Dear Vince;
Regarding yet another request by a film crew to set up at Borley:
I realise it is difficult to know what to do with [the requests to film, broadcast, or interview at Borley]. They are embarrassing. One wants to be accomodating and polite to everybody but these guys are merely trying to earn a living from exploiting a tired legend, and I cannot see that they are likely to shed much light on the matter.
You and I know that Borley Church is a place of worship, not a supernatural theme park. I cannot think that the parish would agree to [another] film crew cavorting round the church for three days.
The film crew would be very disappointed if they do not see a spook, so I'm sure they will.
I realise that my own research and beliefs are a severe downer on the continuing interest in the Borley Mystery. It is not what people want to hear. However, I wish people would realise that there are no ghosts at Borley church and never have been. I've spoken to dozens of people who were loyal members of the congregation, some for nearly half a century, I've never found one who could remember any unusual experience at all in the church. I have pored through countless records and archives looking for any mention of any historical mention of a haunting of the church and have drawn a blank. How likely is it that [an outsider] film crew can succeed where so many have failed? You've visited the church. It is a peaceful spot, and has been a sacred spot for countless years. The idea of it now being haunted is absurd. Nobody is hiding or concealing anything. It just aint haunted!
I daren't even pass on the request to Borley, in case [the residents] somehow get the idea that I have lost my critical faculties and common sense and am somehow supporting [the most recent] application. . . .
Sorry to seem grumpy about this. I'm not. It is just that so many people forget how well documented local life in East Anglia has been. I even know what furniture was in every room in the Pentlow Mill in 1840! You wouldn't be able to hide a real haunting as the legend suggests.
Our attitudes harden considerably when attention switches to the church. If people started doing it to Pentlow Church, I'd go around punching them on the nose.
It is hard to explain, but dammit, it is our church! What an insult! It is as personal a space as our living rooms, even for a rabid athaeist like me. Imagine the fuss if we went around desecrating mosques, with film crews, recorders and cameras, looking for spooks. Imagine the fuss and the post-colonial guilt.
Your neighbor,
Andrew Clarke