What happened
The gloomy Gothic Revival rectory in the village of Borley was built in 1862 by the Reverend Henry Bull. His daughters claimed that at dusk on 28 July 1900 they saw a nun in the garden who vanished as they approached. There was also talk of a phantom coach with headless drivers. After the death of Bull's son in 1927, the Reverend Guy Smith and his wife moved in, and she found the skull of a young woman in a cupboard. The Smiths complained of disconnected servant bells ringing, lights in windows and footsteps. On 10 June 1929 a Daily Mirror reporter arrived, followed by the famous psychic researcher Harry Price – and stones and vases immediately began to fly. Between 1930 and 1935 the next rector's family, the Foysters, recorded hundreds of incidents: shattered windows, writing on walls and failed exorcisms. Price rented the house for a year and recruited 48 observers. In February 1939 the rectory burned down after an oil lamp was knocked over, and in the ruins Price dug up bones that were buried as the nun's remains.
Witnesses
The Bull family, the Rev. Guy Smith and his wife, Lionel and Marianne Foyster, Harry Price and his 48 volunteers, Daily Mirror reporters.
Explanations and hypotheses
After Price's death in 1948, journalist Charles Sutton accused him of having had pockets full of stones in 1929. Three members of the Society for Psychical Research – Dingwall, Goldney and Hall – concluded in a 1956 report that Price had faked some phenomena and that the rest were explained by rats, the house's acoustics and imagination. Marianne Foyster later admitted that some “phenomena” were her own pranks. The legend of the walled-up nun was debunked as early as 1938 – it has no historical basis. Price's defenders, however, still maintain that not everything can be explained by fraud.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.
Sources
- Eric J. Dingwall, Kathleen M. Goldney, Trevor H. Hall, The Haunting of Borley Rectory: A Critical Survey of the Evidence (Duckworth, 1956)
- Psi Encyclopedia (Society for Psychical Research) – Borley Rectory
- Foxearth & District Local History Society – The Haunted Rectory
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