The ghostly abandoned school hidden in the woods

The ruin in the woods once doubled up as a school and church

It looks like the location for a horror film.

A ghostly ruin, which once doubled up as a school and a church, sits hidden deep within thick woods in a remote part of West Sussex.

St Michael and All Angels Church in the hamlet of Bedham, near Petworth, is a one-room structure that was built in 1880 and abandoned in 1959.

Miles Costello, a local historian, said: "The harder you look the less likely you are to find it."

The crumbling shell of a building is miles from anywhere down a very narrow single-track road.

It lies just a mile from Brinkwells, one of the former homes of Sir Edward Elgar and is in the South Downs National Park.

"The isolation was the attraction of the place," Mr Costello said.

"With snow in winter this road really does become impassable."

The derelict building was a school for five days a week and a church once a month on Sundays.

The single room was divided by a curtain to separate younger and older pupils.

For sermons, the curtain was removed to open the space.

Mr Costello said: "On a Sunday the desks would have been moved up one end and a temporary altar put at the other end.

"It wouldn't have been so overgrown back then and the view out towards East Sussex would have been completely open."

The school did not have a full-time teacher. Older pupils used to assist with lessons.

It only served as a school for its first 45 years, and was abandoned as a church at the end of the 1950s.

Mr Costello said: "The population had all moved away from Bedham and there wasn't enough of a congregation to make it worthwhile."

The building is now a roofless ruin, with arched windows and doorways, a fireplace, and a two-storey east wall that once held a bell arch.

The east wall is precariously supported by rusting metal beams, and signs warn visitors not to enter due to the instability of the structure.

Despite its decay, the site remains a popular destination for walkers, urban explorers, and artists, drawn by its melancholic charm and historical echoes.

"There is a still a certain spirituality about the place," Mr Costello said.

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