I included the full story of those tapes recorded by Denny Densham, Geoffrey Croom-Hollingsworth and others, in "Hauntings," and the fact that in the company of a BBC producer I located, within moments, objects inside the church that made it possible for every noise recorded to have had a natural explanation. Peter Underwood, BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY Newsletter 24, July 28, 2000. I am sure the visitors realized that these sounds almost certainly had a natural explantion and were only to be expected. . . .The team should have carefully searched for evidence of anything that may have fallen from the roof or been disturbed by a rodent or bird, but I have no record of this being done. . . . Peter Underwood, "Hauntings," pp. 229-30.
I dispute wholeheartedly Peter Underwood's claim . . . For example: did Mr Underwood find a large pair of hobnail boots in the church? Or does he think we took them with us? Do you recollect those extraordinary footsteps? We were gobsmacked at the time, I can tell you!
I accompanied Denny Densham, my father-in-law, on all his visits to the site. In fact I am the 'Peter' mentioned on the tape when we were sitting in the choir stalls and had something hurled at us! I remember the queer 'lights' that we saw, which first appeared in the curtains at the font end of the church. These elongated into strips and then rather like those strange 'Mysterons' in 'Captain Scarlett', they 'flowed' over the pews towards us. If that object had not been thrown with such a force I don't know what we might have gone on to see and witness. The lights had just about reached the point at the edge of the Waldegrave tomb when the crashing noise occurred. The lights 'withdrew' instantly. It certainly wasn't moonlight, the lights moved far too quickly for that and it was a heavily clouded night as I recollect.
What on earth did Peter Underwood think we did? We accepted nothing blindly and searched every cupboard and hiding place for natural explanations to account for the sounds we recorded. We did this on each occasion! For instance: we could find nothing in the church that made any noise remotely like parchment "crackling" and as I told you before we could locate the whereabouts of the sounds we recorded on the super-sensitive professional equipment we used for some of the sessions. We were afraid to utilise this expensive gear after one of our smaller machines was "interfered with". However, when we did use the sophisticated recording equipment, we were able to pinpoint where the sounds originated in the building.
There were all kinds of objects littered around inside the church, but you expect that in a countryside place of worship. We found hymnbooks, kneeling mats, lecterns, candleholders, mouse droppings, hanging curtains with brass rings, brass crosses, iron bound chests and so on, but none of these were located where the sounds originated. In fact not one of them was remotely near the particular spot we pinpointed. I won't reveal the location in case some of your other correspondents have discovered a similar "noisy spot" in the church over the years, for we might be able to compare notes on this at a later date.
Peter Underwood. . . . dismisses three years of our research with a throwaway sentence! It is so easy for such people to be negative about everything they come across.
I do not have any explanation for the noises on the tapes. I know precisely where our professional tape recorders were located and they were nowhere near stone floors or wooden floors either. All the floors were carpeted when we visited the place anyway. We could not find anything in the church that would make the parchment-like noises, or those extraordinary clumping footsteps, or the squeaking bolt noises either. As a matter of fact I was the first one to notice the build-up of static "background noise" on the tapes before a sound "incident" occurred. It was very much like an energy increase before the sound actually "materialised" in the building.
Due to the precise placement of our stereo microphones we could roughly work out where the "noises" were manifesting in the church. . . . We always locked the church and remained on watch outside the building, on most occasions leaving the tapes running inside unattended. These sessions were usually in thirty minute segments. Why would any person who might have hidden themselves in the building then wait for twenty minutes before making any noise?
Some runs we made with no sounds at all, others were loaded with noises. None of it made any logical sense. On loads of sessions we asked the entities to communicate, they never did! We had tapes pulled out of some of the machines on certain occasions, yet other machines in the building were left alone. We tried a number of times to duplicate a "jam" on the affected machines but they operated perfectly outside the church, but when returned inside they simply would not function properly at all.
My opinion, for what it's worth, is that these noises were and are random, audible psychic "junk" recorded in some of the stones that make up the fabric of the building. Certain physical conditions encourage the manifestation of these noises, which do not appear to be intelligently controlled at all; rather being random sound "bites" that manifest in a strange way.
That is not to say there is not something peculiar happening at Borley. I do believe that there is a visible energy presence in the church, because I have seen it and I consider that the sound manifestations are just another symptom of something that is "adrift" in the area. Perhaps there was a standing stone (or stones) in the vicinity at one time, which channelled this difficult energy and it now has no point of focus to direct it in any specific way? Other than that I have no other explanation to offer you at all. However, I do believe the energy itself was, is and continues to be connected with fertility and fecundity! I have had personal experience of this also!
It is my personal belief that Borley must have been an ancient fertility site way back in the past. It would certainly help to explain Mrs Foyster's various 'problems'! I have been conscious of an undoubtedly vibrant energy at times surrounding the place, experienced its strange effects on people in the church and have also witnessed a fall of 'angel hair' in the churchyard on at least one occasion.
I have rather lost touch with the whole ghost hunting scene since Denny's sad death in 1992. He was such a great communicator and loved all the strange phenomena connected with the unexplained. I am afriad I became very disillusioned with certain types of people I met during our investigations, who have made it their business to go about "trashing" hauntings since that time.