| Mistake | Correction - original source |
| "A special electrical contact installed by the investigators was pressed in a vacant and sealed room." Miller, R. DeWitt. Forgotten Mysteries: True Stories of the Supernatural. | No such report in any original Borley record. |
| "The 'phantom' of Borley Rectory in Yorkshire was thoroughly investigated by the Society for Psychical Research in 1929, but no good evidence was found." Eyesenck, Hans J. and Sargent, Carl. Explaining the Unexplained. Multimedia Books Ltd. 1993. p. 162. | Borley is in Essex, not Yorkshire. The photo is not of an SPR investigation, but of a student visit. Price's investigation that started in 1929 was never under the auspices of the SPR. |
| "The most remarkable occurrences took place only after [Price's] arrival on the scene. Raps were heard, lights were seen, people were thrown to the ground and bricks hurtled through the air only when he was present." Rupert Furneaux, The World's Most Intriguing TRUE MYSTERIES. New York: Galahad, 1965. p. 199. | Price did report phenomena from his visits, but the bulk of his material is from independent witnesses relating events when he was absent. |
| "It was curious that the words which appeared on walls, some of which stated, 'I cannot understand - tell me more," and gave the name of 'Marianne,' appeared only when Harry Price brought up the rear of the party of investigators. . . " Rupert Furneaux, The World's Most Intriguing TRUE MYSTERIES. New York: Galahad, 1965. p. 200. |
Edwin Whitehouse stated, ". . . while the place was vacant, I paid frequent visits to Borley, examining roms, rafters, and every corner of the house. We found Mrs. Foyster's Christian name 'Marianne' pencilled up on the walls . . . in some cases there was 'please help' added. . . On June 16. . . we found some fresh writing on the wall. . ." MHH, pp. 93-4. "Underneath the message ['Marianne get help,'] is printed in capitals 'I cannot understand, tell me more.' These words were written by Mrs. Fosyter, hoping that a second message would elucidate the first." MHH, p. 146.
All of the wall writings discovered by investigators during the Price tenancy were observed when Price was not present. Price was an infrequent visitor during his lease. "I wanted, as far as possible, to eliminate myself and my friends, and all previous occupiers, from taking any active part in my. . . .inquiry. . . . I wished to eliminate myself from the inquiry as far as possible." MHH, pp. 106, 118. |
| The nun appears "always on July 28th of each year." Harry Price, The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longmans Green & Co. Ltd., 1940. p. 24. |
". . . .it does nothing of the sort. I have been there three years on July 28, and no sign of the figure was visible." Harry Price. Fifty Years of Psychical Research. London: Longmans Green & Co. Ltd.,1939. New York: Arno Press, 1975. p. 300.
"I have not been able to verify that. . . .the 'nun' always manifests herself on July 28 of each year." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 185 |
| ". . .following a sudden scream of 'Don't Carlos, don't'. . . " Richard Jones. Haunted Britan and Ireland. New York: MetroBooks. 2002. p. 74. | "The volume of sound, at its highest pitch, was slightly louder than would be used in ordinary conversation." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 8. |
| "Mrs. Marianne Foyster. . . was actively engaged in fradulently creating these phenomena." Terrence Hines, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal - a critical examination of the evidence. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1988. 63. | Marianne was not present for the entire period of the Price documentation. ". . ..every phenomenon. . . we had witnessed that night had occurred scores of times previously, had been witnessed by many people, and had been going on for years." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 71. She told her son, Ian Shaw in 1956 , "Not that I ever did haunt Borley. There were plenty of others who did that. It was haunted since 1860 and that's a little before my time. . . . I didn't do it." In that same year, she told Trevor Hall, "If you mean did I haunt the place, the answer is No." |
| ". . . .the booming notes of organ music (the house doesn’t have an organ!)" Paul Finch Internet article. | The only reference to organ music Price relates is in The Most Haunted House in England, p. 202. "Mr. Hardy's son. . . heard singing and chanting coming from the church." Peter Underwood reports John May "heard soft notes and chords" from the church organ 15 September 1947, in The Ghosts of Borley. Underwood reports the church organ was heard by Mrs. Norah Walrond and Mr. Henning in October of the same year (p. 166-67), and by Mrs. A.G. Wilson and Miss Vivienne Wilson in September if 1949 (p. 172). Underwood sates, "Footsteps, music and shadowy presences were all reported by several people in and around Borley church." (p. 169) |
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"The Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull, who became pastor of Borley Church in 1862, was
untroubled by the ghost stories told about his parish and did not hesitate to build his
new house on the very site most likely to be haunted by the village's restless spirits." Hauntings. Time-Life, 1989. p. 66.
"Bull. . . .built the rectory on a site believed by locals to be haunted." The Ghost Hunter's Guidebook. Troy Taylor, 2001. |
Hauntings cites Poltergeist Over England as source material. That book by Harry Price makes no suggestion Bull built on a known haunted site. None of the original source material by Price, Rev. Henning, or Peter Underwood indicates Henry Bull was warned. |
| "Many things happened the night I spent in the famous Borley Rectory with Harry Price and one of his colleagues, including one uncomfortable moment when a large pebble hit me on the head. After much noisy 'phenomena' I seized Harry Price and found his pockets full of bricks and pebbles. This was one 'phenomenon' he could not explain, so I rushed to the nearest village to phone the Daily Mail with my story, but after a conference with the lawyer my story was killed. The News Editor said: 'Bad luck, old man, but there were two of them and only one of you." Charles Sutton. "Meditations." Inky Way Annual, Book Two, December 1948. p. 125 |
"I found two of his coat-pockets full of stones." Sutton corrects his
observation in a May 23, 1956 letter to Michael Coleman.
"I HAVE NO MEMORY WHATEVER OF A STONE, BRICK OR PEBBLE EPISODE THAT EVENING." (emphasis original) Harry Price's secretary Lucy Kaye in a letter published in the March 21, 1949 edition of the Society for Psychical Research Journal. "Price would have been bulging indeed if he had carried even a single full brick about his person - let alone two or three as Sutton's plural suggested. . . .Price was a hot-tempered, impetuous man. Had Sutton really accused him, he would have reacted with a punch on the nose rather than some meek muttering. . . . There is documentary proof that Price continued to make friendly references to Sutton long after the July 1929 incident." Peter Underwood. The Ghosts of Borley, 1973. pp.101, 102, 106 |
| "....the site of some five thousand paranormal incidents during a period of a few years." Michael White. Weird Science. p. 123 | "From Mr. Fosyter's records and from my own observations and inquiries, I have estimated that at least two thousand Poltergeist phenomena were experienced at the Rectory between October 1930 and October 1935, the period of his residence there." The End of Borley Rectory. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 1946. p. 47 |
| "....located in Suffolk..." | "The rectory in question was that of Borley, two and a half miles from Long Melford, Suffolk. . . . but just within the Essex border." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. v |
| "....skull found by Mrs. Smith..." | "Mrs. Smith was turning out the various rooms when, in a cupboard in the library she found a parcel neatly wrapped and tied with string. Upon removing the wrappings, she was astonished to find the skull of, apparently, a young woman. It was in perfect condition, and the teeth were also perfect. . . .Mr. Smith and the sexton reverently buried it in the churchyard." The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 9 |
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"When the rectory burned in 1939, a hidden skeleton was found." Celia Bland. Unsolved Mysteries. p.26
"...the skull and jawbone of a woman were found buried in the cellar." Richard Cavendish. The World of Ghosts and the Supernatural. p. 23 |
"Jaw bone found. . . Part of skull dug up."
The End of Borley Rectory. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 1946. pp. 241, 246. |
| "....50 investigators..." | "Forty-eight observers took part. . . ." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 120 |
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"Price took forty [observers] to the house. . . . Price himself moved in. . . " Charles Berlitz. World of Strange Phenomena. p. 188
Price rented Borely so he could "live and work in a real haunted house. . . .[he] brought down a whole team of volunteer investigators. . ." Daniel Cohen. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts. p. 84 "Price lived there for some time." Harvey Day. Occult Illustrated Dictionary. p. 23 |
[May 19, 1937] "I gave [Mr. Henning] a cheque for £15, six months' rent of the house in advance [at the rate of] "£30 a year. . . . I reiterate that I wanted, as far as possible, to eliminate myself and my friends, and all previous occupiers, from taking any active part in the proposed inquiry." In his ad, Price asked for "Responsible persons. . . .are invited to join rota [rotation] of observers," not all at once. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. pp. 104-05, 106 |
| "....labeled by Harry Price as 'the most haunted house in England'...." | ". . . as I swung my car into the market square at Sudbury. . . I inquired from a bystander how I could get to Borley Rectory. 'Oh.' he said, 'you mean the most haunted house in England.' And that is how and where I first heard the phrase." Harry Price. The End of Borley Rectory. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 1946. p. 15 |
| "....Although she has been seen throughout the house. . ." web site | There is no record of the nun being seen inside the house. |
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"In desperation, the Foysters left the house that April [1931] and Borley was sold." Warren Armstrong. The Authentic Shudder. pp. 78-86
". . .after [Marianne] was attacked by an invisible assailant, the family moved out." Nigel Blundell. The World's Greatest Mysteries. pp. 159-60 |
"The cause of Mr. Foyster's leaving the Rectory was not the ghosts, but ill-health. . . . Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Foyster felt frightened during the whole period of their residence at the rectory." emphasis original. Lionel Foyster journal entry for October 1935, "We moved out of the house." [Captain Gregson wrote November 2, 1938], "I have recently purchased Borley Rectory." The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. pp. 83, 84, 166. |
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Various wall/paper writings; whisperings. "Marianne. Get Help. To die unrepentant bothers me." Finn Bevan. True Mystery Stories. pp. 272-79
"Let us pray. Don't, Charlie, Don't. Any letters today. Carry on, man." Louis Mayerling, We Faked the Ghosts of Borley. |
Wall and paper writings: "Marianne. Marianne Light Mass Prayers. Ma. Marianne please help get. Marianne at get help - Entant Bottom Me. Edwin. Get light mass and prayers here. M. W. G."
Voice: "Don't Carlos, don't." The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. pp. 144-52, 7 |
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"Two of the girls were coming home from a party one night. . ." Anna Claybourne. The Usborne Book of Ghosts and Hauntings. p.13
"Twenty people saw a nun on the lawn. . ." Nigel Blundell. The World's Greatest Mysteries. pp. 159-60. |
"On July 28, 1900, Misses Ethel, Freda, and Mabel were returning home from a garden party. It was quite light as the sun had not set. . . all three simutaneosuly saw a female figure. . .one of the girls ran into the house to fetch her sister, Miss Elsie Bull. . . .[who then] began to run across the lawn. . . . the figure stopped and turned toward her. . . . and the figure vanished. . . . .The nun has been seen other years on July 28, and this fact gave rise to the tradition that she is seen every year on this date. I do not think this is correct." The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 45 |
| "if the ruins of Borley Rectory are inhabited, it is entirely by ghosts." Marjorie Burns, editor. Weird Stories From Real Life. p. 71 | ". . . in January 1844 the Rectory was in process of being demolished, which perhaps accounted for the fact that the phenomena [Marshall and Russell] recorded were not more impressive. . . .Writing on June 1, 1945, on my return from a visit. . . I have to report that the Rectory is no more. Not one brick stands upon another, and the site is as clean as a swept floor. All the bricks inthe cellar were removed, together with the round well. . . .the cellars have now been filled in." Harry Price. The End of Borley Rectory. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 1946. pp. 281, 283 |
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Coach seen "tearing across the dining-room, through the wall." Folklore, Myths and Legends of Great Britain. p. 230
"Ghostly coaches began to race through the rectory walls and out on to the lawn." Quentin Cooper, and Paul Sullivan. Maypoles, Martyrs, and Mayhem - 366 days of British customs, myths and eccentricities. pp. 47-48 "The phantom coach was now seen trundling through the rectory library." Eric Maple. Supernatural England. p. 92 |
Cooper saw "a large, old-fashioned black coach which was rapidly sweeping across the hedge and road towards the rectory. . . the coach swept into the farmyard and disappeared. . . . {Mary Pearson saw] a large cab [which made ] the passage through the trees, etc." No record of coach in the house. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 55 |
| "At the time of [Harry's] death, mothballs were said to have been found all over the room." Daniel Cohen. Screaming Skulls. pp. 87-9. | No other source - including Price - has such a report. |
| "It was curious that the words which appeared on walls, some of which stated, 'I cannot understand - tell me more," and gave the name of 'Marianne,' appeared only when Harry Price brought up the rear of the party of investigators. . . " Rupoert Furneaux. the world's most intriguing TRUE MYSTERIES. pp. 192-203 |
". . . while the place was vacant, I paid frequent visits to Borley, examining roms, rafters, and every corner of the house. We found Mrs. Foyster's Christian name 'Marianne' pencilled up on the walls . . . in some cases there was 'please help' added. . . On June 16. . . we found some fresh writing on the wall. . ." Edwin Whitehouse, The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. pp. 93-4.
"Underneath the message ['Marianne get help,'] is printed in capitals 'I cannot understand, tell me more.' These words were written by Mrs. Fosyter, hoping that a second message would elucidate the first." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 146. |
| "None of the observers ever witnessed the actual writing process." John Godwin. Unsolved: the world of the unknown. p. 154 |
". . .they must have been produced while we were within a yard of the mantelpiece. . . " Mr. M. Savage, as reported by Harry Price, The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 222
"Some of these marks spontaneously appeared under controlled conditions, in the presence of the investigators." Harry Price. The End of Borley Rectory. London: George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd. 1946. p. 202 |
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". . .complete with 30 rooms. . ." Scott Rogo. The Haunted House Handbook. p. 32
"It then had 35 rooms, and every one of them was haunted." Susy Smith. Haunted Houses for the millions. p. 23 |
"It contains ten rooms on the ground floor. . . . There are fourteen rooms on the first floor." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. pp. 18, 21 |
| ". . . and their twelve-and-a-half-year old daughter. . ." Scott Rogo. The Haunted House Handbook. p. 35 | "We arrived at Borley on the night of October 13, 1931. . . .We found a little girl, Adelaide. . .aged 3 1/2 years. . " Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. pp. 66, 68 (She would have been 2 1/2 when the Foysters moved in almost exactly one year earlier.) |
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". . .he had a family of seventeen children. . ." Susy Smith. Haunted Houses for the millions. p. 23
". . . he had seventeen children!" Terrance Dicks, True Horror Stories. p. 17 |
"Rev. Henry Bull had fourteen children, twelve of whom survived." Harry Price. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longman's Green and Co. Ltd. 1940. p. 15 |