pelting for us. It was broad daylight when this happened so the fact we could not identify the thing worried us, but as we had been stalked by yet another thing we couldn't make out we did run away and we feel no shame about that fact. This one was too close for comfort, there were mere tombs separating us from whatever it was and the fact it was close to us but was just a dark shape sounds like something straight out of a fiction novel, but it is our truth.
We pegged it out of that graveyard and went back to Whitby where we remained social until we took ourselves back to our inn and tried to forget what had happened. Our dreams were disturbed that night, we felt uneasy until we left for Wharram Percy next day, but the events stayed with us for the rest of the trip. Jamie doesn't even like to talk about it even though Ren wishes she knew what it was. What we do know is that it was so far our worst supernatural experience and we didn't think anything could top Dering Woods!
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