Welcome to the forty fourth edition of the Borley Ghost Society Newsletter. The Ides of March are upon us, and there is far too much news to hold over until the end of the month, hence this edition.
Happy St. Patrick's Day to those who care to celebrate it! [My mother always used to ask with a broad smile, "Why are you always so Irish? Do you realize you have other parts in you as well?" I honestly think there were times she forgot my true origin.]

WOW what have you done with the Borley Web Site....Impressive. . . But it is real different and I can't wait to follow all the links. . . . The new web page is great, When did you do all that? It was the old page just a few days ago, because I visited, Then all of a sudden here is this great web site. I love all of the pictures especially the one of the Organ. It is very pretty. No bites yet on "Who is this child?" I swear he looks a lot like the kid on the front row left of the preceding picture of the choir. Same shape face, same ears :-)just a little older.
Kathy Rageur

I have just finished reading The Ghosts That Will Not Die, and I must thank you for a wonderful and fascinating read, and congratulate you on a magnificent [book] - a must for anybody that is interested in the Borley phenomena. I will be ordering more of your [books] in the very near future. The one that I am thinking of purchasing is The Most Haunted Women In England. Once again thank and all the best to you and yours :)
Regards,
Gary Cooke
[You are most kind. Thank you very much. Both titles are in the process of being added to the web site, so keep an eye on the Master Index.]

The website is greatly improved. It's perfect for me to do searches on. You've been working so hard on the site! I was so pleased to see the rebuttal of the Dingwall, Goldney and Hall book. Rare stuff. And the manuscript of your mothers' autobiography. I've been having so much fun digging arround in all this material. It would be great to have a complete 'Dramatis personae' on the site: in other words a brief Biog for everyone who appears in the saga, including the spirits, pseudonoms (e.g. Mr Teed), and maybe also authors of articles on Borley. One question: are Price's original notes of his first visit accessible?
Andrew Clarke
[Thank you very much! The changes are a family affair - my children have encouraged me to expand the site. I have none of the Harry Price notes, but they are ALL in the Harry Price Library in various binders and file boxes. There is a new section on the web site devoted to Tidbits about Borley. A list of characters is in the works, thanks to decades of research by Alan Roper. As far as authors go, the Bibliography will have to suffice for now.]

You've done a great job with Borley web site. I spend much time on the master index page these days. In case this hasn’t been mentioned, of the three boys in the front row of the choir - the boy in the front middle along with the boy (young man) on the front right seem to have the same names as two of the boys in the back row of the Borley school. The also look like these boys. I presume they’re the same people.
Scott Cunningham
[Thank you. It is quite likely the people are the same, as Borley was a small neighborhood.]

My book will be published in the summer as a joint project between myself and Keld Fenwick [of] Pentlow. . . .The title of the book has been altered [to] Borley Rectory: the final analysis. The contents, which I have described. . . will not be altered greatly. However, I have added a "References and Sources" section, which consists of primary sources where possible, and it is planned to use many more photographs (some very early) than was intended originally. . . . Alan Wesencraft has always been enthusiastic about the book and he feels it will be successful in the USA. . .
With many thanks,
Edward Babbs

The tenor of Borley Rectory: the final analysis is a sober appraisal of what has happened; it does not have a sensational approach. We hope that it will be regarded as required reading for all those seriously interested in the phenomena at Borley. It will be hardback as befits a more serious title.
Keld Fenwick

[I am taking advanced orders, and am delighted to offer this book for sale.]

I was contacted by my brother-in-law Symon Densham today who told me of your website and your interest in Borley. You may be interested to know that I accompanied Denny, my father-in-law, on all his visits to the site. In fact I am the 'Peter' mentioned on the tape when we were sitting in the choir stalls and had something hurled at us! I remember the queer 'lights' that we saw, which first appeared in the curtains at the font end of the church. These elongated into strips and then rather like those strange 'Mysterons' in 'Captain Scarlett', they 'flowed' over the pews towards us. If that object had not been thrown with such a force I don't know what we might have gone on to see and witness. The lights had just about reached the point at the edge of the Waldegrave tomb when the crashing noise occurred. The lights 'withdrew' instantly. It certainly wasn't moonlight, the lights moved far too quickly for that and it was a heavily clouded night as I recollect.
I have been back on a number of occasions since and certain odd things have happened, which are far too detailed to mention now, but should you be interested I will take the time to write them up for you.
It is my personal belief that Borley must have been an ancient fertility site way back in the past. It would certainly help to explain Mrs Foyster's various 'problems'! I have been conscious of an undoubtedly vibrant energy at times surrounding the place, experienced its strange effects on people in the church and have also witnessed a fall of 'angel hair' in the churchyard on at least one occasion.
My father-in-law was the one who was truthfully steeped in the whole tradition of ghost hunting, having had a number of strange experiences centred around the death of his sister-in law during the 1950s, which first roused his curiosity. I have rather lost touch with the whole ghost hunting scene since Denny's sad death in 1992. He was such a great communicator and loved all the strange phenomena connected with the unexplained. I am afriad I became very disillusioned with certain types of people I met during our investigations, who have made it their business to go about "trashing" hauntings since that time. . . . .
I do not have any explanation for the noises on the tapes. I know precisely where our professional tape recorders were located and they were nowhere near stone floors or wooden floors either. All the floors were carpeted when we visited the place anyway. We could not find anything in the church that would make the parchment-like noises, or those extraordinary clumping footsteps, or the squeaking bolt noises either. As a matter of fact I was the first one to notice the build-up of static "background noise" on the tapes before a sound "incident" occurred. It was very much like an energy increase before the sound actually "materialised" in the building. Due to the precise placement of our stereo microphones we could roughly work out where the "noises" were manifesting in the church. . . . We always locked the church and remained on watch outside the building, on most occasions leaving the tapes running inside unattended. These sessions were usually in thirty minute segments. Why would any person who might have hidden themselves in the building then wait for twenty minutes before making any noise? Some runs we made with no sounds at all, others were loaded with noises. None of it made any logical sense. On loads of sessions we asked the entities to communicate, they never did! We had tapes pulled out of some of the machines on certain occasions, yet other machines in the building were left alone. We tried a number of times to duplicate a "jam" on the affected machines but they operated perfectly outside the church, but when returned inside they simply would not function properly at all.
I dispute wholeheartedly Peter Underwood's claim that: "...in the company of a BBC producer I located, within moments, objects inside the church that made it possible for every noise recorded to have had a natural explanation..." [complete discussion posted]
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that these noises were and are random, audible psychic "junk" recorded in some of the stones that make up the fabric of the building. Certain physical conditions encourage the manifestation of these noises, which do not appear to be intelligently controlled at all; rather being random sound "bites" that manifest in a strange way. That is not to say there is not something peculiar happening at Borley. I do believe that there is a visible energy presence in the church, because I have seen it and I consider that the sound manifestations are just another symptom of something that is "adrift" in the area. Perhaps there was a standing stone (or stones) in the vicinity at one time, which channelled this difficult energy and it now has no point of focus to direct it in any specific way? Other than that I have no other explanation to offer you at all. However, I do believe the energy itself was, is and continues to be connected with fertility and fecundity! I have had personal experience of this also!
Through personal experience I discovered that many of the people who vehemently will not, or cannot accept the existence of "ghosts" have led less than "savoury lives" themselves. There is often a huge helping of personal GUILT involved in their frenetic anti-ghost expostulations! I think the major problem is that should they be forced to admit an afterlife actually does exist, then these people think they might be called to account for some of the more negative moments in their lives! How silly can you get? The transmigration of souls doesn't work like that. No one judges you but yourself!
Yours faithfully
Peter Quiller
[Thank you for offering a complete discussion of the audio tapings. Please, feel free to contribute at whatever length you desire - a new hard drive has just been installed to allow us more web pages. Photos are also welcome, and can be attached to an e-mail as JPG images.]

I have just spent over an hour going through the planchette writings from October 1939. These offer some amazing insights into this phenomenon, either there really was a presence or this is a very convincing hoax. I cannot believe that such a comprehensive hoax was possible to organise. Has anyone tried such a method at the site in recent years? I live very close to Borley and therefore would be very interested to learn of any on-going research. Surely such a strong happening cannot just fade away? Your web-site is outstanding and is the finest of its type I've ever seen, my most sincere gratitude is due for all the interest its given me.
Very best regards,
Matt Giles, Essex, UK
[Thank you very much for the compliments - I appreciate hearing from you. Whilst I do not keep a list of all the visitors - and their activities - it seems unlikely that SOMEONE has not tried such research since 1939. As with any visitors researching the paranormal, however, they may have been met with less than hospitality by the residents. (Please see my advice to visitors.) I will pass along your inquiry to the associates of the BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY, including your e-mail address.]

I wonder if I would be related to anyone over there?
Craig Borley
[I'll pass your name along and see if anyone gets in touch. Be sure to visit the Borley genealogy web site.]

I have a couple of points to make about Ch. 5 of “The Ghosts That Will Not Die.” What kind of a reputation did Mr. Swanson, the gentleman who interviewed Marianne for this particular interview, have? In other words, was he regarded as open-minded with respect to what Borley Rectory witnesses had to say? The reason I ask is that I find some of Mr. Swansons notes pertaining to Marianne’s recollection of events in the rectory to be misleading. In other words, Mr. Swanson seemed to be playing the part of a prosecutor, perhaps trying to twist her words, as opposed to sincerely wanting to find what the facts were....could it be that Mr. Swanson was more interested in finding ways to undermine Marianne’s credibility?
Scott Cunningham
[Swanson's FIRST question was not about Borley: ".....on your way to London one day, you met Henry Fisher...." Question eight was, "Did you have relations with him?" Swanson's credentials were defined by Eileen Garrett in a 31 January 1958 letter to Trevor Hall: "Your [book of notes about Marianne] is now being read by an investigator, a man who is used by the legal firm of Greenbaum, Wolff and Ernst who I know well. He is a security agent, actively employed and is also an attorney. I had to hand him the whole record which has fascinated him so much that he intends to follow up the case himself, and in the meantime he has insisted on keeping the manuscript so that he can read and re-read until he has gotten hiself compeletely absorbed in the story. . . .[Swanson] promised that he would pick up the first part of his travel expenses and leave for North Dakota. . . ."]

I am sending another photo that I took at Borley Church on Saturday the 2nd, again it was one of a number of photos taken that night all of which again, were, normal apart from this one . It too was taken with my Digital Camera and shows again some strange image, I did see this image in the flash of the Camera with my own eyes although no presence were felt. I am at a loss as to explain this away.
Gary Cooke
[Thank you for your recent photo - it has been posted with the others. We will have to review your submissions and decide which we want to feature, as their simply isn't room to post all of them. Another concern is the fact that none of them establish WHERE they were taken - there is no clear indication they are from Borley. Thank you very much for your continued interest!]

Just a quick note to say that I very much enjoyed reading the latest BGS newsletter. Also, I've made arrangements for a visit to Borley, having not been there for more than a decade. It'll be in mid-summer, when the days are long, the nights are (hopefully) warm, and the moon is full. Of course, I'll let you know how it goes, regardless of whether or not there's anything interesting to report.
As an aside... I recently saw a video in which the narrator said that "orbs" of light on photographs were considered by many to be a precursor to paranormal activity. I immediately thought of some of the pictures on the Borley Rectory website that have been submitted by your correspondents. It seems that these individual "orbs" are quite common on photographs and the theory is that they eventually join with other orbs, perhaps to form a single apparition. Hmmm... I've never heard of this before but, then, I can never find as much time as I would like to read-up on the subject of the paranormal.
As ever,
Stephen D. Smith

My grandfather was born in 1912 and this was the sort of picture he had taken, when he was three or four. So I think that the date would be about 1915/1916.
Miss Donna Swann

I have a quick question for you. Are you aware of anyone having an award called the Harry Price Award? I can't remember if I have heard of this one. Our group was thinking of presenting a yearly award to the group doing the best research in the field of the paranormal. I went ahead and put it on the web site. If I hear back that someone already does this, I will immediately remove it - not the award, but the name.
henry bailey
[What a great idea - I'll dig around and see - it might take a couple of months to hear back from all concerned.]

Louis Mayerling passed away on Sunday 17 February, aged 88 years. Whatever his merits regarding the truth and the fiction he presented as fact, he was an apparently harmless and personable character and we must say God rest his soul.
Stewart P Evans

Regarding ghost pictures, would you consider suggesting to any ghost hunters you know to consider employing stereogram photography with respect to their investigations? I admit that this is a lot easier to say than do. For one thing, making a stereogram would raise the cost of ghost hunting since it’s best to make stereograms with the proper equipment. (I’ve made stereograms with a single lens camera but what ghost is going to hold still until the photographer is happy that a stereogram made with a regular camera has been done right.) However, having a 3D record which contains an unexpected cloud of mist may also take some of the guesswork out of trying to determine what some otherwise uncertain shapes in that mist are.
Scott Cunningham

I live about an hour and a half from Duke. They have a truly amazing "chapel" there, done up in cathedral style, which is very European in feel. It's a lovely campus. . . .I've always been fascinated by the Rhine Center, and wonder how significant their research results are with regard to telekinesis. From what I've read, they *have* proven that certain subjects (when concentrating on mentally manipulating tiny steel beads as they flow through a sorting apparatus) produce an effect which is slightly higher on the percentage scale than that which can be ascribed to chance, but unfortunately, the percentage is so slight that the scientific world has taken little notice. It seems such a shame that we have no circumstances under which a poltergeist phenomenon has consented to manifest itself under laboratory conditions!
Eileen Garrett is certainly a famous name in the annals of parapsychology. She showed rather remarkable qualities as a spirit medium, didn't she? I'm glad she did show a concern for you . . .
With regard to your essay The Final Question -- you have a gift for putting your deepest personal struggles into words. . . . You are a generous (and courageous) person to share these hidden depths from within your soul. . . .
Linda Cody
[Thank you very much. The remainder of your reply has been posted in the essays section. Your contribution is sincerely appreciated.]

Our Rector, Joseph Thomas Davies, was always referred to as Father Aquinas. In fact, I did not ever know his 'given' name [as furnished by Alan Roper.]. . . . His death 'in harness' was a great shock to us all.
Andrew Clarke
Pentlow

we have a picture of borley rectory in a book, you have the same picture entitled "view from southeast". We have noticed a little boy leaning out of the first window on the right next to the tree. He is wearing what looks like a sailors outfit for a young boy, similar to the young boy you cannot identify. We have also noticed that in this picture of borley rectory appears to show the building borded up. You can clearly see the facial features of the boy in period clothing. Please contact me if you also see this and have any information.
JJones9887
[ Over the years, many people have reported seeing different images within the various photographs taken at Borley, including people in the windows. The Henry Bull family was a large one, with up to 14 children, servants, relatives, and constant visitors. It would not be unusual to see faces at the windows.]

I have a copy of A.C. Henning's book 'Haunted Borley'. It is a copy that he sent to the writer Dennis Wheatley. Enclosed in the book is a letter from Henning to Wheatley in which he talks about the hauntings. Also, on the inside of the front cover of the book, Wheatley has written down an annecdote related to him by Kenneth Allsop: "Kenneth Allsop, the book reviewer of the Daily Mail, told me that when Borley was in the news he was sent down to do an article on it, and with him he took a photographer. Borley was then being 'debunked' so that had to be the tone of the article. But, when the photographer developed his photos, the figure of a nun could be quite clearly seen on one of them. He took it to Allsop, who took it to his Editor, but the Editor said 'No, I just daren't print it.'" This anecdote is repeated in Wheatley's introduction to the Sphere paperback edition of 'Harry Price Ghost Hunter' by Paul Tabori which was number 7 in The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult series published in 1974. Apparently this photograph WAS published by the Daily Mail, so the anecdote isn't completely accurate. I actually visited Borley in the 1960s and found it very interesting but was surprised to find that there was such a big website dedicated to it. I acquired this book because of my interest in Dennis Wheatley without realising that it was such an important book in terms of the Borley hauntings. I'm glad that I've been able to share it with the society. I'm certainly no expert on the Borley hauntings, but I've certainly heard of your mother and the incredibly important role she played in the whole Borley legend. From what I remember, Marianne is considered to be the medium through which much of the activity was channelled, and I remember seeing photographs of her name written on the wall. I've often wondered whether Shirley Jackson who wrote 'The Haunting of Hill House' was inspired by the Borley events, as there are one or two similarities, the name on the wall being one of them. I'm always surprised by who one meets on the internet, I was recently communicating with Oscar Wilde's grandson! And as with you, it's almost like touching history.
Best regards,
Richard Humphreys
[Thank you very much! I appreciate your thoughtfullness. We each contribute what we have, which increases the whole. Please see my review of the Jackson book.]

Williamson, Chet. City of Iron. New York: Avon Books, 1998. Fiction. First part of The Searchers Trilogy. "The basic premise of the series is that three CIA operatives, who, unbeknownst to themselves, are asked by a rogue CIA director to investigate paranormal activities and claims and not to find out the truth, but to debunk them and send him reports regarding these claims. . . .Famous cases, such as the investigation into the Borley Rectory hauntings, are discussed. . . ." - Review by Timothy Binga ("The buildings had sat vacant now for nearly three months, while the tabloid press [referred to them as] 'Melton's Madness - America's Borley Rectory!'" p. 108. "You know, this very well might be America's Borley Rectory, like the Inner Eye said. Because what people tend to forget is that Borley - the most haunted house in England - was a total hoax. Even the Society for Psychical Research said that there wasn't a thing that happened at Borley that couldn't have a rational, non-supernatural explanation. And all the things that couldn't be explained were probably done by Harry Price. He was the ghost hunter who built his reputation on Borley." p. 112. "No, I believe Melton when he said they investigated the light. They just didn't do it the right way. . . Borley Rectory. More so than they think?" p. 119. "The comparison to Borley made me think of the train. That's how I figured out the lights. . . .There were lights in Borley, too. . . .and no one knew ehere they came from, either. It turned out they were the reflections of the headlight of a train that wasn't really visible from inside the room, and not at all from down on the ground. That's why they appeared about the same time every night." p. 184. In The Ghosts of Borley, Peter Underwood wrote about "a strong white light" witnessed by two members of the Ealing Society 20 August 1949: "There were no trains passing at the time nor any traffic on the road past the rectory site." p. 176.) **

Hastie, Jack. "The Haunting of Borley Village." The Paranormal Review. London: The Society for Psychical Research. January 2002, pp. 18-24. (Lengthy and objective condensation of the various coverages - pro and con - over the years, including both the Dingwall/Goldney/Hall report of 1956, and the Hastings rebuttal of 1969. "More significant today [than retelling the legend] is the history of how the tale was told." Indicates works by Hall and Wood "left Price and Marianne without the slightest shred of credibility," then asks, "But was it really a rout?" Summarizes the Hastings rebuttal as "successful to only a very limited degree," but adds, "an appendix contributed by Peter Underwood went a long way to re-establishing the reliability of Edwin Whitehouse's testimony." Hastie calls this evidence, "crucial," as Whitehouse saw on three separate occasions, "the levitation of a stiletto, a bottle, and a tumbler, in circumstances in which Marianne could not possibly have been responsible." As the historical list of authors continues, Hastie indicates the Louis Mayerling effort, "has been so comprehensively rubbished by Vincent O'Neil that it is mentioned here only for the sake of completeness." Lionel Foyster is somewhat redeemed even though he "may have to be added to the list of liars and fakers," because "some residue of genuine phenomena may have survived the Dingwall critique." Calls the appearance of the nun to four Bull sister, "the best attested single event," and says the Dingwall attempt to call it an illusion, "reflects his own preconception that everything at Borley has to have a natural explanation." Thorough list includes research by Iris Owen and Pauline Mitchell, which is described as going "too far in stating the Smiths were experiencing a 'full-blown poltergeist situation' when Price arrived on the scene," but adds, "it does seem probable that relatively minor phenomena were genuinely occurring." Declares "Poltergeists do not strike the same place twice," but, "at Borley we are expected to believe that an outbreak between 1928 and 1932 was followed 42 years later, by another 200 yards away [at the church], all in a village of a hundred inhabitants. This coincidence of two strikes is unparalleled in the history of the poltergeist." Hastie zeros in on alleged disturbances at the church in recent decades and states, "It cannot be safely concluded that anything other than minimal and probably infrequent phenomena such as those reported by Henning have occurred in the church or churchyard." On the other hand he summarizes about the rectory, "If we exclude all the phenomena reported from the Bull period and nearly all after 1944, there appears to be an irreducible core of evidence which cannot be explained away." Sympathetically observes, "The village has also been the subject of such widespread publicity that it has become a magnet for cranks and charlatans." Given all the attention from 1929 through today, Hastie elaborates his theme that, "the post 1944 material has never been subjected to the kind of critical scrutiny which the earlier evidence received." After disecting the various works since Price, Hastie challenges, "there is scope for further research here.") ** Reply by Vincent O'Neil