Beast
Bovingdon's Church Grim
The first soul buried here keeps watch forever, as a fiery-eyed black dog.
See it clearly
- What's there
- One of the county's largest churchyards
- Legend from
- Undated
- Tone
- Eerie
Coming up is Bovingdon church, whose churchyard is said to be guarded by a huge black dog with eyes like fire.
An old belief held that the first person buried in a new churchyard was given the duty of guarding everyone laid to rest after them. At St Lawrence's, Bovingdon, that guardian is said to take the form of a large black dog with fiery eyes. Folklorists call such a creature a church grim: a spectral hound that protects consecrated ground from thieves, vandals, witches and even the Devil. Victorian writers believed a dog might once have been buried alive beneath a new church as a foundation sacrifice so that its ghost would keep watch. Bovingdon's churchyard is believed to be the second largest in Hertfordshire.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.