Introduction to Borley Rectory
by Kristy Rathbun
Borley Rectory is located in Essex and is known and often described as
“the most haunted house in England”. It was built in 1863 across from the
Borley Parish Church which dates back to the 15th century. Though the
rectory wasn’t built until 1863, the haunting of the Borley area dates back to
1066...
During the reign of Edward the Confessor, Borley Manor was owned
by a freeman by the name of Lewin. Then, at the Battle of Hastings in 1066,
William the Conqueror defeated Edward and acquired the manor. He had
given it to his half-sister, Adeliza. Adeliza’s successors held ownership for
more than two hundred years until Edward I obtained it. In 1301, he gave the
manor to the Prior & Convent of Christchurch, Canterbury. Another two
hundred years passed...
Henry VIII (eighth) rebelled against the Catholic Church and
suppressed the monatries, also taking possession of Borley Manor. It soon
became the property of Edward Waldegrave who was imprisoned in the
Tower of London five years later for refusing to tell the Princess Mary that
Mass must not be celebrated in her household. Princess Mary, being a
Catholic, soon became Queen and Waldegrave was released. It wasn’t long
after his release that he and his family were sent back. When Elizabeth I, a
Protestant, came to the throne, he was punished for holding Mass at Borley
Hall and for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy which was to
acknowledge the Queen as the head of the church. Waldegrave died in 1561
in the Tower of London at the age of forty-four and was buried at Borley
Church.
Another piece of legendary history was that in 1362, Benedictine
Monks built a monastery on the Borley site. The most famous story and
possibly the cause of the later hauntings was that of a monk who eloped with
a nun from the Bures nunnery. Two coachmen drove the getaway carriage,
but were caught not far from the monastery. The monk was hanged and the
nun was bricked up alive in the walls of the nunnery as punishment. The two
coachmen were either hanged or beheaded. Underground tunnels supposedly
connected the nunnery and monastery. This would soon become the most
commonly told event in the history of Borley.
Being the builder and first to inhabit the rectory, Henry Dawson Ellis
Bull became rector of Borley in 1862 and built the rectory a year later. A
further wing was added in 1875 to accommodate his seventeen children and
wife, Caroline Sarah Foyster. And so begins the story of Borley Rectory...
The first recorded paranormal activity at the rectory was reported by
Shaw Jeffrey during his visits circa 1885. He told of stone throwing and
“other poltergeist activity.”
The first sightings of the “Spectral Nun” were seen by Henry Bull and
his family. A garden path, obviously visible from the rectory, was known as
the “Nun’s Walk”. The Bull family often reported seeing a sorrowful nun
walking along the path.
The commonly known bricked window in the kitchen was done by
Henry. He had bricked it up because “the nun would stare at him through the
window even as he ate.” It would remain bricked up until his death on May
7, 1892. He had died in the Blue Room of the rectory and was succeeded by
his son, Henry (or “Harry” as he was often called), his wife, four daughters,
and an unknown number of other children.
In 1927, Harry died in the Blue Room and became the last member of
the Bull family to have lived in Borley Rectory.
The next residents to move into the rectory were Reverend Eric Smith
and his wife. During their stay, they had experienced several paranormal
activities including footsteps, voices, and a number of other phenomena. The
first sighting of the horse-drawn coach (believed to have been related to the
monastery incident in 1362) was also reported by the Smiths.
The first published report of the Borley Rectory’s paranormal activities
was made by the Daily Mirror in June of 1929 after being contacted by the
Smiths. This resulted in the first trip to the rectory by Harry Price who
became one of the most well-known psychic investigators and paranormal
researchers England has ever seen. Mrs. Smith soon became plagued by the
publicity and wrote a letter to the Church Times saying that the rectory was
not haunted. But, Colin Wilson and Harry Price both agreed that the letter
was “an attempt to stem the flood of publicity that followed the Daily Mirror
story.” It obviously didn’t work. The Smiths moved out in 1929, just two
years after moving in, never to return to the rectory.
The next Borley residents would experience “the most extraordinary
and best documented case of haunting in the annals of psychical research,” as
described by Harry Price himself. Reverend Lionel Foyster and his wife,
Marianne, moved into the rectory on October 16, 1930. Harry Price
estimated over two thousand poltergeist phenomena that took place between
October 1930 and October 1935, the tenancy of the Foysters.
The Foysters experienced the most unremarkable ghostly phenomena
and soon became the most famous Borley Rectory residents ever to have
lived there. Noises, objects being thrown about and broken, bell ringing,
physical attacks, wall writings, the mysterious playing of the organ, and the
appearances of Henry Bull and the Spectral Nun are just a fraction of the
things that happened during their stay.
The Foysters attempted an exorcism of the rectory and at first, the
outcome was positive. Then, after only a few days, the events grew worse.
Soon, it became physically and emotionally dangerous and they moved out in
October of 1935, exactly five years after they had moved in. Some say the
phenomenon drove the Foysters away and yet others believe Lionel’s failing
health was the reason for their move. But, either way, the rectory was silently
empty again, awaiting its next inhabitants.
copyright © 2000 by Kristy Rathbun
All rights reserved. Information used with permission from sources. Use of this document for any unauthorized purpose is prohibited. Taken from "The Other Side: Borley Rectory" anthology by Kristy Rathbun.
The Henry Bulls had at most, 14 children, not 17.
The Harry Bulls were childless, except for a daughter she brought from a previous marriage. See the Bull genealogy.
Vincent O'Neil