Welcome to the eighteenth edition of the Borley Ghost Society Newsletter. It was at midnight on this day in 1939 that the Rectory fire began.

Thanks to the awesome efforts of my son Sean O'Neil, and my best friend Bill Vicars, both web sites are now up and running. My computer chose the precise time we were transferring to a new Internet Service Provider to have a "heart attack." One of the score of lost documents is my master list of BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY associates. I've restored most of it, but if each of you with numbers 90-100 will please contact me indicating your enrollment month, your card number, and your name, this will be of great help.
About the same time I was having computer problems, my nurse tried to start me on Coumadin. This was the medicine my mother was taking when she broke her hip. To replace her hip, she was taken off the Coumadin, had several strokes, and never woke up. I told my nurse I would start taking garlic instead!
It has been a very stressfull time, and I appreciate your patience in helping me get through it all. If it appears your contribution to the Society has been lost in the confusion of the last month, please resubmit it with my gratitude.

To the best of my knowledge, Chilton Lodge was indeed demolished some years ago. I don't remember a swimming pool, but it was a long time ago when I was there - about a half-a-century in fact!
My abiding memories of Chilton Lodge are the oil painting of HDE Bull, the ink-well carved by Harry Bull that Ethel gave me as a memento (and which was stolen from me by a visitor!), the 'Victorian' atmosphere, and table with its enormous plate of home grown strawberries and the jug of fresh cream they supplied on one occasion, and the wonderful charm and old-world welcome of the surviviing Bulls that I experienced on many memorable occasions.
Peter Underwood

Thanks to Joseph Olding, we also have a photo of the church in 1947.

We write to draw your attention to a book which we have written on the subject of the haunting of Borley rectory - a subject which we suspect will never go away. We do so at the suggestion of Alan Wesencraft, whom you have met, and who has been kind enough to contribute an introduction to our book. Mr. Wesencraft is now retired, but for many years he was the Curator of the huge library which the late Harry Price bequeathed to the University of London. What Mr. Wesencraft has to say makes fascinating reading, and he reveals some astonishing information about the activities of another individual who claimed to have investigated the case with integrity and impartiality.
We have tried to present a balanced, non-sensational appraisal of the Borley haunting. More importantly, as the result of local contacts and enquiries over a considerable period of time, we are now able to supply much more detail than is given in the other books about this famous case.
We may say that we feel that our credentials for understanding this work are more than adequate. One of us (E.B.) is a former member of the Society for Psychical Research, and has been deeply interested in the Borley case for forty years.
The other of us (C.M.) is the widow of the last rector of Borley and Liston, who was in office from 1955 to 1967. She knew many of the people who were involved with the famous haunting; she has still many contacts in the Sudbury and Borley area who remember well the numerous members of the Bull family, and the era when the haunting was at its height. Both of us live very near Borley.
Our book consists of twelve chapters. The first six of them describes the history of the haunting; this we have covered thoroughly, although we have not dwelt at undue length on matters that have been discussed already in other books. We are able to furnish much fresh detail about the characters involved, and which has come to us from local contacts; we have been able to put a lot of "flesh on the bones." The seventh and eighth chapters have been written by Claudia Mathias (the sole survivor of the rectors of Borley and their widows). These chapters relate the train of events that led her to the tiny but now famous villages of Borley and Liston, details of day-to-day life there, and previously unpublished reports of psychic phenomena there. The ninth and tenth chapters give more accounts of paranormal experiences in the rectory itself and in the general area. Chapter ten gives also details of the discovery of the long lost entry to the huge crypt under Borley church. These have not been published before, and for decades there was doubt about the existence of the crypt. Even Harry Price failed to solve the problem! The eleventh chapter discusses many relevant documents to which we had access, and which have not been dealt with in other books. The final chapter describes a long haunting in another rectory not far from Borley, the possible effects of ley lines on the affair (four of them intersect at Borley), and we have completed it with a lengthy summary and conclusions. Our general conclusion is that some of the phenomena were genuine and some were not. There are three appendices, a select bibliography, and an index.
Once again, thanks to local contacts, we have many early and remarkable photographs of people involved in the haunting, and these pictures have not appeared in any other publication. They include one of the Reverend Harry Bull which was taken at his induction as the rector of Borley in 1892, and another one of him with his wife and stepdaughter posing in front of the rectory on the tennis lawn (the path known as the Nun's Walk is included in this photograph).
Our purpose in writing to you is to ask you if you will be good enough to give your kind consideration to the possibility of approaching American publishing companies on our behalf. We understand from Alan Wesencraft that you have written a book, and the thought has occurred to us that perhaps an enterprising publisher may wish to issue both books in tandem.
Yours sincerely,
Edward Babbs
Claudine Mathias
[For now, my own publishing is limited to the Internet, but we have many professional writers within the BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY. If any of you wish to be associated with this effort, please let me know.]

Do you know anyone who could perhaps get me a copy of The Examinatin of the Borley Report by Robert Hastings? By the way, has it any photographs?
Joseph Olding
[There are two views of the floating brick, and the floor plans in the report. Can any associates help?]

I wonder what it would take to "resurrect" the Borley mansion? You know...to build it again...just like it was before.
Bill Vicars
[How many times I have thought of that.........................It MIGHT be possible for under a million, including buying out the three houses now on the property.]

Very many thanks for the BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY Newsletter #15 - always a joy to read.
Regarding the letter from John Burrows: in the interests of accuracy Geoffrey Croom-Hollingsworth and his associates R. Potter and F. Connel visited Borley several times during the 1970s and in June 1972 they claimed to see the ghost nun, and a little later Roy Potter told me he threw a stone at the figure and it went straight through her. Their visit had nothing to do with the BBC documentary The Ghost Hunters, first screened on 4 December 1975, in which I played a part.
No ghost or anything of the kind was seen during the filming. Denny Densham was instrumental in producing a tape which purported to reproduce ghostly sounds, and it was claimed that there was nothing inside the church that could have made such sounds.
During the filming, Hugh Burnett the producer, was told that "every effort had been made to find a physical cause for the noises." I can only say that I took Burnett round the interior of the church and within a few moments I had located objects that made it possible for every recorded sound to have a natural explanation. I produce a full account of this experience at Borley in my book Hauntings.
Best always,
Peter Underwood

Many thanks for the newsletter. You clearly agree with me that as any real reasearcher knows, no case is ever closed!
All the best,
Guy Lyon Playfair

Just got through reading your email and am listening to the Borley song on the Ghosts CD I got from you (it is my favorite CD, I can't stop playing it).
David Barber

Thanks for all the Links to Sir Simon Marsden. I think he is great, but I have said that. Will you know when his book about "Russia"?? is completed? I read that is his present project. He is my photographic Hero.
Years ago I saw the cutest little Ghost story on PBS and I have just now found out the name of it. "Miss Morison's Ghosts" about a Girls School administrator in the early 1900's, who takes a much deserved vacation to Versailles and sees people on the lawns in Period clothes, much older than hers, who are doing just daily mundane things, like gardening, painting, etc. and she realizes she is seeing ghosts. When she goes back home and finally gets up enough nerve to tell her story she loses her job and all of her friends.
[I wonder if it was based on An Adventure by Moberly and Jourdain. Their similar visit of 10 August 1901 is famous as The Ghosts of the Trianon.]
To me, the best Ghost Movie ever made was "The Changeling".
Kathy Rageur

Bruce Raymond had an interest in the paranormal when he became acquainted with George and Iris Owen. Among his many film credits are Philip: the Imaginary Ghost, and Matthew Manning: Portrait of a Psychic.

Troy Taylor is probably the greatest living fan of Harry Price. He dedicated his most recent book to this pioneer paranormal investigator. Troy founded the American Ghost Society, runs America's Haunted Museum, and will be hosting the AMERICAN GHOST SOCIETY 2000 NATIONAL CONFERENCE JULY 28-29, 2000 IN HAUNTED ALTON, ILLINOIS. He also conducts tours, writes books, and distributes the "Ghosts of the Prairie" magazine. Visit his web site for details on all of the above, and if you dig deeply enough, you will find his biography page..

Richard Lee-Van den Daele sent his reminiscences of some Borley visits to Joseph Olding. He was kind enough to send us a copy.

From time to time, Art Bell devotes his entire show to hauntings. He modifies his radio program "Coast to Coast," to "Ghost to Ghost." You can listen anywhere in the world by linking to his web site. He has posted some pretty eerie photos for you to look at as well.

A new mistake I've not seen before appears in More Spooky Takes by Cliff Linedecker. In one sentence, the author leads us to believe the rectory is still standing, and says a slate was used to communicate with the poltergeists.

Troy Taylor dedicated his latest book to Harry Price. The Ghost Hunter's Guidebook calls Price a pioneer in paranormal research. In glowing terms, it credits Price with establishing the format for future investigations, including the introduction of a ghost hunting kit. There are two and one-half pages on Borley, along with a photo of the burned-out rectory.

Andrew Green wrote a review for the Fortean Times of the GHOST HUNTER'S GUIDEBOOK by Troy Taylor. I wonder if Andrew mentions Borley in his review? Has anyone seen a copy of this particular issue?

It doesn't mention Borley, but The Scole Report by Montague Keen is surely worth mention. It appears as Volume 58, Part 220, November 1999 of Proceedings of the Society of Psychical Research. Keen was kind enough to board me for the better part of a week during my September 1997 visit home. He was very involved in this project at the time, and could not give me any details. I've been waiting to see what it was all about ever since. This 452 page report is an amazing study of physical phenomena "associated with a mediumistic group in Norfolk." There are many full-colour photographs that will absolutely astound you. As Keen told me the report, "was debated at a crowded meeting in Kensington, London, on Saturday December 11." It would have been great fun to have attended that meeting. If you have read the report or heard about it, please feel free to comment. My sincere thanks to Eleanor O'Keeffe of the SPR for making sure I received a copy.