Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

Haunted Places: Borley Rectory

Borley Rectory was a house thatgained infamy as "the most haunted house in England"after being described as such by psychic researcher Harry Price. Built in 1862 to house the rector of the parish of Borley and hisfamily, it was badly damaged by fire in 1939 and demolished in 1944.

The large Gothic-style rectory in thevillage of Borley had been alleged to be haunted ever since it wasbuilt. These reports multiplied suddenly in 1929, after the DailyMirror published an account of a visit by paranormal researcher HarryPrice, who wrote two books supporting claims of paranormal activity.

Price's reports prompted a formal studyby the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which rejected most ofthe sightings as either imagined or fabricated and cast doubt onPrice's credibility. His claims are now generally discredited byghost historians. However, neither the SPR's report nor the morerecent biography of Price has quelled public interest in thesestories, and new books and television documentaries continue tosatisfy public fascination with the rectory.

A short programme commissioned by theBBC about the alleged manifestations, scheduled to be broadcast inSeptember 1956, was canceled owing to concerns about a possible legalaction by Marianne Foyster, widow of the last rector to live in thehouse.

History

Borley Rectory was constructed on HallRoad near Borley Church by the Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull in1862; he moved in a year after being named rector of the parish. Thehouse replaced an earlier rectory on the site that had been destroyedby fire in 1841. It was eventually enlarged by the addition of awing to house Bull's family of fourteen children.

The nearby church, the nave of whichmay date from the 12th century, serves a scattered rural community ofthree hamlets that make up the parish. There are several substantialfarmhouses and the fragmentary remains of Borley Hall, once the seatof the Waldegrave family. Ghost hunters quote the legend of aBenedictine monastery supposedly built in this area in about 1362,according to which a monk from the monastery conducted a relationshipwith a nun from a nearby convent. After their affair was discovered,the monk was executed and the nun bricked up alive in the conventwalls. It was confirmed in 1938 that this legend had no historicalbasis and seemed to have been fabricated by the rector's children toromanticize their Gothic style red brick rectory. The story of thewalling up of the nun may have come from Rider Haggard's novelMontezuma's Daughter (1893) or Walter Scott's epic poem "Marmion"(1808).

Hauntings

The first paranormal events reportedlyoccurred in about 1863, since a few locals later remembered havingheard unexplained footsteps within the house at about that time. On28 July 1900, four daughters of the rector, Henry Dawson Ellis Bull,saw what they thought was the ghost of a nun at twilight, about 40yards (37 m) from the house; they tried to talk to it, but itdisappeared as they got closer. The local organist, Ernest Ambroselater said that the family at the rectory were "veryconvinced that they had seen an apparition on several occasions". Various people claimed to have witnessed a variety of puzzlingincidents, such as a phantom coach driven by two headless horsemen,during the next four decades. Bull died in 1892 and his son, theReverend Henry ("Harry") Foyster Bull, took over theliving.

On 9 June 1927, Harry Bull died and therectory again became vacant. In the following year, on the secondday October, the Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife moved into thehouse. Soon after moving in, Smith's wife, while cleaning out acupboard, came across a brown paper package containing the skull of ayoung woman. Shortly after, the family reported a variety ofincidents including the sounds of servant bells ringing despite theirbeing disconnected, lights appearing in windows and unexplainedfootsteps. In addition, Smith's wife believed she saw a horse-drawncarriage at night. The Smiths contacted the Daily Mirror asking to beput in touch with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). On 10June 1929 the newspaper sent a reporter, who promptly wrote the firstin a series of articles detailing the mysteries of Borley. The paperalso arranged for Harry Price, a paranormal researcher, to make hisfirst visit to the house. He arrived on 12 June and immediatelyphenomena of a new kind appeared, such as the throwing of stones, avase and other objects. "Spirit messages" weretapped out from the frame of a mirror. As soon as Price left, theseceased. Smith's wife later maintained that she already suspectedPrice, an expert conjurer, of falsifying the phenomena.