I have lived in Braintree since a child, and
had come to know the surrounding villages on the hilly Essex/Suffolk
border quite well. I have an aunt who lives in Castle Hedingham, and
have enjoyed many country walks. However, I had not heard of Borley.
This is hardly surprising as Borley is a very small village off the
beaten track, and, the tales of Borley live mainly with the older
generation.
In November 1996 I was with a close friend from Japan, Takashi Kato, and I was showing
him the churches of the area. Takashi is a
student of architecture, and so had interest in the many ancient sites
of the area. Whilst driving from Long Melford to Castle Hedingham, we
decided to take the country roads, and happened across Borley. I was
surprised to see the village, as there had been no road signs to
indicate its existence, but as we noticed a fine church, we decided to
stop. Nothing eventful passed; but after subsequently visiting Castle
Hedingham, we decided to take the same roads back to Colchester, where
my friend was staying, and drive through Borley again. It was on this
return trip that I noticed all the car's warning lights (low oil, no
petrol, overheating etc) flash on, and remain on until we had left
Borley. Of course my first reaction was that my car was about to break
down; but then I put it down to faulty electrics.
I had the car checked on my return to Braintree, and there was
no obvious problem. I have not had such an incident before this, or
since.
Later, when telling my parents about the strange fault with the
car, they mentioned Borley's history. I did not connect Borley with the
fault in my car, but I was interested enough to want to see Borley
again, especially as I had not seen a rectory, only a church. The
following week, Takashi and I made a daytime visit, and although we
walked around the church and fields, we could not find any remains of
the rectory. Disappointed we headed to the library in Colchester, and
investigated the maps from circa 100 years before. There we found the
location of the rectory, lower down the road from the church towards
Long Melford. A visit a week later proved fruitful, and we found the
overgrown gates, that appeared to conceal an empty plot of ground
behind. Parking the car, dusk was falling, and we walked towards the
gates. As we touched the gates, to ascertain which period they were
from, a bright white light appeared, not far from the gate, and
progressed towards us, in an up and down motion. The light appeared further up the road near
the church, but on the left hand side; and traveled down towards us, where we were standing by
the gate.
I am afraid that we did not stay to see the light arrive. My
Japanese friend was already moving towards the car, and I followed! As
we returned home, we did not talk for a while, as we were both trying to
rationalise what we had seen. The possibility of the light being a
lantern, a security light, a headlight from a motorbike, or other form
of transport, were all considered, and reluctantly had to be discarded.
I have been back to Borley once since, and have not seen a
similar light, although I have not made investigations into the gate
again, nor returned at night. After that I quite forgot about Borley,
being busy with academic research. I cannot explain what we saw - yet I
am not suggesting it is anything supernatural - however, I am intrigued
about the possibilities.