BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY

Welcome to the fourteenth edition of the Borley Ghost Society Newsletter.
It has been exactly one year since this venture began, and - thanks to you - it has been an unqualified success.
Merci' Beacoup!

Speaking of Internet web sites, The Encyclopedia Britannica is now online - free! At one time, it mentioned Borley, but not recently. I'm going to investigate for other paranormal references.

You can listen to Uri Geller live on The Doug Stephan Show at Webcast every Friday at 1400hrs England Time. Mr. Geller was also a guest on the Art Bell program October 26-27.

Hello Vincent!
"After seeing your excellent web page on Borley Rectory, I am hoping that you will be able to help me. I am an art student in my final year, studying 3D Design in Rochester, Kent, England, and I have been trying to gather information in order to make a model of Borley Rectory as part of my degree course. I have been working from pictures and photographs found in books, and have been working out the approximate dimensions of the house by counting the number of bricks around doors and walls.
"The books that I have been working from concentrate on the incidents, rather than the size and shape of the house, therefore I would appreciate it very much if you have any information on the dimensions of the house, or know of anywhere I can get hold of such information. I found the schematic on your web page very useful in showing the number and positions of the rooms, but as it was shown in perspective, I don't want to rely on guesswork for the dimensions!
"I had planned on making the fencing, gatepost and vines.
"Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated!
"Thanks!
Tina Linnell
[Tina; I am greatly heartened by your project, and wish you all the best. What do you plan on doing with the model when it is finished? When finished, please allow me the opportunity of featuring your work on my web site. Indeed, I would like to keep members of the BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY posted on your progress. It would be wonderful to post progress reports on my web site. Which books do you have? I can direct you to the various photos that will be most helpful. The book that will be of great help to you is THE ENIGMA OF BORLEY RECTORY by Ivan Banks. It gives you all the scale needed, and all the various elevations on pages 10 through 14. See also the bottom picture at the front of THE MOST HAUNTED HOUSE IN ENGLAND by Harry Price. It gives you a sense of the building not shown by other views. The most famous picture is from the side - NOT the front -- and is very deceiving. Are you familair with the model once owned by Peter Underwood)? Also, I have scanned in the view from the church which gives a sense of the actual size of the rectory - missing from the most common view from the south lawn.]

Dear Vince,
"Believe it or not, I'm still reading your website, and Julia is urging me to "get off" in order to walk the dogs.......it's unbelievable!
"We remembered a program on BBC-2 television in the late 60's early 1970's. The programs consisted of a series of ghost stories set in period time, in a play-acted and also documentary format. The series was fantastic and very convincing. The title of the series was something like "A Flash in the Dark" (something like that anyway-can't be too sure), and was very popular, because it retold famous stories that still had not been solved. One of the stories was about Borley, and it was really creepy.I'm sure the BBC in the UK, have transcripts about the program if you are interested. The series was really convincing, and well worth trying to get to see, if they have on video in the UK.
"I did have a very scary experience about 8 years ago in New York City. I saw the ghost of a woman at the home of Jacques D'Amboise (the ballet dancer- he was in the movie of Seven Brides For Seven Brothers). The house is a reasonably large brownstone/town house located on West 71st Street in New York City. The sighting was in the basement of the house, which years ago would have been the Kitchen and Servants area, rather than living accommodation. Nobody else saw anything. The apparition was solid black-no features-a pair of sparkling diamond earrings set against the light from the far end of a room.( I saw her in cameo-form). The lady I saw, was in period costume(Victorian)-tight waisted dress, full skirt, quite tall. She had her hair piled up on top of her head, and she moved relatively slowly. The strange thing was that she had no features or outlines of details- the figure was pretty much solid black(like a cameo)- and the one thing that initially caught my attention were her earrings which shone very brightly(twinkled in fact!). Perhaps she was a lady, because I can't imagine servants being allowed to wear fine jewellry! Even when she advanced quite close to me, about 6 feet away, I could see no details of her face, dress etc, because she was silhouetted in the light from inside the room. She certainly singled me out, made her presence known, then returned back into the room and disappeared back into the light at the far end of the building. I imagine the whole incident was 25 seconds at tops- but it seemed like eternity because it was so scary! Even when I think of it now- it gives me the "willies." It was very frightening, because she came very close to me, and identified herself only to me. My friends and Julia who I was having dinner with in a small garden, could hear the pounding of my heart beating over the sound of the loud hi-fi in the house!!!I was white- all the color rushed out of me. A psychic friend told Jacques that there was ALOT of activity in his basement floor of his house AFTER this incident. She slept over the night, but managed to get no sleep whatsoever. She never mentioned the woman I saw though. Many weird things happened after that actually.I don't know if it was connected with this incident. I saw a very well-known psychic in Hong Kong, and one here in New York a few years ago. They both said I was psychic, and this is not my first life. Julia I'm afraid, is scared of all this stuff. But she is interested all the same. The info. the psychics gave me was the same, and it's interesting how the things they said are coming to pass.
"That's all for now...gotta get back to the website.
"Best,"
John McIntyre

Hello,
"I've been thinking about that reference in Gould's Oddities of a note he has about moving coffins in Borley in 1882. Unless it was firsthand, the most likely place I can think of of him coming across it would be in a paper.
"While that's a lot to check (and certainly if someone has the time, they might think about it), but there is a perfectly good index to the Times for that era, namely the Palmer's Index to the Times, which various libraries hold either on print or CD-Rom.
"Unfortunately, I don't have direct access to that, but perhaps someone else might, and if it was a major enough story, there might just be something in the Times around 1882 that mentions it, which someone could find.
"Certainly pre-date any other newspaper reference!"
Jamas Enright

Hi again, Vince;
"Pat Cody, Sue-Ellen Welfonder and I are just back from the International Ghost Hunters' Society convention in San Antonio, Texas. This was a good chance to compare the American Ghost Society and the IGHS since we attended both conventions this year. They are completely different: the AGS concentrates on lectures by noted speakers in the paranormal field while the IGHS had a short talk by Dave Oester and the rest of the time was devoted to hands-on ghost hunting. We enjoyed both conventions very much and would recommend them to other interested ghost hunters.
"We stayed at the very haunted Menger Hotel in San Antonio, just across from the Alamo. In fact, our room overlooked the Alamo. Odd things have been seen on the Alamo grounds at night, but we had no such luck. Instead, we were directed by staff to sit beside an elevator which apparently goes up and down by itself. We did so late one night with my tape recorder running. Nothing happened. On playing the tape back, however, we heard a female voice speaking at times. At one point she said, "Oh, get away from me!" This was a fresh tape and the hotel was quiet at 11 p.m.; no radios or TVs playing. We think this might have been one of the hotel's 32 ghosts--a grumpy one who didn't want ghosthunters nearby obviously!
"We also explored the Alamo, went with the others to a haunted mission, haunted railroad tracks where we again picked up a strange voice making comments on my tape, and then to a haunted cemetery. By now it was 2 a.m. and soon after we pulled up to the rural cemetary the local cop stopped to see what we were doing. I had visions of us all being run in and having to be bailed out next morning! Fortunately, once the cop understood that we were just making photos in the cemetery on a beautiful moonlit night, he went away. We were heckled by kids driving by in cars, however, so didn't stay long.
"We got back to the hotel about 3 a.m., about the latest these ladies have stayed out in many a year. I wouldn't have missed it for anything, however.
"Our total ghost "bag" was: 2 examples of EVP or electronic voice phenomena; a number of floating "orbs" or balls of light, a reddish column of light in the courtyard at the Menger, and various headaches, cold chills, etc. which may or may not have been ghost-induced.
"Altogether a great time!"
Karen D. Stevens

Vince:
"Now that I have a faster Internet connection, I will "catch up" on the emanations from the Borley Ghost Society. I may even learn what's happening at Guy Woods!
"In the meantime, the days of Borley as "the most haunted house in England" are finished...at least as far as fact is concerned.
"When it comes to fiction, there is Clavering Grange, "the most haunted dwelling in the U.K." Stories and novels set in Clavering Grange appear in a series of fictional works written by R. Chetwynd-Hayes (b. 1919), a U.K. writer who specializes in writing ghost stories and collecting fiction about ghosts. The serie13of works begins with "The Dark Man" (1973).
"I have yet to read Chetwynd-Hayes's fiction, but I am familiar with his unusual byline and I came upon an entry devoted to him and his writing in "The Encyclopedia of Fantasy" by John Clute and John Grant, a truly remarkable book about fantasy art, literature, film, and music.
"So it's Borley (reality) and it's Clavering (fiction).
[Some have given Chingle Hall the title of "most haunted house in England," now that Borley Rectory no longer exists.]
"Readers of this bulletin will be interested in knowing that psychical researchers George and Iris Owen are doing well in their retirement in Calgary, Alta. Earlier this year I was able to issue a 100-page book about them called "Conjuring Up the Owens." It consists of three dozen tributes (including ones by Uri Geller and Vincent O'Neil) plus detailed information on their lives and work (especially the Philip Phenomenon). The semi-print publication is modest in appearance and available through Colombo & Company, 42 Dell Park Avenue, Toronto M6B 2T6, Canada; the cost is $20.00 (cheque or money order); no postage or taxes if prepaid. Later this year I am issuing Iris's memoirs: over 300 pages in semi-print form. It is the highly readable account of her "many lives": childhood, working near Bletchley, nursing, Trinity don's wife, volunteerism, New Horizons Foundation in Toronto, travels in Latin America, and what she humorously calls "my retirement"--she is busier than ever! Prepaid orders: $40.00 a copy."
John Robert Colombo

Dear Vince;
"The Discovery Channel had a piece on Borley last night [September 26] in "Mysterious Britain" - nothing of note other than some footgae taken in the vicinity of the church and inside it and the audio recording of Croom-Hollingsworth's efforts. Sean, my brother and I, had hoped it was heralding a rebroadcasting of the BBC "Ghost Hunters" film of lights flickering around the altar - but that was not shown."
Richard Lee-Van den Daele"
[It may not be much, but for me EVERYTHING is important! I log every mention of the place in my bibliography, and try to gather every film, every scrap of paper.........I'm betting more and more things like this will be popping up near Haloween AND as we get closer to July 28, 2000.]

Hello there, Vince;
"My wife, Sue, and I have just returned from a few days down in sunny Cambridge and, of course, one of those days was spent in and around Borley. I don't know if a part of it is to do with the nostalgia of my youthful visits there, but that area of Cambridgeshire, Essex and Suffolk has always seemed one of the lushest (if that's an actual word) parts of Britain. It conjures up visions of Cider With Rosie and the Darling Buds of May and I suppose that's why Constable painted it so much. Sue, who has never been there before couldn't agree more. Standing one warm evening on a 17th century bridge behind Trinity College with pealing bells, punts drifting below and swallows skimming the mirrored surface, she said it was probably the most English place she had ever been. We motored from Cambridge and spent the entire day in that triangle of tiny villages and rich countryside flanked by the A1092, the A604 and the A131. Anyone visiting Borley should be advised to take a look around there. Clare, Cavendish and the Belchamps are all well worth seeing - lots of thatched roofs, ancient horse chestnut trees, duckponds, medieval tithe barns and 12th century churches. It was nice to see Borley again too. The place hasn't changed much as such apart from the apparent paranoia. I find it very difficult to believe that there are now no road signs to Borley. Is it really the villagers who have pulled down every one including the actual name signs as you enter the place - or (and this is more likely) idiot tourists? I know that, each time they were replaced, the Strawberry Fields and Abbey Road street signs never lasted more than a few days. I remember, even with the signs, Borley was always a bit of a bugger to find with all those little criss-crossing country lanes but now, without a map or local knowledge, you wouldn't have a clue. As you know, the church is out of bounds, a new (or new to me at least) locked gate closes off the porch too and the gravel triangular area in front of the church where it was possible to park cars is now sealed off with concrete posts, chains and padlocks. I imagine this all comes down when weddings and funerals are happening, but we had to park way down the road up on the overgrown verge beyond what were the rectory gardens. The way the verges are cut back means you can no longer park anywhere in the village itself. I don't suppose I can blame the villagers. Another small change is that the old gravel path to the church is now replaced with 'stepping-stone' flags. I recall talking to London group once who had spent a night vigil in the church porch and claimed to have heard slow crunching footsteps approaching them, only to discover that there was no-one there.The rectory site is still empty, I see, but landscaped more now from the desolate area of waste ground it used to be. Another change, for the better, is the addition of a toilet block down the road at the Rodbridge Corner picnic site where I used to camp. Clean sinks for a wash in the morning! You're still not allowed to park overnight there, but if it was midweek and you acted stupid and didn't mention ghosthunting you might get away with not being told to move your camper van by a passing constable.
"By the way, I was intending to send you a few scanned photos of Harlaxton Manor where they shot the exterior film for The Haunting, but on the way home we ran into a thunderstorm (quite appropriately), so it never happened. I'll try again the next time we're down that way. If anyone wants to take a look at the place, Harlaxton lies just off the A1 west of Grantham on the A607.
"If anyone fancies seeing the place, Harlaxton Manor (where the film was shot) lies two miles west of Grantham in Lincolnshire, just off the A1. It's actually owned by you Americans. The University of Evansville, Indiana run it as a private college, but the public can explore the grounds, house exterior and extensive gardens. The place is open April to October every day except Monday and the adult admission is £3. The place looks exactly as it did in the movie except for the front gates. The college came out of the filming deal with brand new gates after allowing Dreamworks to smash down the old ones for the end scenes of the film."
Ian Jarvis

Hello Vince;
"The nearest haunted inn to Borley is The Bull in Long Melford. This inn is expensive, but it has 'atmosphere'. I have personally encountered strange 'tingling' feelings and the sense of someone behind me in the dining room. I think this deserves further investigation and my friends and I will be taking it in on our Borley trip. Also, to those who say that there is no record of any monastery at Bures (associated with the nun legend at Borley) - that is rubbish. Ruins of St Edmund's Monastery can be seen at Bures. Whether the Borley Nun eloped with a brother from this monastery hasn't been proved, the building certainly existed. I know this because my son's girlfriend is Bures born-and-bred and still lives there. I have seen the ruins for myself. Marianne was right."
Patricia Langley

Vince ~
I've located the Willard Library live cam, having recently been installed, courtesy of our local newspaper. I believe the site is called "Lady in Gray" cam. It's pointed toward the front of the library to catch a glimpse of the etheral lady who is known to haunt the old structure for a number of years. One time, according to a past employee in the childrens' book section, when Willard was going through a renovation, she was absolutely certain the "lady" followed her home until the renovation was complete and she could return to the library in peace. If any associate should happen to spot something, let me know...
Patricia Galbraith

Dear Sir,
Allow me to introduce myself I am an amateur filmmaker living about seven miles outside of Borley. I plan to make a documentary on the place and could really use the opinion of someone who shares the same interests. Any insight and knowledge you could give me would be most appreciated. Thanks.
Glen Ludlow
[Thank you for your interest. Have you considered joining the BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY? You will be able to share your ideas and goals with associates who have similar interests. Before you get started, please read my page addressed to visitors. Your efforts will not be met with open arms, but before you start you will need to contact the warden, living in the coach house across from the church. You will also want to contact the current rector. If you do not contact these people, you run the risk of being greeted by constables. Become very familiar with the information already available throughout my web site, and then decide what your objectives are. You will need to share this outline with the people mentioned above. The ghosts have mostly "moved on," and you are one of several people with the same idea. There may not be as much interest as you once hoped. Keep me posted.]

Pete Haviland has been hunting ghosts since high school, and has many media visits to his credit. He has caught quite a view anamolies on film.

Our youngest associate is Joseph Olding, a contributor to the work this last month. Although still in school, Master Olding has a serious interest in Borley and is a welcome addition to the Society.

Denice Jones has her own web site and a personal interest in the paranormal. She dedicates her time to helping those in crises with the supernatural.

If you would like me to make a profile page for you, just tell me a little about yourself and attach a photo to an e-mail.

One of these days I'm going to have to figure out just how small a reference to Borley is worth keeping in my collection. In Life, Death, and Psychical Research, there is one sentence about Borley in the bibliography for the chapter on "Poltergeists, Hauntings, and Possession." For now, I'll keep all such references, but one of these days. . . .
Will Osborne delivers electricity to the Rectory in his 13 Ghosts. Other than that, the four pages he devotes to Borley are fairly accurate.
I was able to obtain a copy of Larry Kettelkamps' Haunted Houses. He changes my mother's name to Marianne Morrison, and changes Henry's last name to Martin - but he leaves Harry Bull's name alone!