Sincere kudos to Sean O'Neil for the smooth transition to the new server. The web site was moved without a hitch. Thanks beyond words to Bill Vicars for recovering nine years of work when the server shut down, and it appeared all was lost.

Thanks for your website. Very interesting and comprehensive. I visited Borley two years ago as I have relatives named "Theobald" who lived there for at least a few hunded years. I obtained some Theobald records from the church going back to 1750. Can you point me to any other records that I could research please. Your Essex Archives has no mention of Theobald, but the records concern either the wealthy or those in trouble, and the Theobalds do not seem to fall into either category. (my mother is a Theobald, now 92 and living in Bury St Edmonds.)
Thanks,
Ken Taylor
[Thank you for your inquiry. I will pass along your request, as we have a couple of local historians in our group.]

About seven years ago I drove past Borley Rectory knowing nothing about it being haunted at all. I was about 21 at the time and was being shown around the Braintree District by a colleague at Braintree District Council. As I passed the Church, there was a man and woman standing near what I remember as a wall fronting the church. They both looked right at me as I drove past, the man was wearing black and looked very upset, his face very red/pink around the eyes. I assumed it was a funeral or something, although the lady with him was completely dressed in white and I thought it was a bit strange. I didn't discuss it with my colleague and he did'nt think anything of it at the time either. When I told my parents what I had done that day at work, my Dad told me that I may have seen ghosts. On reflection, I beleive I have too as there were no other people about at all, no cars, nothing. And I beleive that we may have been more open to seeing something as we hadn't gone to purposefully look for ghosts and as I said before, I didn't even know about Borley's past. If you can respond to this I would love to hear from you, particularly if anyone else has reported the same thing in the past.
Kindest regards,
Dean Fisk, Braintree, Essex

I am sorry to bother you but my friends and I have become interested in all things ghostly and Borley Rectory keeps coming up. Are visitors allowed to come round at nighttime to take photos?. I have seen on your site that you have had problems with people being destructive and loud and wondered whether you have stopped people from coming in. You advised that we should see the church warden about us visiting but we all live and work in Thetford and would not be able to leave here until after 5pm. Would he still be there then? Do you know if there is a phone number or email address that I could reach him on direct to ask the question?. We were hoping to maybe come over this Saturday night. There are only 5 of us and we are all considerate, polite adults who would do nothing to inflict harm or damage to someone elses property. Thanks for your time
Regards
Wendy Banks
[Not altogether stopped, but night time visits and rowdyism are met with complaints to the authorities. Try coming in the day time and explaining your wishes to the church warden. We sincerely appreciate you being aware of the fact this is private housing. The late hour does get to be a bit of a problem. Try to get there as early as possible. The churchwarden will be present, but may not be willing to open the church that late. There is no e-mail, and no phone numbers are made public - for obvious reasons. Thank you very much for your intentions.]

I visited borley for the first time last week. what immediately stuck me about the place was the intense silence.after veiwing the church for a while ,two shots ,like that of musket fire rang out at a location somewhere i reckoned to be at the rear of the church.a quick search of this area proved fruitless,and it was the only "oddity"i encountered during my visit.a short while later i could hear a sawing action coming from the rectory grounds,i looked up and saw a gentleman halfway up a leylandi tree! this was my introduction to major [sic] dorey of the rectory cottage.we discussed at length the growth rate of this tree he was cutting,and how it has become a national menace.i found the major [sic] to very amicable,and conversed freely.the major granted me permission to photograph the rectory site,and cottage (i enclose 3 phographs for you to enjoy) regards,
Alexander Macdonald

Here is a rather amazing set of tests that you might like to link on your site. They are by Dr. Dean Radin, the foremost authority in PSI research. The tests allow an individual to test their PSI ability. I find this a highly informative and useful web site.
Yours,
Henry Bailey

I think this "Stay away...don't call... Don't come...Don't talk to us" business is a little over-kill. If I lived in such a place I would enjoy getting to talk about it and getting to meet new people over it. Now weirdo's in the middle of the night might be annoying, and vandalism is unacceptable but the rest would not bother me at all. They chose to live there, They knew the history, They need to lighten up...I realize that you post that "warning" every time someone NEW asks, but the warnings seem to be be getting more personal and definite. I can understand "do no harm" "Don't wake them up" etc. But a knock on a door and a camera occasionally is getting a little unreasonable. Don't move into a haunted house if you don't want people to ask you if you ever saw the Ghost. Just my thoughts...
NAME ON FILE
[Visits to Borley are a very sensitive area for me. My mother ran because of all the pursuit. Then I come along in 1994 and created even more attention. It is that new publicity that concerns me. The web site gets millions of hits every year, and I do not want to be the source of more discomfort for the villagers. I have talked to a couple of them who agree my warnings HAVE paid off. I feel very cautious - and am willing to overdo it in favor of caution. I strive with great care to balance my search for new information with respect for the people. As I wrote in the mission statement of the Borley Ghost Society, "It is not the purpose of the Society to cause undue hardship, embarrassment, or discomfort to the present residents of Borley. Their rights and serenities will not be disrupted by any member of the Society. Such residents will be treated with the same dignity in which Associates of the Society would wish to be treated."]

Great issue. . . . and a tribute to your creation of a major research clearinghouse!
Harry Brown

I am the current editor of The Magic Circle's magazine The Magic Circular to which you refer in your [last newsletter]. . . . . before I became a full time magician in 1976 I was a sales rep for a builders merchant, working in and around the Borley area and so became interested in the subject, at the time reading the Harry Price material and as much else as I could easily get my hands on. One day I was visiting a client who notice the Price book on the back seat of my car and he asked of my interest. It turns out that when he was a younger man he was in charge of the gang of men that cleared the Borley Rectory site after the fire. He told me that while the work was going on several people would stop to pick up a souvenir - but it would not be many days before they returned to through whatever they had taken back onto the site, he also said that they would never walk onto the site, but would always throw from outside the fenced off area. He said that he had spoken to some of those people and that they had told him that 'bad luck' had befallen them since taking from the site.
Many thanks for the [follow-up article] - superb! I'll certainly use it in the next available issue. . . . [and] send you a copy as soon as it is printed.
Best wishes
Mike Austin

7 March 1996 I had the opportunity to visit Borley in October of 1990 with a tour group. The only stipulation was that we were not allowed to discuss the haunting at the Rectory while we were inside the church. To this day, I swear it was the coldest I have ever been in my life. We were all just fine until as we sat there, the cold seemed to roll toward us from the direction of the altar. It was a sensation I will never forget. I am glad to hear more of the history of your family and its connection with Borley. Thank you.
Monica Brown

5 June 1996 I went there with my mum and dad around 1976. It was a fine, sunny day, very hot. There was no one else about. I have photos from this time, but there wasn't much to see as the site had been cleared. However, whilst I stood talking to my dad at the car near the church about what tended to happen here to current visitors, my mother went strolling down the lane. I think it was a book by Peter Underwood I was quoting from which mentioned the phenomenon of stones falling on visitors. Next few seconds, my mother hurried back, obvioulsy worried about something. She said that she'd just been showered with gravel which hit her shoes, and she hadn't seen anyone about. She was in the middle of the lane, maybe 10 - 20 yards from the coach house. Well, we had had our own "Borley experience." Not much to report, but rather unnerving that whatever it was could strike in the middle of a hot summer day.
Tyrone Hopes

6 October 1996 I thoroughly enjoyed reading the information found at your web site and would like to obtain a copy of The Ghosts That Will Not Die. Your information is fascinating to me for a variety of reasons. I too, am adopted and have long suspected that my genetic family has some sort of . . . . paranormal link. As I read a bit further, it seems your mother joined the LDS Church - I'm interested to know why she did that. Thanks,
Holly Holden
[She probably joined the LDS Church for social reasons.]

4 September 1996 I was delighted to find these pages of yours on the 'net. I have been fascinated by the Borley Rectory story ever since first reading the Harry Price books as a teenager, 20 years ago. I have visited Borley a couple of times. I surely would love to have seen that house, but of course there is no sign now that it even existed. The church is an interesting place, though. I await the publication of your book with baited breath. I am particularly interested to learn whether or not there is more to the Borley story after the burnt our rectory was demolished, or did the saga end there. Best wishes. . . .and good luck with the writing.
Stuart Maxwell

24 November 1995 It's fascinating to hear that your mother lived at Borley Rectory for five years. Did she experience anything untoward whilst at the site? Do you have any information or books on the rectory at all? It's always a popular subject amongst paranormal investigators. . . .and I've come across a mountain of stuff in the past. Drop me a line and let me know what you have already, and I'll have a rummage and see what else I can come up with. Keep in touch,
Mike McKeown
Ghostwatch Magazine

5 August 1995 I am MAD on Borley Rectory. It was one of the few ghost tales I really liked. I've forgotten most of the story, but the team of ghost experts sent in a month before the burning contacted a ghost in the Blue Room that told them the place was going to burn down that very night. Unfortuantely, the ghost was a week early!
Chip Pieroni
[The seance was held 27 March 1938. The fire was midnight, 27 February 1939.]

7 August 1995 . . . .some of the things [Trevor Hall] pointed out about Harry [Price] were well documented, and I believe he even brought in co-authors to examine some other specific claims. I seem to remember Harry's claims on rare books and coins being blasted aaprt by different experts within In Search of Harry Price. It's been ten years or more since I read the book. Trevor may have been a bit bitter, but can you imagine the frustration of people buying this guy's horse dung, when you know he's been a sideshow man all his life? I think Trevor's examination of the whole spiritual craze was well deserved. That whole business was rotten to the core. Even Colin Wilson, that well-traveled psychic believer, has torn apart some of the famous mystics of the early 20th-century, but then he goes back to say, "however, even though they faked it this time (by hiding a badger in their shirt or whatever), they had some real psychic powers that they manifested at other times." This quote is entirely fabricated by yours truly, but it's represenative of one of many passages in Poltergeist. Where I stand: I believe people are seeing and experiencing very strange things. If you want to call this phenomenon spiritualism or ghosts, then I believe in the existence of those things. For almost all of the occurences of this phenomenon, you have to take a person's word for it. After reading or listening to it in places like our wonderful Usenet group enough times, you have to say, "What the heck is going on?" I can believe a group of ordinary people, but I won't tend to believe a person when they are gaining significant financial gains from their stories. Ok, I'm starting to sound a little like Mr. Hall, but it's the fakes and ripoff artists that make the stories we read daily so hard to tell for some people, so I think even we have a right to be a little upset about something like this. Hope I didnt burn your ear too much. You may be right about Trevor in his other books - I'm not sure about those. I would be very interested to see what comes of your endeavors. Feel free to drop me a note when you have completed your work. If you publish, I would certainly buy a copy.
Chris Pauer

7 February 1998 Thirty years ago, as a 13 year old school boy, I viisted the village library one evening after school. It was winter, and the old, ivy-clad building dripped with rainwater as I hurried in from the cold, clutching my library ticket. The building still stands today, and is now the Community Centre in Newton Hall, near Durham City. The village is now a sprawling, modern housing development and much of the character has gone from the area, but I am digressing from my tale. I left the library clutching a dog-eared copy of The Most Haunted House in England, and spent the next two weeks scaring myself silly as the tale unfolded before me. I have read the book a dozen times or more since then, and eventually bought my own copy for 25 pounds sterling from an antique dealer in 1995. The Borley saga has fascinated me for three decades and I have traveled to the site on a number of occasions by car. The church is usually locked because of vandalism and the odd occult ceremonies which sometimes take place at night. The locals, as you must be aware, are thoroughly fed up with visitors hunting for the nun, and on my first trip to Borley I made the mistake of ringing the doorbell of the cottage opposite, where the churchwarden lives. The lady who answered the door was very abrupt with me, claiming that I was another of the idiots who'd come about the haunting. I protested that I merely wished to see the Waldegrave tomb, and she eventually relented and unlocked the church. We chatted for some time, and I was sorry to hear about the problems faced by locals. People arrive in the middle of the night and sit in parked cars watching the church. Graves have been desecrated, black masses have been held, and the police now mount regular patrols, especially at Halloween and on the anniversary of the nun's appearance. Life is none to easy for the poor folk of Borley as we approach the end of the 20th century. My employer is BBC Television, and the church warden heaped much of the blame for the plight of the locals upon the irresponsibility of the BBC's radio and television broadcasts over the years. I agreed wholehearedtly with her - simply to avoid an argument. I sent this e-mail because I am very interested in your two books, The Most Haunted Woman in England, and The Ghosts That Will Not Die. I would like very much to obtain copies of both. . . .I shall continue to read your Web contributions with great interest, and have enjoyed them every bit as much as the BBC documentary "Haunted," screened in the UK in October 1994 - perhaps even more so.
Very best wishes,
Bob Richardson

Underwood, Peter. "The Ghosts of Borley." Phantom. York: Ghost Research Foundation International. Issue 1, Autumn/Winter 2002. pp. 16-7. Photos of book cover, Underwood, church, and carriage etching. (Book promotion. Rundown of material covered. Editor's note at foot of article refers to GRFI investigation of Bull Hotel in Long Melford - "Harry Price stayed at this hotel for much of his investigation at Borley.") **

Jarvis, Diana. "Terror at the Tower." Phantom. York: Ghost Research Foundation International. Issue 1, Autumn/Winter 2002. pp. 36-7. (In longer discussion of tour through various sites, mentions ". . .followed by a trip to Essex to stay near the infamous Borley and check it out. . . .The Bull [Hotel in Long Melford] was a stunning hotel in a small village in Borley surrounds. . . . our first business was Borley. Borley is not only one of the most haunted places, but also the hardest to find. Because of the number of ghost hunters wending their way there, all the road signs have been removed that mention it. We spent WAY too long getting entirely lost and never found it. Maybe the whole village is a spectre?") **

Love the new look of the website -- very easy to find various pages! My five-year old German Shephoundweiler (i.e., mutt) will be walking April 12 in High Point, NC to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis research. My dearest friend has had the disease for more than 14 years, and is still fairly functional. She gives herself shots every other day in the hopes that the medicine will slow the progression of the disease, but as of yet there is no cure, and evidence is shaky as to whether the medicines actually work. Jubal (the dog) will be sporting a banner bearing the names of some of his sponsor groups, and the Borley Ghost Society will be listed on the banner, along with about six others. I will try to get a picture of him in his banner, to share with the Associates.
Again, Vince, thanks for all you do!
Take care,
Linda Cody

Dear Vincent, thank you for your messages today. Looking again at your web-site though I came across a message from someone called Eddie Brazil who claims you have been posting "gung-ho" pro-war articles there. It saddens me very much that the war is contaminating just about everything at the moment, and I did hope that some areas might be safe! If you are a George W Bush/Tony Blair supporter then I'm afraid we're going to have part company right now. I have had very strong views about this war right from the beginning, and we can argue the pros and cons of it until we are blue in the face, and I doubt anyone will come out of this saying they were truly right. Believe me, I don't want to do this, but you might have left me no option. It's very sad indeed. Final message. I respect your views and your reasons for them, but I do repeat that I really don't think this is the best forum for airing them. War causes enough misery as it is without adding to it, and I speak as the daughter of a D-DAy veteran. Bye,
Sarah Hapgood.
[I am a strong supporter of my daughter and her fiancee. Sorry to see you leave. As you write more on Borley, please consider getting in touch, as I have much information that will be helpful to you.]

Dear vince. . . you were right. . . .hope your son in law is fine. Well done the U.S and our own brave lads.
Eddie Brazil

[As announced the day these pages were created, the original plan was to create a separate web site for wesupportyou.com Unfortunately, my computer crashed, and then the server disappeared. Fortunately, by the time those two headaches were solved, the war was over!]