In Essex, located in the United Kingdom, there was built one of the most famous British haunted houses. The rectory is located in Borley, a lonely part of the eastern coast of England- not far from the Suffolk border.
A newspaper, carried an article in June of 1929, reporting the sighting of a phantom nun at the rectory. The newspaper contacted Harry Price, a now famous paranormal investigator, to conduct an investigation into this apparition. Price's contact at the paper informed him that in addition to the ghostly nun, footsteps, unexplained whispers, a unseen coach have been heard, and that inexplicable lights, the figure of a headless man, and the apparition of Henry Bull- the homes builder had been seen. The nun was reported as drifting through the garden hanging her head in sadness.
Locals told accounts of how in the 13th century, when the location had been a monastery, a monk, and an attractive young nun had been killed when they tried to elope together. They said that the monk had been hung, while the nun had been sealed within the walls of her convent while still alive. Even though, skeptical of this tale, Price was curious about what was happening at Borley Rectory.
Harry Price is known today as one of the earliest, and most accomplished paranormal investigator, and was the creator of the standard "ghost hunting kit". He used tape measures and meticulous measurements of walls in order to see if there were any secret rooms or passages ways that would allow a hoaxer to perform their tricks. The use of still cameras for indoor and outdoor investigations were common in his investigations, and he even used a remote-control motion picture camera. In addition, he applied various police techniques, such as lifting of fingerprints, as well as portable communcations devices to keep investigators connected and up to date.
During his investigation, Price would report bells ringing, knocking on the walls, objects moving from one place to another. Witnesses were interviewed, gathering a large collection of experiences from them.
Rev. Henry Bull disregarded the local warning about the land being haunted, and built Borely Rectory when he became the Borley Church pastor in 1862. Soon afterwards, came reports from servants and family members of strange noises and apparitions. Rev. Bull and his son, Harry seemed to find the unusual phenomena to be rather entertaining- go so far as to build a summer home where they could sit, enjoy a cigar and watch for the phantom nun.
Rev. Bull passed away in 1892, and his son, become pastor, and lived on the property until his own death in 1927. Rev. Guy Smith became the new pastor, but quit the rectory within a year due to the strange occurances, and the crumbling state of the house.
Things picked up at the rectory in 1930, when Rev Lionel Foyster and his wife, Marianne moved in. Now people were being locked out of rooms, furnisher and household items would move, and window would break by themselves. Mrs. Foyster got the worst treatment of all when she would get thrown out of bed, slapped at all hours, and even smothered by her mattress. Notes soon appeared on the walls. Some of the notes read, "Marianne, please help get," and "Marianne light mass prayers".
Harry Price suspected that, since Marianne Foyster was the centre of most of the poltergeist type activity, these occurances weren't necessarily caused by spirits. He felt, rather, that she was unknowingly manipulating things with psychokinetic energy. Even though he didn't believe that the events surrounding Mrs. Foyster were ghostly in nature, he did believe that the notes where. Price indicated that the notes were from a young Catholic woman- possibly a nun that had been killed on the property... though not the same nun of local legend.
After the Foysters moved out, Price leased the house for a year in order to run a round-the-clock investigation. On May 25, 1937, he placed an ad in the Times:
"HAUNTED HOUSE: Responsible persons of leisure and intellegenceintrepid, critical, and unbiased, are invited to join rota of observers in a years night and day investigation of alleged haunted house in Home countiesPrinted instructions supplied. Scientific training or ability to operate simpleinstruments an advantage. House situation in lonely hamlet, so won car is essentialWrite Box H.989, The Times, E.C.4"
Forty people were chosen, and Price printed up the first-ever paranormal investigation manual. Each member of the investigative team received a copy. It outlined procedures, as well as the type of equiptment needed. The various investigators still had a fair bit of freedom to examine things as they wished. Some used their own equiptment, some kept meticulous journals, while other used seances- these would prove interesting between 1935 and 1939
One seance gave Price information that made him confident that the mystery behind the haunting was solvable. During the sitting, a spirit using the name Marie Lairre claimed she'd been a french nun that had left in order to marry a Henry Waldegrave. Waldegrave belonged to a wealthy family, whose house once stood where Borley Rectory was. After they married, Marie was strangled by her husband, and buried in the cellar. Price felt this information fit in with the notes left for Marianne Foyster, and the reports of the ghostly nun.
March of 1938 saw another spirit communicated with the investigators. This entity claimed that the rectory would burn down that night, and that the nun's remains would be found in the cellar. The rectory may not have burnt down that very night as promised, but exactly eleven months later, when Captain WH Gregson- the new owner, was unpacking books in the library, an overturned oil lamp lead to the rectory being gutted.
After the fire, Price returned, taking the opportunity to excavate the cellar. He discovered some fragile bones- which turned out to belong to a young woman. Harry Price felt that this was proof of his theory that the ghost was that of a nun that had been murdered on the site. A Christian burial helped to settle things down, though from time to time, people still experience odd things on the property...
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