I Was Allowed To Stay Overnight In An 800 Year Old Church

Hi all, Aidy here from Hans and John's. As always, thank you so much for clicking on the video. I've got a really exciting video today. Honestly, I'm absolutely beside myself with excitement. I'm spending the night in the church. I'll give you a little bit more information about that in a moment. But first of all, I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who's liked, subscribed, who comments on the videos, who's hit the high button. I really do appreciate it and it really helps the algorithm. It doesn't cost you anything but it really helps me out. But I want to give an extra thanks to everybody who has hit the super thanks button down below to support the channel and also to everyone that's used the buy me a coffee link and has bought me a coffee to help support the channel, which has meant that I can go a little bit further afield, which brings me to where I am today. So excited. I'm spending the night. I've got the keys in this 13th century church. I'm doing a thing called champing. Now champing is camping in a church. The church's conservation trust has opened up some of its churches that aren't in regular use and you can camp here for the night and it's called champing. So brilliant. I think it's a fantastic idea. So they've set up a camp bed for us. There's tea and coffee. Some of the churches have toilets and kitchens inside. This one doesn't, but there's a community centre just over here. It's about, I don't know, a two minute walk. So it's got a toilet and facilities in there that we can use. They've given me the keys to the church. How cool are these? Look, aren't they brilliant? Absolutely fantastic. So when you book a stay here, you get the use of the whole building, which I think is absolutely brilliant. And you can bring dogs as well. Not that I have a dog anymore, but it's fantastic. So I'm going to show you around and then I'm going to let you know how it all goes throughout the night. I'm so excited. But anyway, thank you all. And let's go. Now there's a lovely little bit of Norfolk folklore attached to this church and it's about the handle on the door here. And it's said to have come from the lid of a treasure chest that was buried at the bottom of a pit called the Callow Pit. And seekers of the treasure almost succeeded in withdrawing the chest from the pit. But at the very last moment, the chest fell away, leaving them only with the handle. So the handle was said to originally have been on the door of St Edmund's Church in Southwood and then transferred to this church when Southwood was closed. But obviously, if you want to believe it or not, that's completely up to you. And there's a lovely little sketch here of how the church would have looked back in the day with its lovely thatched roof. There has been worship at Limpenhoe since the 13th century and the medieval church was largely rebuilt in 1881. There's a tower that has two stages. The lower part is the 15th century, which you would have seen in that little sketch, while the newer part is above the nave roof and that dates from the 19th century. And there's a little bit more about that story about the treasure chest. If you're interested, you can pause and read it. Now, a few pieces of Roman architectural stone have been reused and incorporated into the nave walls. And there's also a 13th century coffin lid in the churchyard. There's this lovely visitor's book with its most recent entries in 2026. You can see people have come from all over the place. But interestingly enough, look at this. It dates all the way back to 1976, so 50 years of entries. And there's even a couple here from New York. The baptismal font dates from the 13th century and is made from Purbeck marble. And as always, I think about the hundreds of years and the generations of families that would have been baptized at this font. And there's some jam here for sale, which is another way the church is trying to raise funds. Lovely. And I have to admit, I did buy some. I brought some jars home and I can confirm that it's really delicious. And I found this lovely old picture here of Southwood Church, which is quite nearby, but I believe this one replaced it and that one is now in ruin. And there was this like little piano thing. I'm not sure what it's called. I have no idea. Do let me know in the comments. On the wall here, you find a 17th century Flemish tapestry depicting the sacrificing of Isaac. And there's some more local crafts here for sale. A charity stall and all the proceeds go back into the church fund. Some beautiful pieces of work there. The church itself is dedicated to St. Botolph, who was a 7th century saint, and he is often linked with travellers and seafarers. Now, quite a few churches in East Anglia are dedicated to him. And although Limpenhoe itself is a very small village, it sits very close to the River Yare and the wider Norfolk Broads and is surrounded by beautiful marshland and farmland. Now, everything has been set up for us. We've walked in and found it like this, which is fantastic. So there's a couple of chairs, a couple of cushions there for us and a nice table, some glasses, cups and plates, bowls, cutlery, absolutely everything that you need. There was also a kettle, water, there's tea, coffee, biscuits, and you can see there's some battery-operated candles here, which I'm sure will come in very useful when it gets dark. And there's some lamps over there. Now, they do supply the camp beds and you can request bedding. So if you don't have your own or you're travelling light, then you can pay £25 and they will also supply the bedding. It is £55 per person to stay the night and that's the bedding here that they supply. So you get a sleeping bag, a liner, a blanket and a pillow. And there's also some games there, which are great if you get bored or you're bringing children. And there's this beautiful stained glass window, beautiful blue glass, and the prayer boards and the Ten Commandments. Lovely. And there's a piscina over there, but it looks like it's been given a little bit of a Victorian makeover. There's no running water in the church, but they have supplied this drinking water. And over at the community centre, which we have access to for the night where the toilets are, there's also more water if we need to top it up. And there's the kettle and tea and biscuits, which I think is really nice. I've made myself a nice cup of tea because I'm a little bit cold and I'm going to read the booklet and find out a little bit more information. I've been looking forward to that all day. Just going to have a quick look at the tower. Parts of it date from the 15th century, and this was when a lot of churches around Norfolk were being improved or expanded, because at that time the area was doing pretty well because of the wool trade. So many villages invested in their churches. Just saying hello to my fellow guests for the night. I'm just having a quick look in here. And to the left, you can see the old monument chests where they would have kept all the records, although they're no longer actually held in churches anymore. And then over to the right, there's the little door that leads up to the bell tower. There's no kitchen facilities here, so bear that in mind if you do come to stay. This church in particular, some of the other ones do have kitchens, but it's all very clearly listed on the website. So we have brought provisions. We've bought some sandwiches, we've got some porridge pots for the morning, and got sandwiches, snacks, got some fruit. But I've decided to have a pot noodle because the sun's gone down now and it's actually started to get really cold, so I thought I'd have one of these. Not the most healthy of meals, but you know, who cares? It's a treat, isn't it? So yeah, but I haven't had one of these in years. Actually, it's all right. It's better than I remember. So yeah, I'm going to finish this and then we're going to take a spooky walk around the graveyard. We've got some torches and I've just read as well they have some bats in here, so that could be quite fun to see if they come out. So yeah, let's finish this and then we'll show you around the graveyard and we'll take a walk over to the community centre. But if you do want to bring, you know, you could make, get some instant soup, something like that, there is all of this here. And there's also a corkscrew because you're actually allowed to drink here. So if you wanted to bring some wine, by all means you're allowed to. They just ask you to not drink outside in the churchyard, but we're not big drinkers ourselves. So I wouldn't feel comfortable, to be honest, drinking in here. So yeah, but if you want to have a couple of glasses of wine, then knock yourself out. But yeah, there's everything you can think of. Little lights, water, tissues, remote control candles. We'll put it all on when it gets completely dark and show you the effect. Anyway, I'm going to eat this before it gets cold. I'm cold enough as it is. We're going to head out into the graveyard, have a quick look around. Depends how cold it is. And then we're going to walk over to the community centre. Oh, and look at the big key. Get to lock the door. Oh, that's an amazing key. The size of it. And can you see that light over there in the distance? That is the community centre. And that's where the toilet is. So we're just going to head over there now. Look how cool the church looks. We've left some of the lights on in there. Actually looks a lot brighter on the screen than it actually does in person. Oh, look, did you see that? That was amazing. I'm not sure if the camera picked that up. That was a bird. It did say there are some bats here, but that was far too big to be a bat. I'm just going to spin around and show you how amazing this looks. Look at that. How cool is that? That looks so cool, doesn't it? Looks absolutely amazing. And I have to say that it doesn't feel creepy here at all. It's really, really peaceful, really calm. And in fairness, if I'd come on my own, I'm saying that now before I've actually spent the night, I would be quite happy because I know some places I go feel really creepy. A little bit unsettling, but this one, not at all. I had to stop and get some photographs. I'll put those up on Instagram. Beautiful. Can you hear all the birds singing? Listen. Really peaceful here. Really peaceful. So we're already at the village hall. I'm just going to show you. Let's head in. Take the key with us. Oh, it's a lovely moment here. Maybe if we get too cold, we could just come over here and spend the night. So they have toilets. So there's the gentlemen's there. Disabled one. And the ladies. Lovely. Nice and clean. Hot and cold water. All good. You can have a spruce up in the morning and brush your teeth. Yeah, very good. They have a breakfast cafe here every third Saturday of the month. There's the details there. So if you time your stay at the church, you could come over here the next morning and have a hot breakfast. But yeah, there's loads going on here. Back in now. After we spent a penny. Is it wrong that this is the highlight of my stay? The big key. And back in we go. Probably sleep with the door unlocked and you'd be perfectly fine. It's very, very rural here, but there's still a few cars going past. So better safe than sorry. So might have another cup of tea and then maybe do some hot water bottles and warm the sleeping bags up and then get changed. And yeah, I wonder how well we'll sleep here. What do you think? I've got a husband who could sleep anyway. I don't sleep well even when I'm at home in my lovely nice bed. So it's going to be interesting if I get any sleep here tonight. But I couldn't think of a better environment. Absolutely beautiful. Are you glad you came? Yeah. I'll ask him that again in the morning. The other key that I've got is for this other little door, which is actually nearer where our camp beds are. So it might be better to use this, but there are a couple of steps down here. So I'd have to be very careful if you go out at night, but I'm just going to make sure that this is actually locked. Yeah, it's locked, but because I'm so excited, this key's actually bigger than the other one. I'm going to unlock that. Oh, it opens outwards. There's a couple of steep steps. The community centre's just over there. I'm just looking for reasons to keep using this key, aren't I? We've put on the candles, makes it really atmospheric. They are remote control, they're battery operated ones, but they're cool, aren't they? They do flicker like real candles because obviously it'd be very irresponsible to light and have a naked flame in here, and there's also some other lights over here. If I can work out how to do it in the dark, there we go, and that will change his colour. So you can have them on all night if you want. There's also up here, on the pulpit, you could leave that on overnight if you wanted to. I think we will leave a couple of lights on just because I'm worried about waking up and thinking that I'm at home to use the bathroom and getting up and going out and then breaking my neck. So we might leave a couple of the little ones on. So yeah, really cool. It is getting cold though, so I'm going to get changed in a minute and then make the hot water bottles and warm the sleeping bags up. Right, it's absolutely pitch black outside and I need to go to the ladies. I think that's right. Let me see how dark it is out here, but we have got the porch on. Oh, I think there's a step there. Oh, luckily I'm being followed by a serial killer, or a torch. My husband's lighting the way for us as we go across to use the facilities, hopefully for the last time tonight, because I don't want to come out here again. And part of them trying to raise funds for this church is they need a new roof and they're also hoping to build on a little extension out the side there that will have a toilet and a little kitchen. So that would probably make it even more appealing, shall we say, to people who want to try out champing. I suppose especially if you've got like little kids or you've got a family or if you were disabled, it'd be quite tricky to walk across this graveyard late at night. Hopefully that's our last bathroom visit of the night, but it's, I don't know if you can see my breath, but yeah, it's definitely chilly. And here it is from the other side. Have you got the torch? I can't see a thing. There we go. But yeah, it's probably two or three degrees. Beautiful clear skies. Look, we can see stars. It's a fantastic stained glass window though, isn't it? Really nice. And I think we're sleeping just beside that. What a privilege. I do feel sorry for my poor husband, bless him. You know, most people with normal wives, you know, they get dragged to nice resorts, don't they? Or for beach holidays, but I drag him into the middle of the countryside to sleep in a cold church on a camp head. So, aren't you lucky? I guess we'll give you the confidence to do it on your own then. Is that what you're hoping for? Yeah, we'll see about that. I'll have to see if I can rope in any of my friends to come, or my children. I have grown up children. I might be able to blackmail them like I've blackmailed my husband with a nice fried breakfast the next couple of days. Yeah, it looks great. I'm just going to show you again. Just some of the lights on. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you. You're a very good torch assistant. Just had another cup of tea, but I'm trying not to have any more, so I don't have to walk through the graveyard in the pitch black. So, we're going to settle in in a minute and get into our sleeping bags. So, I'll update you as soon as I'm all nice and snugly inside. It's lovely and peaceful here. I haven't heard anything, have we? Creepy. Nothing at all. Really, really peaceful. Lovely spot. Lovely spot. So, I'm all ready for bed now. I've got changed. I've got my fleece, if I need it during the night. Got my lovely sleeping bag. Got the hot water bottle, which I've had heating up my sleeping bag. They also supply a couple of these, and also the camp beds. So, I'm all set for the night. Got my pillow, and yeah, I shall update you. Let's hope nothing goes bump in the night. Good morning. So, I have survived the night. Excuse the state of me. I'm nice and toasty here in my sleeping bag. It's really nice and warm. How did I sleep? Not great, but I don't always sleep very well anyway. But it's lovely and warm, the sleeping bag. Really peaceful. Didn't hear any strange noises at all. So, I didn't get haunted by any ghosts during the night. It's just about sunrise, and as you can see, the light started streaming through the windows. So, I shall show you around, and then I'll have to make a cup of tea, and then head over to the community centre, and get ourselves washed and dressed for the day. I'm still half asleep, so I mightn't even put this in. As you can see, the sun's just starting to come up. Looks absolutely beautiful in here. We're breakfasted. We've had another cup of coffee. You can see the kettle, and that is over there. We just had some porridge pots, so you can just use the kettle, obviously, because there's no cooking facilities at the moment. And I just want to let you know what a wonderful experience that this tramping has been. Definitely worth doing it. Be perfect for families. I wish this had been around when my children were small. I think they would have absolutely loved it. It really would have felt like an adventure, and we could have brought our dogs, and it's a wonderful location. It's so peaceful. I would definitely recommend it. We wear warm enough, but we have really good four season sleeping bags, so do bear that in mind if you do choose to come tramping. And we did have loads of layers. As you can see, I've got a jacket, and I've got my fleece on over the top, because it's still, I'm just looking, it's only 8.30, so it's still pretty early. So the sun's not quite fully up yet, and it is March as well. So I'm just going to write a little message here in the visitor's book, and they are hoping to apply for a National Lottery Fund grant, and then that would allow them to build a wet room, a toilet, and a small kitchen. And I think that would be absolutely amazing, because that would make it more accessible, because as I'm sure you've seen in the video earlier, walking across the graveyard at night could be a little bit tricky. I mean, it's not difficult by any levels, but I'm fully able-bodied, and I think if you had small children, or if you were disabled, then it would be quite difficult. So having a toilet and that on site would be so much easier. Anyway, I am going to wrap the video up here. I'm going to pop in the description down below. I'm going to put all the details, so I'll put the Champing website in here, and also the Church's Conservation Trust website as well. So if you want to make a donation directly to the church, that you can do it there. But like I said at the beginning of the video, thank you so much to everyone who's liked, subscribed, shared the video, and hyped it. All of that is absolutely free. It doesn't cost you anything. But if you do want to support the channel a little bit more, and that also helps me make a donation, which I always do everywhere that I stay, then you can use the super thanks button down below, and you can also use the buy me a coffee link as well. Buy me a cup of coffee really helps, because everyone that's done that has enabled me to come here, Champing, and share this experience with you. So if you want to see another Champing video, please do let me know in the comments. This particular one is open all year round, but not all of them are. A lot of them only start at the beginning of April. So I'm hoping to do another couple over the warmer months. So yeah, I do hope you enjoyed it. I've had a great time. It's a new experience, and I absolutely loved it. I think even my husband secretly enjoyed it. Whether or not I can convince him to come again, who knows? But I'm sure I can rope somebody in, because I'm still not sure about staying on my own. I've got to be honest, I wasn't scared at all. Not in the slightest, but yeah, I think because it's quite rural as well, and you're quite isolated. Maybe I would. I don't know. We'll find out anyway. I'm waffling on now. So thanks for watching, and I shall see you for the next one. Bye for now.