Tales of Haunted Places by David & Charles Editors

Author:David & Charles Editors
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: epub, ebook
Publisher: F+W Media
Published: 2010-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Most Haunted House in England

This description may not be strictly true, but it is a fact that Borley Rectory is the best-known haunted house in England. Its reputation still remains today, although the house itself was destroyed by fire in 1939, and it is included here simply because it is so well known. Without the publicity that it has received, it is doubtful whether Borley Rectory would rank top of the ghost ‘league table’. The details of the haunting are not so impressive, or as well documented as others. However, there is no doubt that strange things have happened at Borley, and perhaps are still happening.

Borley is a hamlet in Essex, on the northern border of the county where it adjoins Suffolk, and the story begins in 1863 when the rectory was built. During the seventy-six years of the rectory's existence, many strange phenomena were reported, most of them of a poltergeist nature. The only visible apparition was of a female figure described as a nun, who may have been seen before 1900, but whose first properly documented appearance was on 28 July, 1900. She was seen on the rectory lawn, walking along the ‘Nun's Walk’, by four sisters who lived in the rectory. Many other people have since seen this figure, in different places close to the rectory, and it seems that she is still putting in an occasional appearance!

The rectory achieved its first national ‘fame’ in 1929, when some of the strange phenomena were reported in the press. Harry Price, a psychic researcher and author, paid his first visit to the site in 1929, and thereafter undertook a considerable amount of research into the haunting, even renting the empty rectory for a year in 1937–8. He wrote two books about Borley Rectory and its ghosts, The Most Haunted House in England and The End of Borley Rectory, before his death in 1948.

The fame of Borley did not subside on the destruction of the house in 1939, or even with Price's death. Instead there was published in 1956 an involved criticism of the ‘evidence’ for the phenomena, and this was followed by counter-arguments and counter-counter-arguments, until the whole question got very confused indeed. Claims that Harry Price manufactured some of the phenomena himself were strongly disputed, and the argument still goes on.

Borley Rectory was a gloomy, rambling, redbrick house, just the sort of place you would expect to be haunted. Close by was the rectory cottage, which still stands, and across the road is the small church which seems to be the focal point for many of the strange happenings reported today. Now no trace of the rectory remains, though the site where it stood is still unkempt and overgrown. In recent years, unexplained footsteps have been heard in and around the church; the organ has been heard playing mysteriously when the church was empty and securely locked; and strange noises have also been heard on the rectory site. But most surprising are the continuing appearances of the nun.

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