The Borely Rectory:
Borley Rectory was built in 1863 for the Reverend Henry
Bull. It was erected on the site of an ancient
monastery and the ghost of a sorrowful nun who strolled along the so called
"Nun's Walk" was already well known in the villagers at that
time. An old story claimed that she was a wayward sister from the nearby
nunnery at Bures who had fallen in love with a monk from the Borley Monastery.
The two had tried to elope together but had been quickly tracked down.
The monk was executed and the nun bricked up in the cellars of the monastic
buildings!
Reverend Bull had a summer-house put up overlooking the Nun's walk so that he could watch the manifestations. However, the lady soon became something of nuisance: often startled guests by peering at them through the windows of the new rectory. Servants rarely stayed long. The Reverend's four daughters even saw the lady gliding across the lawn in broad daylight. The hauntings increased during the incumbency of Henry Bull's son, Harry. Apparitions now included a ghostly coach and horses seen racing up the rectory drive.
1927 saw the death of the last of the Bulls, and the Reverend Eric Smith
and his wife arrived at the rectory. They had been warned of the building's
reputation and took the precaution of inviting the well-known psychic
researcher, Harry Price, to visit. Mr. Price's arrival appears to have
set in motion an outburst of inexplicable poltergeist activity. Objects
were smashed and stones hurled at the investigator by unseen forces. Harry
turned the Borley investigations into two books entitled "The Most
Haunted House In England" (1940) and "The End of Borley Rectory"
(1946). It was all
too much for the Smiths and they left after only two years.
Taking the bull by the horns, the Reverend Foyster had Borley Rectory
exorcised. The result was positive at first and the manifestations stopped.
However, it was not long before they reappeared in a new form. Strange
music would be heard from the nearby Church, communion wine would unaccountably
turn into ink, the servant's bells in the house rang of their own accord
and the Foyster's child was attacked by "something horrible".
The rector had had enough. The family left and all successive incumbents
refused to live in the house.
Intrigued by the further reports of psychic activity at Borley, Harry Price returned in 1937 and rented the building himself. He advertised in The Times for trustworthy assistants and, in a prolonged psychic investigation, he attempted to get to the bottom of the hauntings. With a team of forty-eight observers he logged an extraordinary number of psychic phenomena. The most bizarre was perhaps the results of a séance held on 27th March 1938. A ghostly communicant from beyond the grave claimed that the rectory would catch fire in the hallway that night and burn down. A nun's body would be discovered amongst the ruins. An extraordinary assertion, particularly as nothing happened.
Harry Price's lease ran out later that year, and the building was taken
on by one Captain William Gregson. Captain
Gregson, who had bought the property, accidentally turned over an oil
lamp near a bookstand. The fire caught hold quickly destroying the rectory
beyond repair. Witnesses claimed to have seen ghostly figures roaming
around and through the flames, while a nun's face peered down from an
upper window.
The rectory now became the home of Reverend Lionel Foyster and his family.
The resident phantom appears to have taken a liking to the rector's young
wife, Marianne. Supposedly, spirits locked her in the bedroom, and other
times threw her out of the bed in the middle of the night. There were
also pebbles thrown at the windows and she often had objects thrown at
her, but even more strange were the messages addressed to Marianne which
began to appear scrawled on the walls of the house; even while witnesses
watched. However, despite attempts at communication, most remained unintelligible.
Though one certainly read, "Marianne, please help get" and another,
"Pleas for help and prayers".
Harry Price returned again in 1943. Digging in the cellars, he discovered the jawbone of a young woman. Convinced that it was part of the body of the spectral nun, he attempted to end the hauntings by giving the bone a Christian burial.
It does not seem to have worked. Supernatural happenings are still reported
from the site of the rectory and the nearby churchyard. And Borley has
an eerie air about the place that visitors cannot help but remark upon.
