I'd like to think that I'm finallygoing down hill with respect to completing this report, that all Ihave to do is organize the paragraphs and improve overallreadability. However, I have taken yet another investigative detourafter becomming aware of alleged poltergeist activity which, althoughseemingly boring on the surface, on second glance seems to fit theBorley Rectory "formula" of something being moved to a well.
On this undate I reexamined somestrange happenings in the main stairwell. I've determined that thesehappenings possibly reflect that the Rectory's poltergeist nunintended the cold spots, especially the one on the first flooroutside the Blue Room, to be thought of as a well shaft. I will noteother poltergeist activity concerning the "well head" outside theBlue Room. Indeed, one incident may have been a charade usingMarianne Foyster and Dom Richard Whitehouse as "volunteer" actorsdepicting the nun and the murderer of the nun dropping the nun downthe well. See foryourself...
Again, note that I am still in theprocess of double-checking all the detail's I've referenced in thisreport as I have caught myself embellishing the details of what wasalleged to have happened at Borley Rectory. Still, I feel this reportis relatively accurate. Also, feel free to volunteer critiques onanything about this report as I feel it has no more form at this timethan some spirits do. ;^) Indeed, critique even the font I used forthe periods. ;^)
House Rule: Any acknowledgment ofthe understanding of any assertion in this report on the reader'spart will not be construed that the reader is agreeing with thatparticular assertion or any other assertion in this report.
Introduction
1. "Normal" ghost phenomena concerning nun'sfreedom, betrayal, imprisonment:
The following lists, 2 and 3, reference the sameevents. The events are organized roughly chronologically in list 2and then by checklist criteria in list 3.
2. Out of context charade phenomena concerningnun's fall into well:
3. Borley Rectory nun well tragedy generalchecklist:
Note 1. I haven't bothered to address such things as the phantomstagecoaches and their headless horsemen or other Borley phenomena asthey don't seem to have an "obvious" place with respect to the nun'stragedy "formula".
Note 2. I do not see cloud formations which I think resemble a nunfalling into a well. ;^)
Note 3. One of the things that distinguishes the Borley Rectorypoltergeist from other alleged poltergeists is the amount of energythat went into moving objects. Indeed, if certain happenings,especially Marianne Foyster's being catapulted from her bed severaltimes in one day are considered, manually duplicating such eventspose the risk of back injury, for example.
Note 4: I attribute many strange happenings at the Rectory tohorseplay, especially many instances of "psychokinetic" happeningsthat took place during the Foyster days. It's just too much of atemptation for practical jokers to try to get a rise out of peoplewith some kind of a prank especially when you're at a place that hasa reputation for being haunted. However, I don't believe thateverything was a prank.
Note 5: With respect to note 4, the lack of detail in the writtenaccounts of many of the strange happenings makes it difficult toascertain if paranormal activity was really being witnessed asopposed to some practical joke being played on people. Note thatMarianne Foyster did catch a village lad throwing stones on theRectory's roof on one occasion. Otherwise, while people werecertainly blamed for some of the incidents that took place, nobodywas ever caught in the act of doing something.
Preface(Go to top)
As far as I'm concerned no two people would define a ghost in thesame way and this leads to problems. Indeed, ghosts haven't as yetbeen described in terms of metric units and I don't blame people forshying away from ghost discussions because of this. Many"definitions" would simply show that lots of people haveundisciplined imaginations; they're ignorant in other words.
After studying Borley Rectory I've decided that people didexperience bizarre things although many things perhaps shouldn't betaken for their face value. In other words, when somebody saw anapparition were actual photons being reflected off the apparition orwas the impression of a ghost telepathically induced, as if ourbrains could receive radio waves? Indeed, did people actually see aghost or did they have a "vision" such as Bible prophets were knownto experience? I believe that people experienced ghosts at BorleyRectory to the extent that that they minimally had what many peoplewill accept as psychic visions.
But also consider this. If "spirits" could induce visions inpeople then the spirits can also induce what is called a negativehalucenations in people. More specifcally, were the objects thatallegedly moved by themselves at the Rectory actually manipulated byphysical contact, the entity responsible for the contact able totelepathically make itself invisible in the eyeballs of anywitnesses?
The bottom line is I believe that Borley Rectory was a genuinehaunt. However, the actual mechanism involved as to why people gotthe sensory impressions they did with respect to their experiencesremains a mystery.
Introductory paragraph(Go to top)
Borley Rectory is regarded by many ghost researchers as theheavyweight champion of haunted houses. The reason for this is thatthe Rectory eventually had such an extensive history of alleged freakoccurrences that many researchers have long found it practical toallow for the possibility that paranormal forces may have been atwork in the Rectory. As far as I know, this report will beintroducing a new perspective on many of these occurrences. This newperspective will minimally provide an even greater challenge forpeople to allow for the possibly that many happenings may indeed havehad a paranormal basis.
(Simply put, even if you don't believe in ghosts, if you had everhad the opportunity to hang around the Rectory for any length of timethen there was a chance that you would have witnessed something thatwould defy ready explanation.)
With many witness testimonies and theories still fresh in my mindafter blitzing the main Borley Rectory books, I began to investigatea hunch I got with respect to my overall impression of the Rectory'salleged haunting. Although there was initially nothing obvious that Icould identify, I was able to start testing a theory based oninformation in the books and the web site. Simply put, I asked myselfif there was some significance behind the things that happened at theRectory. More specifically, could order be factored out of what isfairly described as chaotic happenings? And if order, some pattern,could indeed be factored out of the Rectory's mayhem then the chaosthat was allegedly observed perhaps wasn't chaos after all.
This "experiment" phase arguably seems to have revealed arelationship between happenings that on the surface appear to beunrelated. The resulting Borley Rectory "formula" reduces many of theseemingly unrelated things people had witnessed into a definitealthough subjective pattern. For example, previous generations ofresearchers had identified certain things regarded as "pointers"which suggest that a disembodied intelligence was responsible for theRectory's freak events. (With respect to paranormal investigations,pointers are objects carefully selected and arranged by a poltergeistto help investigators profile the person who had left a ghostbehind.)
It turns out that a variety of seemingly unrelated things that hadbeen witnessed in the Rectory over a span of about 75 years arguablydo follow a repeating pattern. This pattern suggests that there was adisembodied intelligence, let's call it a ghost, which made itspresence at the Rectory known in various ways. The variousdisturbances that this ghost presumably caused can be thought of ascleverly planned and staged charades by which the ghost was tellingus (us; same as the Queen's "we") about herself. Based on hercharades, she seemed to be preoccupied with telling us about her lasttragic days on this earth. (I am presuming a female ghost withrespect to Borley's nun legends.)
Psychokinetic phenomena(Go to top)
With respect to how she engineered her charades, let's toy withthe definition of a phenomena known in niche circles as psychokineticenergy. A basic working definition of psychokinetic energy is thatpeople who have it allows them to manipulate objects by simplythinking about it; by thought power. The first modification of thisdefinition necessary to even begin trying to try explain how thingshappened at Borley Rectory is best done with a hypothetical example,quite rare in fact if such things actually happen.
Let's say a teenage college student who has latent psychokineticabilities is studying at a desk in her room for a final examination.This student leafs through book after book for too many hours intothe night until at 2 o'clock in the morning her eyes are burning andshe decides to call it quits and go to bed. This student then hasdifficulty sleeping and not too surprisingly dreams about beingburied alive under her books. The student wakes up the next morningto find her books piled haphazardly on her desk, not at all the wayshe had left them when she went to bed. She starts at the top of thepile and, digging quickly to the bottom of the pile, proceeds tostack the books neatly on the shelf again. To her surprise, however,she finds a picture of herself at the bottom of the pile of books, apicture that normally hangs on the wall over her desk. She is puzzledby this pile of books, wondering if someone stole into her room whileshe slept, but she shrugs off any concern for the time being. She'spreoccupied with getting to school so she can take her exam.
With respect to this example, this college student not onlydreamed about being buried alive under her books but her latentpsychokinetic abilities were somehow activated and manipulatedobjects in her room symbolically according to what she had dreamed.This was evidenced by her picture being under a pile of books. Nowwe've got to take this example one step further in order to evenbegin to understand what possibly happened at Borley Rectory. (I'mnot going to address possible scientific explanations in this reportmainly because I don't have any to address.)
For a little over 75 years the ghost of someone, perhaps a nun,who had died traumatically in the area where Borley Rectory waseventually built was evidently able to relive the memories of hertraumatic last days over and over again. She did this by expressingpsychokinetically what she had experienced in her last troubled dayson this earth. She did this in ways that have traditionally beenperceived by witnesses mostly as bizarre happenings in and aroundBorley Rectory, many which arguable depict her falling down a well.
(You can at least now bluff your way about Borley Rectory with theinformation in the above paragraph.)
With this aspect of psychokinetic energy in mind let's begin ourdiscussion of Borley Rectory.
---------
If I hadn't given Harry Price's End of Borley Rectory one last trythat early summer evening in 2001 and read the few pages of ReverendCanon Pythian-Adams' analysis of the Rectory's wall writings, I'dhave returned the Borley books to the library the next day. I reallyenjoy a good ghost story. A chronological history of the Rectory isfun to read as there are things that allegedly happened at theRectory that tease, indeed, expertly tease the imagination. But whenI got to the chapter about the Foyster's time in the Rectory I wasactually turned off by the National Inquirer type descriptions ofthings that allegedly took place at the Rectory. (Come on! Bottlesmaterializing from out of thin air?) I abruptly got mad at myself forhaving spent any time at all trying to decide if Borley Rectory was areal haunt or not.
(This may be a good place to note that, with respect to thetheories this paper will introduce, the projectile bottles haveseemingly turned out to be some of the most profound examples ofpoltergeist related psychokinetic charading I have ever read about.Although this implies that I've read comparable examples elsewhere,the other examples I'm alluding to are actually the strange thingsindicated in other chapters of Borley Rectory books. Indeed, BorleyRectory's mayhem, when looked at in the right perspective in myopinion, seems to be an unrivaled showcase of cleverly plannedpoltergeist charades.)
Before going any further, I will expand on the basic presumptionsI used to try to spot patterns in the Rectory's strange happenings.History books provide us with general aspects of what sometimeshappens to prisoners of conscious. A good example of this is theearly history of the Tower of London. "Distinguished" residents ofthe Tower typically initially lived in their own abodes. But for onereason or another they became a thorn for those in authority overthem and wound up in the Tower, their basic freedoms eroding. Many ofthem eventually lost their lives as a consequence of Tower politics.
I regard Borley's nun similarly as an example of such a prisonerexcept in a different physical context. With one exception, the wayshe was evidently murdered, I've concerned myself with refining theBorley Rectory "formula" only to the extent of being able to mapgeneral aspects of the nun's last days that are relativelyindependent of the context. In other words, as a prisoner the nun'sdaily routine at Borley was arguably similar in ways with theprisoners of the Tower. However, the ghost nun may have charadedmemories unique to her situation at Borley which is why I don'tconcern myself with everything that happened at the Rectory. I don'tbelieve it is possible to reverse-engineer everything that happenedto our nun regardless if we have a general template that seeminglyapplies to many of the Rectory's unusual happenings.
With respect to Borley Rectory, the entity that allegedly"visited" the halls of the Rectory seems to have spent time andenergy reenacting the basic stages of its trauma which includedimprisonment and then murder. It reenacted these stages by cleverlymoving various things out of place in the Rectory, a known indicatorof poltergeist activity in general. The reason that the entity'sreenactment charades have, until now, been perceived largely asmeaningless, chance happenings is that the most often repeatedcharade, her fall down a well, was done in ways that were sorely outof context with respect to the inside of a house.
Getting back to Reverend Pythian-Adams' analysis of the wallwritings, his insight into evidence noted at the Rectory provedsufficiently intriguing enough for me to decide to hold onto theBorley books for a few more days instead of dissapointedly returningthem to the library. As it turns out, his analysis was my first majorimpression of a scientifically disciplined analysis of things thathad happened at the Rectory. The Reverend's analysis of the Rectory'smysterious wall writings gave me the patience I needed to at leastread further for anything that would help me to resolve whether theRectory was really haunted or not.
I was most intrigued by Reverend Pythian-Adams' concept ofpointers. As they pertain to paranormal investigations, pointers arethings similar to the previous example of the college girl findingher picture buried under the books. They are out-of-place objectssupposedly having been arranged by a poltergeist so that people caninfer from the objects and their arrangement something about who thepoltergeist originally was. We inferred from this pile of books onthe picture, for example, that there was a girl who was perhaps ahard studying college girl. It turns out that Borley Rectory actuallyhas a wealth of pointers most of which have evidently neverofficially been recognized as such. If so, I feel this report may bebreaking new ground with respect to paranormal research.
For an example of possibly overlooked pointers, let's consider thefamous French dictionary that allegedly dropped to the floor from outof thin air in one of the Rectory's bedrooms one night. (Note that inthe dictionary has long been recognized as a pointer being thought toinfer that the nun was from France. However, the actual scope of thepoltergeist's use of the dictionary now seems to go beyond just thedictionary with respect to what Mr. P. Shaw Jeffrey's experienced inthe Rectory.) Indeed, Reverend Pythian-Adams complemented thisobservation about the dictionary by noting that the unusual wordingof some wall writings suggested that they were written by someonewho's first language was indeed probably French. This presumes, ofcourse, that the same spirit was responsible for both the droppeddictionary and the wall writings.
Little did I know at this time that I was pondering the Reverend'sanalysis, I was inadvertently playing with a combination lock ofthoughts, effectively but unknowingly (probably nervously too)playing with the buttons of this subconscious lock. (A subconsciouslock as I'm using thin term is more appropriately regarded as asubconscious filter.) Indeed, the lock would soon open and I wouldsee Borley Rectory happenings in a new way; not that this newperspective was the guaranteed correct perspective. The consequencesfor "sucessfully" picking the lock is that I would find myself ridinga most astonishing roller-coaster of logic and emotion (probably thereason for the filter in the first place) that would forever changemy understanding of Borley Rectory and ghosts in general. (This"ride" is still going on as I write this report.)
As I have already indicated, somebody was possibly traumaticallymurdered long ago in the area where BR was eventually built. However,aspects of this person were somehow evidently preserved by an unknownmechanism. Although this disembodied intelligence evidently possessedsome of the same mental qualities that a living person has (memories,sensory perception, reasoning and emotions, for example) there weresome remarkable differences too, the most startling being that "it"had the ability to express its thoughts psychokinetically, movingvarious objects around inside the Rectory. (This is an understandablya troubling thought for many people as it seems to contradict theknown "equal and opposite reaction" law of physics. But let's proceedwith this discussion.)
Also, regardless that this disembodied spirit could arguably thinklike we do, its actions indicated that it did not necessarily thinklike a normal person does. As I have already indicated, the bottomline with respect to its actions is that it seemed to have beenintensely preoccupied with drawing attention (who's attention Iwonder?) to the troubled memories of the last days of her life.
Borley Rectory's lookingglass (Go to top)
My Twilight Zone adventure into Borley Rectory's "hidden secrets"began with wall writing #3. First, I have no problem thinking thatany of a number of people could have written this message even ifthey were in an altered state of consciousness. The problem I havealways had with wall writing #3 is where did the information in itcome from? Up to the time of wall writing #3, the Borley legends tellus that a nun tried to elope with a monk but they were both caught.They were then allegedly put to death, the nun killed by beingbricked up alive inside a wall.
(Just for the record, I have eliminated Marianne Foyster as havingwritten the messages. First of all, the journals show that Marianne'sinitial reaction to the wall writings was to wash them off the walls,a job that she didn't like at all.(http://www.borleyrectory.com/willnotdie/ghosts5.htm; search for"washed") The journals also show that Marianne seemed to think thatDom Richard Whitehouse was the wall writing culprit and Dom RichardWhitehouse likewise gave Marianne this "honor". Finally, a recentcomparison of several examples of Marianne's signature to similarwall writings yielded enough substantial differences, in my opinion,that I've eliminated Marianne altogether as the wall writingculprit.)
The bottom line is that I want to believe that everybody who hadaccess to the Rectory at least had enough respect for other people'sproperty that they weren't inclined to deface it. I don't think thatHarry Price would have arranged to have a brick thrown through theverandah's glass roof either, for example. Indeed, regardless if anysuspected pranksters did take advantage of entering the Rectorydiscretely through the Rectory's undocumented cellar door, I stillquestion if any of them were mean enough to make a mess in theRectory by breaking glass bottles.
Again, my main concern with respect to wall writing #3 is, who hadthe audacity to change the Borley legend about a nun eloping with amonk? But don't think about this for two long or you may "fallthrough" wall writing #3, Borley Rectory's looking glass, like I did.
If somebody is calling for help from the bottom of a well as wallwriting #3 implies, you can pretty much surmise that they fell intothe well in the first place. So can you imagine a nun falling down awell, splashing into water at the bottom of a well? That's what Istarted doing. (I later figured that I had automatically imagined hersplashing into water because the only other possibility was too harshto think about.)
So what happens when you become preoccupied with visualizing a nunfalling down a well while other Borley Rectory incidents are stillfresh in your mind? Consider P. Shaw Jeffreys' experience with thedictionary, for example. With respect to this dictionary incident itsoon occurred to me that if "they" can infer that the nun was fromFrance because the dictionary was a French dictionary then why can'tI infer from the fact that the dictionary dropped to the floor wasalso intended to reflect her fall into a well? When I first thoughtabout this I simply regarded it as a nice little tidbit that I wouldnote for Mr. O'Neil although I wished I had more reasons to justifyit. After all, a falling dictionary can be construed as anything -including a falling dictionary. But there was nothing obvious in Mr.Jeffrey's account of the incident that would suggest a well, at leastnot glaringly obvious.
Now let's incorporate a bit of abstraction into visualizing thenun falling into the well. Around this time I was also visualizingDom Richard Whitehouse watching the bottle hover near the kitchenceiling and then fall to the floor, shattering to pieces as it hitthe stonework of the floor. This incident had gotten my attentionbecause it was "obviously" poltergeist activity. My snap inperspective concerning these incidents, one real one conjecture,occurred when I realized that I was essentially using the same mental"special effect" for visualizing both splashing water and shatteringglass. I "complained" to my "imagination department" about this butinstead got a "dirty look" from my "insight department" to take thehint. (I later likened this impression to Scrooge as he dealt withthe spirits in "A Christmas Carol".) Indeed, was our nun actuallytrying make "us" think that the bottle represented her as she fellinto the well, the shattering glass of the bottle intended to depictsplashing water? Looking for more such clues I considered otherbroken glass incidents. The obvious "freebie" incident that couldreadily be construed as a charade of the nun falling into the wellwas, of course, Harry Price's experience with the brick thatseemingly fell from nowhere and broke through the glass roof of theverandah.
This train of though concerning incidents that were possiblypoltergeist charades reflecting on somebody falling into a well wascertainly interesting enough that I thought it deserved a shortessay. So our poltergeist nun was possibly shattering glass invarious ways to charade her fall into water at the bottom of a well.Two of the charades I had identified so far, the bottle and theverandah, made use of shattered glass to imply splashing wateralthough I still couldn't find the "water" with respect to thedropped dictionary. After all, the dictionary seemingly just fell tothe floor. But the immediate question at this time was, were thereany other documented incidents concerning shattered glass? Actuallyno, to answer the question, there were no other reports concerningshattered glass. But it turns out that there was indeed a well knownanomaly concerning the Rectory that implied shattered glass. Can youguess what this particular anomaly was? There are even severalpictures that show it. I will now talk for awhile about the Rectory'sfamous bricked up window.
Ghost nun or no ghost nun, nobody permanently blocks a perfectlygood view of the countryside unless they have to. The dining roomwindow must have been a problem window if you've ever heard of aproblem window. My guess is that it would periodically shatter for noobvious reason, even if the shutters were closed. (Was it this windowthat Rev. Harry Bull was referring in his generalization about ghostsbreaking glass?) The bottom line is that Rev. Henry Bull had nochoice but to permanently brick up the window probably because itkept on breaking. He could only surmise that the nun that heoccasionally saw at the window probably had something to do with itbut that was beside the point. He still had to something about thewindow.
Isn't it erie that even without this analysis the things thatpeople allegedly witnessed at this window seem to complement theBorley legend of a nun being bricked up? But now, more than a hundredyears later we have given ourselves the license to imagine the glassin this window shattering. This license comes from the bottle in thekitchen that fell to the floor, shattering to pieces, along with thehalf brick that crashed through the glass roof of the verandah, bothof them now arguably suggesting a nun splashing into water at thebottom of a well. Also note that windows break and get boarded up allthe time anyway.
What's more astonishing is that the splashing water, theshattering glass that is, somewhat complements Reverend Pythian-Adamsanalysis of wall writing #3. The Reverend's analysis theorized thatthe juxtaposition of the words well and tank in writing #3 was theghost trying to tell us that the nun was thrown down a well which islater sealed up in the name of safety but really only to hide theevidence of her murder.
So can we call the mystery of Borley Rectory's bricked up diningroom window solved? Well, yes and no. There is actually more to thisbricked up window than just the stuff that happened at the window.Indeed, just as visualizing certain things got me started on BorleyRectory's "yellow brick road," an appropriate reference with respectto seeing things I was already familiar with from the Borley Rectorybooks in a different way, a visualization within a visualization wassoon to set the stage for even more of our nun's charades beingrevealed. Indeed, even at this point it turned out that "EmeraldCity' was further away than I had originally thought. But we'retalking about Borley Rectory after all, an allegedly haunted housewith a very active poltergeist that was doing everything but restingin peace.
(Note that the Foyster's experiences include a minor incidentwhere Marianne went to investigate a room whose door she had seenswing open by itself (a drafty day of course). Inside the door shefound some unfamiliar paraphernalia. Likewise, while I was trying tovisualize the things that allegedly happened at this window my mind'seye was seemingly led to something a bit unexpected.)
With respect to other aspects of this window charade, can youimagine Reverend Henry Bull sitting at the other end of the diningroom table watching the nun giving him that cold, sad stare that shewas alleged to give him? But do you also realize what this scenewhich includes the Reverend Bull and the window would arguablyresemble if you tilted you head 90 degrees so that left to rightbecomes up and down? Indeed, can you imagine the nun seeing notReverend Bull looking at her from over the edge of the table but hermurderer looking down at her from over the edge of the well'sopening? Indeed, this hypothetical but reasonable analogy seems tocomplement wall writing #3 in an uncanny way.
Also note that the number of criteria for testing if a given freakevent matches the "nun falling into a well" formula was slowlyexpanding. Indeed, whenever I suspected a new criterium with respectto a given charade I would go back to the other suspected charades tocheck for a corresponding element. Consider that three of the fourwell charades we have examined so far all contain some element whichindeed suggests a man in the vicinity of the well. So far, this manhas been played by Dom Richard Whitehouse, Harry Price, and nowReverend Henry Bull. But this correlation loses steam when weconsider the dropped dictionary. I suppose that we can consider thefact that P. Shaw Jeffrey was in the room when the dictionarydropped. But it doesn't feel right to regard him as a part of thecharade because he wasn't doing anything that would arguablycontribute anything to a charade reflecting the nun's murderer. Sothe dictionary episode still doesn't want to fit the pattern.
Hold on a second! I've almost overlooked a seemingly minor detailconcerning P. Shaw Jeffrey's experiences. Here I've been wonderinghow I can justify the assertion that ghost was possibly seizingsituations with men to "play the part" of her murderer and I now seewhere the ghost nun had quite possibly addressed this issue withrespect to the dropped dictionary. Indeed, lets consider whathappened to P. Shaw Jeffrey's boots.
The next multiplexed charade concerns French dictionary thatdropped to the floor from out of thin air. I now regard the movedboots and the dropped dictionary as being a part of the same charade.Indeed, the boots were initially mysteriously moved to a higher placein the room. Consider that moving the boots up was the poltergeist'sway of reestablishing ground level. But the boots also indicate thepresence of some man, the nun's murderer, in the vicinity. So thedictionary didn't simply drop to the floor but somewhere below groundlevel as suggested by the boots. The dictionary, dropped by what thepoltergeist intended to be understood as the "man in the boots"represented our nun. But just because some projectile falls to theground doesn't mean we can infer something dropped down a well; so Ilooked for the water in this charade. Indeed, not only did P. ShawJeffrey curiously used the word "sprawled" to describe the dictionaryas it set on the floor but a drawing of this scene showed thedictionary with its leaves pressing into the ground. It dawned on methat the curled, disordered leaves of the dictionary can be construedto suggest water. The icing on the cake with respect to this charadeis that the cover of the dictionary might suggest the water, actuallythe well, having been covered in some way. Also note that Jeffreydescribed the dictionary as having been a bit tattered with respectto its condition a few days earlier. The fact that it had beenmishandled was perhaps the ghost's way of reflecting the nun'smental/physical state when she was murdered. Finally, the fact thatthe dictionary had been missing for a few days also possibly reflectsback to the aspect that she had perhaps been imprisoned.
Mrs.Cecil Baines abstract of P. Shaw Jeffrey's experiences
Seepart of room 7 which I believe was regarded as "the hauntedroom," the same room, in my opinion, where P. Shaw Jeffreyexperienced the rising boots and the dropped dictionary.
Out of context paranormalcharades (Go to top)
Another way of looking at this is, despite some very cleverattempts at making her plight known, having no choice but to stageher main charade which depicts well shaft opening into an undergroundstream against the backdrop of the interior of a house. Her streamdepicting charades essentially lost their effect because theirbackdrop, the inside of a house, simply did not complement them inany way. In other words, even if witnesses had perceived what thepoltergeist was trying to tell them subconsciously, the subconsciousmind evidently refused to burden the conscious mind with theramifications of what their senses were telling them. So instead ofpeople being able to nod their heads in agreement whenever someonewas able to discern from a seemingly freak occurrence that "oh thatmust be the nun falling down the well again," for example, the bestreturn that she ever got for her efforts was dropped jaws andconfused looks.
However, based on information in the main BR books and the BR website, there are no fewer than ten(?) happenings in the Rectory thatcan be construed as reflecting back on something at least sinkinginto water for example. The more complex charades are actually quiteastonishing with respect to the details they suggest. Falling down awell would undoubtedly be traumatic for anybody in a conscious stateand the entity that haunted the Rectory not surprisingly seemed to bepreoccupied with this final event of the tragedy.
Nun sightings(Go to top)
To begin with, with respect to "normal" ghost phenomena, whenBorley's nun was alive she was probably initially free to at leastwalk around the Borley area, not that she wasn't coping with sometroubling personal situations. This stage of her presence in Borleyis reflected by the various sightings of her ghost outside theRectory.
The Rectory'smysterious ringing bells(Go to top)
Then, as paralleled by the history of the Tower, I suspect thatthe nun was eventually expected to answer to a curfew bell, assuggest by the Rectory's mysterious ringing bells. Based oninformation in the BR books and the gist of some of her moreelaborate charades (perhaps a largely untapped Borley Rectoryresource until now), I'd say she had somehow gotten herself involvedin a questionable relationship where things had gone from bad toworse. Indeed, it's astonishing to consider that a couple of hercharades seem to have been trying to clue us about an interfaithmarriage (a nun would have had to violate her vows as nuns are notallowed to marry) further complicated by a possible mistress affairbefore Eugene Banks volunteered such a possibility in the Enigma ofBorley Rectory.
Slapped Rectory residents(Go to top)
Basic stages of new restrictions as reflected in her charadespossibly included a decisive confrontation where her betrayer slappedher in the face. Many people who spent time in the Rectory likewisecomplained of being slapped. These people were perhaps "volunteerempaths" meaning that the ghost of the nun was able to cause (bytelepathy?) females, I believe, to relive the memory of her slap.This was perhaps the ghost's way of saying, simply, "then he slappedme on the face!"
Trapped Mariannereflects imprisoned nun(Go to top)
Once the mask of deception came off after this possible painfulconfrontation the nun was then probably forcefully confined in someway. This is reflected by the Rectory doors which seemed to haveminds of their own with respect to closing and locking themselves.The incident where Marianne Foyster was trapped in the blue room waspossibly the tour de force of this particular manifestation of thepoltergeist's confinement memories. The prisoner nun was then giventhe ultimate confinement which was being murdered by being throwndown a well.
As this analysis is developed the reader will see that thepoltergeist possibly employed an assortment of household materials torepresent water, e.g. porcelain, wood - curiously except for wateritself. Indeed, although there is no hint of this ever happening atthe Rectory, it probably wouldn't surprise any BR researcher if somewitness had claimed that a particular room in the Rectory had beendrenched with water. But why didn't she use water in her charades?Indeed, what better way to suggest an underwater stream than withactual water? One reason may be that the ghost was able to considerthat actual water would have destroyed many things in the house. Butthere's another possible reason.
Given our poltergeist nun seems to have deliberately avoided usingwater, I suspect that one of the things that intensified the traumaof falling down a well was that she possibly didn't know how to swimand reflected this by using everything but water in her charades. Ithink the poltergeist at one time removed water from somebody'sdrinking glass. This was perhaps her way of emphasizing that shecould drink water, of course, she just couldn't swim in it.
As I've already mentioned, the poltergeist's more elaboratecharades are quite astonishing. The poltergeist was evidentlysensitive to the personal profiles (religious beliefs, maritalstatus, personal relationships) of people who frequented the Rectory.She was also evidently not only aware of what people in the Rectorywere doing but was also able to seize a situation and divert people'sattention to things in a way where they would arguably act out heroriginal situation without her flesh-and-blood "volunteer" actorseven knowing they were doing so. Marianne Foyster and RichardWhitehouse were star actors here. Indeed, I'll go so far as tosuggest that poltergeist nun possibly even created the illusion ofthe ghost of Harry Bull for Marianne, using Harry Bull's unhappymarriage to profile aspects of her murderer. Indeed, the poltergeistseems to have waited, perhaps for years at at time, to seizeunexpected situations to employ many men, including Harry Price, toplay the role of her murderer in her charades. These men are ReverendHenry Bull, his son the Reverend Harry Bull, Richard Whitehouse manytimes, again Harry Price, and one soldier?, visitor who had neverbeen to the Rectory before. One prop that the poltergeist used toreflect back to her murderer was P. Shaw Jeffrey's boots.
Both the wall writings and the charades which includedunsuspecting people reflected that not only was the poltergeist awareof relationships but it also had a knowledge of how rooms in theRectory had been utilized as well. Indeed, the ghost was evidentlyaware of how rooms in the house were used from its earliest days.Again, the poltergeist used it knowledge of the house, itsarchitecture and how the rooms were used, to profile her traumaincluding her murder.
Falling Down The Well Charades (not in anysort of chronological order)
The ghost nun evidently seized circumstantial situations in theRectory to depict the scene of the crime with respect to her beingthrown down a well. She was able to pick scenarios where the objectsin question could be construed as some object falling into water.Many such scenarios suggested the presence of a man in the immediatearea, presumably her murderer. Richard Whitehouse seems to have been"volunteered" for this role at least three times. Indeed, Harry Pricewas unknowingly used once himself.
Multiplexed Charades(Go to top)
Another thing that added to the confusion with respect to peoplenot being able understand her charades is that parts of what areactually a single charade manifested as time-separated events, theonly thing common to the events is that they occurred at the sameplace in the Rectory. But when the events concerning a particularspot are "superimposed" then the resulting shift in perspectivebecomes more evident. Two especially pronounced groups of timerelated events pertain to the room where P. Shaw Jeffery stayed in asa summer guest of Harry Bull and also the famous, bricked-up windowof the dining room. These seemingly unrelated aspects of BorleyRectory are charades, in fact, for the same event, the nun fallinginto the well. The fact that the poltergeist seems to havedeliberately chosen to complicate some charades by "time phasing" thecomponents suggests that their interpretation was actually meant fora later generation of researchers.
Horizontally Polarized(Go to top)
Another confusing factor about some of the well charades ismechanical. Gravity makes things accelerate down vertically, nothorizontally. But three of the charades had a horizontal "wellshaft". The poltergeist was evidently satisfied with a visual effectas opposed to technical correctness.
Diningroom bricked up window(Go to top)
The bricked up dining room window. This bricked up window was oneof three known "multiplexed" charades, all of which arguablyreference the nun falling down the well. Because they were seeminglymultiplexed I'm inclined to think that eyewitnesses probably had noclue as to the possibility that mayhem was possibly intended todepict the nun fall down the well. The ghost employed the dining roomwindow to represent the well. The dining room table, if it wasarranged in the room so that the bricked up window appeared at itsfar end then suggests the wall of the well shaft. Rev. Henry Bull'spresence somewhere at the other end of the table would suggest thenun's murderer. The window was eventually bricked up probably becausethe window had a tendency to break on its own, the breakage actuallythe poltergeist's way of suggesting splashing water as possiblyintended by all incidents in the Rectory where glass was mysteriouslybroken. (Note that Rev. Harry Bull mentioned broken glass inconjunction with poltergeist activity.) The ghost nun actually playedherself by appearing outside the window which, when imagined withbreaking glass arguably suggests that she is falling into water. Thestory that Rev. Henry Bull had the window bricked up to prevent thenun from staring at him was probably concocted so as not to troublethe young Bull children with what the adults may have been suspectedas poltergeist activity at the window. Indeed, given the Bullchildren did not remember specifics of why this window was brickedup, the children were evidently still very young when Reverend Henryhad problems with this window. The bricked up window also suggeststhe alleged, sealed off well suggested by wall writing #3.
Captain Gregson poses outside the Rectory's dining room in frontof theRectory's oldest bricked up window.
Noticethe bay window of the dining room at the far end of the kitchenhall. Reverend Henry Bull was perhaps visible in this end of thedining room at the times when the glass of the window the nunappeared at presumably broke, suggesting that she splashed into waterat the bottom of a well.
The final known multiplexed charade concerns the main stairwellwindow. The ghost of Reverend Harry Bull had been seen in this windowby a local woman. With respect to this sighting, the local womanwould never have guessed that she was playing the nun in the well,the ghost having taken advantage of the main stairwell window tosuggest the well. The ghost of Reverend Harry Bull was presumablycreated telepathically by the ghost nun to profile her murderer.Indeed, consider Harry Bull's unhappy, interfaith marriage with hiswife Ivy. At some other time a rock was thrown outside the Rectorythrough this window, shattering it, the rock perhaps intended toreflect back on the nun actually splashing into water at the bottomof the well.
"Uninteresting"falling pieces of paper(Go to top)
The falling pieces of paper with Marianne's name on them. I wantedto ignore this one because it initially appeared so meaningless. Butthen the relevant symbolism occurred to me. Charades that reflectthat the falling nun typically have some element which reflect thatthe nun was somehow "incomplete," actually that she was sufferingfrom some physical or emotional trauma. In this sense, the fallingpieces of paper with Marianne's name on them actually show the smartsof this poltergeist. A piece of paper having been cut to piecesrepresent the nun's trauma. Cutting up a piece of paper alsodrastically changes the aerodynamics of paper. Indeed, confetti hasmore drag that a sheet of paper when it falls. The increased dragmakes it fall sluggishly through the air similarly as objects sink inwater. The falling pieces of paper can therefore be construed as ournun sinking into water.
Wallwriting #3, room 3, bathtub room(Go to top)
The well/tank wall writing between room 3 and the bathtub room.This one took me awhile but the ghost nun had picked the oneparticular wall to write on that linked two key Rectory roomstogether. The ghost was evidently aware of the thousands of timesthat maids dressed in nightgowns (resembling a nun) stepped out ofroom 3 and into the bathtub room. This is all symbolic of our nunwinding up in water. The message was written on the part of this wallwhere perhaps the maids eyes followed, maybe subconsciously, in thecandlelight to find the doorknob of the bathtub room. (It would beinteresting to know how high that doorknob was.) Also, if the maidstook their bath before going to bed then they were undoubtedly tiredwhich would reflect the trauma state of our nun.
Lookdown the bathroom hall at the open doorway to room 3, The door(not visible) to the bathtub room is in the shadows a few feet closerto viewer on the left.
(page 94 of The Most Haunted House in England)
The most elaborate charade - one of the most elaborate charadesanyway - centers around wall writing #7 and "starred" MarianneFoyster and Richard Whitehouse as the nun and her murderer. MarianneFoyster had been invited to recite the last part of a novena withRichard Whitehouse. She described that they were only partially inthe chapel when they recited this. Then they became aware of apresence with respect to room 7. So after they finished the novenaMrs. Foyster crossed the stairway landing to enter room 7 toinvestigate the presence while Whitehouse presumably walked to thebathroom hall and down the stairs to inspect the wall writings. ThenWhitehouse came back up the stairs where he noticed a writing that hehadn't noticed before in the arched opening connecting the mainstairwell landing with the chapel area. Marianne then joined himafter coming out of room 7.
I don't know how many times I had contemplated this ratheruninteresting scenario until I wondered if there was some reason thatthe ghost had chosen to write on the inside wall of the archedopening next to the chapel. Indeed, that very clever ghost!
The ghost had possibly chosen that particular spot to write on inorder to associate activities that had just taken place on both sidesof this wall with each other. Let's now examine these activities moreclosely.
Marianne Foyster said that she and Richard were not quite in thechapel. This can be construed as meaning that they or just Mariannehad one foot in the church and one foot out of it, perhaps asituation our ghost nun seized on to profile her own situation withrespect to the Church. Additionally, the ghost could could have beenusing Marianne and Richard to reflect that her situation concerned aman and a woman (the nun) although one of them was married. This canbe construed to suggest that our nun was possibly a mistress or thata former nun had married. Also, Richard Whitehouse was a Catholic,Marianne Foyster a Protestant, so perhaps the nun was also wanting toimply an interfaith social situation. So activity on the chapel sideof the main stairwell wall made use not only of people's personalprofiles but also their position inside the rectory to possiblyprofile the situation the nun was in in her day. But this charadeevidently doesn't stop here.
Our ghost nun, seizing upon their orientation with respect to thechapel (does the ghost continually wait, even for decades, for suchsituations to occur?) seemingly creates a telepathic disturbance,making an invisible presence felt. Of the various ways that Marianneand Richard could have reacted to this Marianne just happens followthe ghost's "script" and walks through the main stairwell landing tohead for room 7, necessarily walking between the arched openings atboth ends of the main stairwell landing. She then disappears intoroom 7 which is associated with falling into the well in the stilettocharades. Note that the arrangement of the main stairwell's archeddoorways can be construed to suggest a well shaft.
Meanwhile, while Marianne had went to investigate room 7, Richardhad left the area outside the arched opening that led to the chapelto possibly go down the bathroom hall and then downstairs to inspectthe wall writings in that area. In other words, given how they exitedthe chapel area, Marianne "played" the nun falling into the well andRichard unknowingly played here murder leaving the area of the wellhead.
The poltergeist's finishing touch for this all-encompassingcharade is wall writing #7 on the inside of the opening to thestairwell. As previously mentioned, Marianne and Richard eventuallywound up at this point and, fixing their attention on this seeminglynew wall writing, unknowingly symbolically unified the otherwiseunrelated activities that had just occurred on either side of thisopening.
Seearched opening leading to chapel. Wall writing number 7 wasdiscovered on the left of this opening not visible in this picture.Also the ghost of Rev. Harry Bull was seen on this landing throughthe window to the left (not visible) as she stood outside theRectory.
Seearched opening leading to room 7. Dom Richard Whitehouse would bevisible at the top of the main stairwell landing as he rushed to seewho just came into the Rectory. (It was Lionel Foyster returning fromthe Church.) At this time he heard Marianne scream as Marianne wasallegedly thrown from her bed in room 7 behind the arched opening andto the left. Also the ghost of Rev. Harry Bull was seen on thislanding through the window to the left (not visible) as she stoodoutside the Rectory.
Seepart of room 7 which I believe was regarded as "the hauntedroom," the same room, in my opinion, where P. Shaw Jeffreyexperienced the rising boots and the dropped dictionary. Dom RichardWhitehouse had just left the room through this door when Mariannescreamed as she was allegedly catapulted out of her bed to the floor,the bed's mattress ending up on top of her. This room is also whereMarianne saw the floating stiletto appear from behind RichardWhitehouse.
(page 91 The Most Haunted House in England)
With respect to the time that Marianne had been thrown out of thebed in room 7 (three times in one day), the ghost was possiblyreenacting the well scene again using both Marianne and Richard.Richard had described one such bed incident as Marianne winding up onthe floor under the bedding and the mattress. Again, it took meawhile to notice this but the sheets of the bed and the mattress canbe construed as water, the mattress then suggesting the bricks orconcrete that the well shaft was sealed off with. Richard played thepart of her murderer as he left room 7, the well head, and starteddown the stairwell when Lionel Foyster let himself into the Rectory'sfront door. So just as the dictionary been used as a prop to suggestwater and also the sealed off well, the bedding and mattress had beenemployed for the same purpose. Indeed, I suspect that the dictionaryhad also been dropped in room 7 which I think was the main guest roomand was also known as the haunted room.
Seepart of room 7 which I believe was regarded as "the hauntedroom," the same room, in my opinion, where P. Shaw Jeffreyexperienced the rising boots and the dropped dictionary. Dom RichardWhitehouse had just left the room through this door when Mariannescreamed as she was allegedly catapulted out of her bed to the floor,the bed's mattress ending up top of her. This room is also whereMarianne saw the floating stiletto appear from behind RichardWhitehouse.
Not a well charade.
Finally, the stiletto incident. Marianne Foyster was resting on abed in room 7 because of her flow. She was wearing only a simple gownand had her hands at her sides below her. Did the poltergeist nunseize upon Marianne's overall appearance to suggest the nun'sinnocence, nativity? Marianne was looking up at Richard positionedsomewhere between the two windows of room 7, the light of two windowfalling on Marianne further suggesting the nun's innocence. Her gazeon Whitehouse was probably also intended to suggest the nun'srelationship to the man who would betray her.
The ghost nun again seized upon a happenstance arrangement ofpeople in a room and their general appearance. The poltergeistinterrupted Marianne's innocent gaze at Whitehouse with the stiletto.This was notably reflected in the startled look on her face when shesaw it swing into the air from behind Richard. This sudden change inMarianne's expression corresponds with the many slaps in the facepeople experienced which possibly reflect back on the theory that thenun was betrayed. Marianne watches the stiletto actually go throughcircular motion as if the stiletto was being used for its madepurpose which is to stab or cut something. The tour de force is thestiletto landing in Richard's lap which suggests that the target ofthe stiletto was a man's genitals. So not only does Marianne'sshocked look suggest a possible betrayal but that betrayal could beassociated with a rape as well as a slap on the face. Indeed, howmany rape victims have wanted to literally cut off or mutilate theiraggressor's genitals? (Might Borley Rectory's intense poltergeistactivity reflect the peak emotional trauma of a rape?)
Finally, with respect to a rape, I believe there was a sticky(?)substance that was noted on the floor of the Rectory's chapel at onetime. Might this substance have been the ghost's way of suggestingsemen associated with a rape?
Seepart of room 7 which I believe was regarded as "the hauntedroom," the same room, in my opinion, where P. Shaw Jeffreyexperienced the rising boots and the dropped dictionary. Dom RichardWhitehouse had just left the room through this door when Mariannescreamed as she was allegedly catapulted out of her bed to the floor,the bed's mattress ending up top of her. This room is also whereMarianne saw the floating stiletto appear from behind RichardWhitehouse.
Given at least two wall writings seem to have been placed at keypoints in the Rectory, I wondered about thewallwriting associated with the scullery. I had remembered that somewritings were just squiggly lines as opposed to words. Given thescullery had sinks I wondered if the scullery's line resembled aspiral. This is because a spiral would somewhat complement the drainwhich we could associate with our nun sinking into water. Although Ihad seen the line writings before and am not sure which wall thiswriting appeared on, it turns out that the line associated with thescullery indeed has the appearance of a spiral. This can be construedas more evidence that the ghost was profiling her situation usingthings that normally took place in the Rectory.
Thebottle in the kitchen that hovered then dropped(Go to top)
(page 100 of The Haunting of Borley Rectory?)
(page 98 of The Most Haunted House in England)
The bottle that Richard had seen while he and Marianne, Adelaideand the maid were in the kitchen had hovered near the kitchen'sceiling and then dropped to the floor. In this charade, the bottlewas the nun. The bottle was empty which was possibly intended toreflect the mental/physical state of the nun. The bottle then dropsto the floor the shattering glass suggesting water splashing at thebottom of the well. Richard once again unknowingly plays the part ofthe nun's murderer. (Note that Marianne indicated that the bottlesmashed into fine particles which suggest the liquid state.)
Lookout the kitchen door into the hallway. There's a chance thatbottle that Dom Richard Whitehouse claimed to see hover near theceiling of the kitchen may have appeared here. The broken porcelainplates that Marianne said went out the kitchen door probably wentthrough this door.
Consider the Le Estrange testimony which alleges that many bottlesappeared from out of nowhere in the main stairwell outside the closedlibrary door. Both the visual impression of the breaking glass alongwith the obvious tinkle of breaking glass can be construed to suggesta gurgling stream. This event parallels the claim of the Bullshearing the sound of a rushing stream in the house that had noapparent cause.
(page16 of Diary of Occurences)
Also, on one occasion with the Foysters the kitchen table had beenoverturned with its legs sticking up. Marianne also noted that thestork cupboard had been scattered all over the kitchen includinggoing over the inverted table and out the kitchen door. Note that thecupboard opening suggests a narrow, possibly underground passage. Themiscellaneous contents of the store cupboard can be construed tosuggest turbulent, swiftly flowing water, scattered white, powderyfoods such as flour and sugar perhaps suggesting white water. Indeed,the table, cupboard and broken plates were evidently used as stageprops to perhaps suggest an underground stream "flowing" out of thecupboard, through the kitchen including over the inverted table, andout the kitchen door.
The inverted table, by the way, is what got my attention as itactually complements the well theory. Indeed, consider that with itslegs sticking straight up in the air it was possibly meant to suggestsplashing water. In other words, the legs sticking up in the air wereintended to suggest that the nun had reached the bottom of the wellshaft and had splashed into the underground stream. (Isn't itinteresting that the Alexander MacDonald's picture that shows theyellow plastic cone is described in conjunction with the main welland an underground stream!) (Were other pieces of furniture with legsthat were noted to have been turned over also intended to suggestsplashing water? I don't know.)
Note that I had originally envisioned broken plates scatteredthroughout the kitchen including over the table because I hadincorrectly remembered that the cupboard was a store cupboard, not aplate cupboard. However, the possibility that sugar and flour hadbeen scattered about would work just as well to hint of a flowingstream. The bottom line, however, is that I would have guessedsplashing water with respect to the table turned over with its legssticking up on its own merit even if nothing else in the kitchen hadbeen disturbed.
Also, given the witnesses to such things in the Rectory had noidea that they were possibly witnessing paranormal charades, theywere understandably not concerned with noting the details of suchhappenings. Again, I'll have to be content with the gist of thispossible charade which seems to fit the well tragedy formula.
Lookout the kitchen door into the hallway. There's a chance thatbottle that Dom Richard Whitehouse claimed to see hover near theceiling of the kitchen may have appeared here. The broken porcelainplates that Marianne said went out the kitchen door probably wentthrough this door.
If I have forgotten to mention this, the brick that went throughthe verandah while Harry Price walked under it is the example ofPrice being used to symbolize the nun's murderer, the half brickrepresenting a traumatized nun and the verandah roof water at thebottom of a well. Also somebody passing through Borley found shelterfrom the rain under the Rectory's verandah. If I remember, he saw atile fall and make a hole in the verandah in another spot. So, likePrice, a stranger to Borley was unknowing recruited by the Rectory'spoltergeist to portray her murderer.
Girlfalling through verandah glass roof(Go to top)
Finally, the legend of the girl holding onto the bottom of thewindow of room 6 and then falling through the glass verandah anddying. Given that you couldn't hang out this window because of theglass verandah, my guess is that one of the Bull girls dreamed thisparticular event and then told her family about it. If so, this mayalso suggest that the telepathic abilities of the Rectory'spoltergeist nun can "invade" even our dreams to perform its charades.
The colderspots (Go totop)
I was a bit surprised to realize that I had forgotten to mentionanything about the Rectory's "colder spots" in my original submissionof HBR as I had spent considerable time trying to make sense out ofthis phenomena. But this inadvertent omission reflects the generalpattern of "creativity" by which I derived my other explanations. Inother words, I'd spend some time essentially getting frustrated abouta certain aspect of the Rectory but then forget about it entirely forweeks and even months. Then all of the sudden some evening the"confusion" would then surface from the good old subconscious for meto play with again. But then my concentration seemed to be morefocused and I would typically end up understanding the event in a newway. But this may all be meaningless. Regardless, let's take a lookat the colder spots.
Borley Rectory seemed to have wanted to "one up" "competing"haunted houses by having more than one cold spot. Not only was theRectory known for having several cold spots but given it was alsoknown to be cold all year around anyway, I jokingly refer to theRectory's cold spots as the colder spots. The Rectory's cold spotsjust happened to be oriented one on top of the other on threeseparate floors; the cellar, the ground floor and the first floor.Also, Harry Price noted that the ground in the area of the cellar'scold spot was was subsiding. I had long thought that the nun, whenshe had been abused, had physically been at this colder spot in thecellar when it was part of an order building. Perhaps she had beenconfined in this older cellar before being thrown down a well. Whileit had been suspected that the well tank in the cellar which openedinto the NE corner of the courtyard was originally the well that thenun had been thrown into and then sealed up, I actually just got anew "revelation" concerning that.
My guess that the reason for the subsidence with its cold spotthat Mr. Price noticed in the corner of the Rectory cellar wasprobably that the sealed off well that the nun had been thrown downwas probably originally there. At this point I hate to assume thatthe nun's murder had capped off the abandoned well with a tank. Thisis becauseMr.Andrew Clarke has pointed out that well tanks are elevated togive the water some pressure:
"For some reason, the investigators thought that a 'Well Tank'would be in the cellars, and whole chapters of books have beenwritten that maintain this misunderstanding. This is an elementarymistake. Well Tanks are never ever in cellars."
Likewise, assuming that an abandoned well was capped off with atank would be done mostly to make this theory conform to wall writing#3. However, it still remains a possibility that the nun's murdermight have modified the well in a way that made it most convenient tobluff his way through any questions as to why he filled it in as Rev.Adams Pythian had suggested.
In any case, Rev. Henry Bull necessarily had to remodel the cellarto some extent when he built the Rectory. If the remnants of a wellwere indeed in that spot, given the Rectory's cellar was originallydesigned for storing fuel, probably both firewood and coal, ReverendHenry needed to insure that the cellar would stay relatively dry inspite of an abandoned but perhaps still "active" well. Indeed,pictures of the Rectory's ruins show evidence that Rev. Henry Bullhad designed the Rectory with an outside stairwell in the courtyardwhich lead to the cellar. He seems to have designed the base of thisstairwell with a water trap to keep water from getting into thecellar. I think that Reverend Pythian-Adams and I have mistaken thiswater trap as the nun's well/tank of wall writing #3.
Also, note if water is able to make it to the top of what used tobe the main well shaft and cause problems with the concrete drivethat now goes over it, I wonder if the skull fragment found in thecellar had possibly washed up through an abandoned well at one timeespecially if the cellar's sinking corner was evidence of thisabandoned well. Indeed, not only has Andrew Clarke indicated that thecellar was known to flood, buthisresearch into old area maps shows that the cellar had once been apond that had formed in the abandoned cellars of much olderbuildings, a pond that wasn't necessarily fed by a stream.
Back to the Rectory's cold spot phenomena, what is a possiblemeaning for the three cold spots, lined up vertically in a row andspread out over three floors? Consider that "we'd" automatically beinclined to think of these colder spots as a column, perhaps acylindrically shaped column. Indeed, just as the ghost nun seems tohave cleverly redefined ground level for a well charade by moving P.Shaw Jeffrey's boots up to a higher spot in his room, I wonder if thearrangement of the Rectory's cold spots in a tall, well shaftsuggestive shape over the sinking area in the cellar was our nun'sway of "lifting" the well shaft out of the ground - or lowering theRectory into the ground. Regardless of how we might choose to thinkof this, the cold spots might be the ghost nun's way of rememberingfreezing water in the well.
Finally, consider that Marianne Foyster got a considerable slap inthe face from an invisible entity as she walked over the highest coldspot at the top of the main stairwell landing. We can regard thisspot as possibly suggesting the top of the ghostly well from theabove assertion. I wonder if a similar punch in the face actuallycaused our nun to lose her balance and fall down the well.
Also consider that a sack of coal had beenmysteriouslymoved along the wall that was outside the library. This coal wasundoubtedly burned in the large stove that was in the main stairwell.References don't note the direction that this sack was moved but onedirection would have been most curious. Indeed, consider if the sackwas moved in the direction of the area of the column-like cold spot.Just as Marianne was slapped (read the nun being knocked into thewell) at the cold spot located on the landing straight above thesack, the sack was perhaps similarly being "dropped down the well".Indeed, note the contrast between cold coal as opposed to burningcoal as possibly suggesting someone who is suffering from some sortof trauma.
Also note that cold coal would correspond with a sad nun at thedining room window, the half brick that fell through the verandahglass roof, the roughly handled French dictionary, Marianne's health,the cut up pieces of paper and the tired maids, just to mention thefew things that were possibly intended to reflect the nun'sphysical/mental state when she fell down the well.
Also, with respect to the the sack of coal, I wonder if the sackwas made out of some woven material like burlap that could beconstrued to suggest a nun's habit? Indeed, if the sack was no longerfull of coal then part of the burlap might have been draped over thelower part of the sack as is was mysteriously moved, furthersuggesting a nun's habit.
(Although many of my correlations are seemingly far fetched, I amstill amazed at the "mileage" I'm getting of the nun/well charadeformula.)
Also, although Marianne Foyster denies this incident ever happened(this is not suprising as she had supposedly passed out at the time)Dom Richard claimed that Marianne slipped on the main stairwell asshe and Dom Richard were walking from the kitchen to the Blue Room.Dom Richard caught Marianne before she fell to the floor. He thencarried her up to the landing and possibly laid her down on the coldspot! But did Marianne accidentally slip or did the poltergeist nunhelp Marianne to slip with respect to another clever charade intendedto use Marianne and Dom Richard depicting the nun's murderer perhapscarrying a similarly disoriented nun to the well head?
http://borleyrectory.com/willnotdie/ghosts5.htm
http://www.borleyrectory.com/baines/baines14.htm
http://www.borleyrectory.com/baines/baines28.htm
So we have possibly four objects entering the Rectory's coldspot/well head. Marianne twice, one when she was slapped by an unseenhand; again when Dom Richard carried her to the top of the stairs.Also, the sack of coal, depending on the direction it moved, and alsothe noted subsistance in the cellar directly below. I'm tempted toalso include Mariannes suspicious spill out of the bed in Room 7,only a few feet away from the cold spot on the first floor landing.
Egads, this cold spot analysis is the biggest conceptual stretchI've volunteered; please bear with me when I try to think like aghost.
Conclusion(Go to top)
I am not able to answer whether the material I have presented hereis statistically significant. But with respect to spending so manyhours researching an allegedly haunted house, I thank God that Ipicked Borley Rectory. Borley Rectory fortunately has MORE thanenough examples of possible poltergeist activity that I was able toreverse engineer and cross-reference a lot of them to the extent thatI actually learned something about ghosts. Yes I believe that BorleyRectory was a genuine haunt. It's not haunted the way that Hollywoodwould haunt a house either. Indeed, it was "professionally haunted".The reference material is by no means the product of one imaginativewriter which would be necessary to pull such a thing off. Just likethe biblical prophets who experienced seemingly unrelated visionsthat later proved to reflect the earthly mission and resurrection ofJesus Christ, there is no way the mishmash of Borley Rectory talescould otherwise prove unified in any way unless Borley Rectory didhave a ghost which supernaturally choreographed its epitaph into whatotherwise appears to be nothing but mayhem.
A notefor the SETI people(Go to top)
With respect to the alleged haunt of Borley Rectory, us ghosthunters have possibly been looking straight at messages from thespirit world for the last 50 years without knowing it. The problem isthat these messages didn't agree with what we expected to see so wedidn't recognize them as such. So who knows? SETI might have evidenceof the echoes of angelic choirs in its archives!
Concern for the ghost nun(Go to top)
Guy Le Estrange indicated that he watched Marianne Foyster "float"from room 7 on her way to the kitchen to have tea one time. Shewasn't floating, of course, but she was dressed in a sheer night gownand was obviously in an altered state when Mr. LeEstrange questionedif she was ok. This little scene, not associated with any phenomena,suggests that our ghost nun's spirit is in happier places. First ofall, Marianne came from room 7, a room that the ghost had arguablyused twice to symbolize the bottom of the well, essentially the finalresting place of the Borley nun. Therefore, in contrast to thesybmolism of the nun falling into the well as Marianne had walked("fallen") down the hall ("well shaft") to investigate room 7 on thenight she had prayed a rosary with Dom Richard Whitehouse, Marianne'strancelike "float" going the other way down the hall, coming "up"from room 7, can be construed that the nun's spirit had to a happydestination in another world. Indeed, Marianne had managed to answerfrom her trance that she was going to the kitchen to have tea - aperiod of quiet and rest.
Dodie plays the nun(Go to top)
I almost forgot this one. Thewritingsof Mrs. Cecil Baines show that Dodie sometimes saw strange thingswhile she was in bed. On occasion Dodie would see a man in a top hatby her bed. She also noted that on at least one occasion she had theimpression that someone was sitting on her bed because of adepression in the sheets. The depression in the sheets is actuallywhat connects this setting involving Dodie with our nun falling inthe water.
The poltergeist was using the depressed bedding to suggest wherethe nun had entered the water, creating a circular wave. Dodie"played" the nun being carried downsteam in the fluid-like sheets ofthe bed after having risen to the surface of the "water". The nun'smurder was being played by the ghost of the nun's murderer, theapparition wearing the top hat. This apparition brings SirWaldengrave comes to mind but who knows.
This would actually be the first time that the poltergeist nun hadtelepathically created the impression of another ghost, perhaps basedon her memory of the man who killed her. Years later the poltergeistwould telepathically project the ghost of Dodie's older brother,Reverend Harry Bull, in the window of the main stairwell. Maybe thisis because Harry Bull would actually profile the nun's murdererbetter than a relatively unknown gentleman wearing a top hat.
Ghost nun in the TV(Go to top)
I enjoy reading Mrs. Cecil Baines notes about Harry Price's notesabout Borley Rectory. It so happens that on August 29, 2003 I readfor the first time her notes about the Blue Nuns and their possibeconnection with the Borley area. After finishing these particularnotes I looked at the TV which was showing HGTV's House Hunters. Inoticed a reflection on a piece of furniture showing in the lowerleft part of the screen. The orangish line of light started changingshape as I watched it and then it disappeared. Then I realized thatthe light couldn't have been a part of the TV signal. With the TVturned off and the room light turned on the screen indeed reflects awindow in its lower left corner. Car headlights are known to flashthrough the blinds of this window. But car headlights are not orange.Also, I have since noticed that when I look at the TV from where Iwas standing the window in question is clearly visible in my sidevision. I think that I would have immediately correlated the streakof light I saw on the TV screen with any light coming through theblinds of the window.
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Aside - From what I understand about ghost sightings there are twobasic types. A ghost can be witnessed by everybody present or by lessthan the total number of people present. Interestingly, when not allthe people present are able to see a ghost, the people said to beaware of a ghost can be thought of as having a vision, similarly aspeople in the Bible had visions. In this sense, "seeing" a ghostseems to be more of a psychic experience.
Note that I have since concluded that Adelaide was probably notresponsible for the wall writings. This is because Adelaide was tooyoung to fabricate the information in the wall writings on her own.Adelaide would have probably just written what she had heard from thefew adults around her. I'm sure that Marianne, Lionel and RichardWhitehouse or Mary Pearson(?) would have made the connection betweenbetween the wall writings and any issues, actually just words thatAdelaide might have heard the adults frequently repeating. Butregardless if someone was responsible for the Rectory's wall writingsand was better than Houdini at getting away with things like that,that's not my concern.
My guess is that Rev. Henry Bull discovered the hard way that theoriginal cellar "holding tank" had actually capped off an abandonedwell which he did his best to fill it in. But over the years theground around this abandoned well began to sink. Indeed, the remainsof the Rectory's main well head are now somewhat of a problem for theconcrete drive that now goes over it.
Also, the "well tank" writing was presumably written by a Frenchspeaking person who was struggling with English so perhaps the ideawas really to convey the thought "well then tank".
