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The Haunting of Borley Rectory

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Jennifer Janusiak
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« on: February 12, 2009, 12:03:30 am »

The Haunting of Borley Rectory - A Critical Survey of the Evidence by Eric J. Dingwall, Kathleen M. Goldney & Trevor H. Hall  (Also known as the 'Borley Report')



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« Reply #1 on: February 12, 2009, 12:04:24 am »

The Haunting of Borley Rectory - A Critical Survey of the Evidence by Eric J. Dingwall, Kathleen M. Goldney & Trevor H. Hall  (Also known as the 'Borley Report')
CONTENTS


NOTE & PREFACE

DIARY OF EVENTS AND ABSTRACT

I.  INTRODUCTION: THE BUILDING OF THE LEGEND

II. BORLEY RECTORY: ITS TOPOGRAPHY AND LEGENDS

III. THE BULL INCUMBENCIES

IV. THE SMITH INCUMBENCY AND HARRY PRICE

V. THE FOYSTER INCUMBENCY

VI. THE PRICE TENANCY

VII. LATER BORLEY

VIII. CONCLUSIONS

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures

Fig. I. Ground-floor plan of Rectory

Fig. II. First-floor plan of Rectory

Fig. III. Plan of Rectory and adjacent buildings

 

Plates

Plate I. The Rectory during the tenancy of Harry Price

Plate II. The St. Ignatious Medal, the 'Confirmation Medal', and the 'French Revolution Medal'

Plate III. Borley, Long Melford, and Sudbury (Ordnance Survey)

Plate IV. Aerial view of Rectory site

Plate V. The 'Marianne' Wall-writings

 

The Haunting of Borley Rectory was first published in January 1956 in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research and simultaneously as a book by Gerald Duckworth & Co.  The three authors, all S.P.R. members, had worked on their appraisal of the Borley hauntings and Harry Price's role in it since 1951.  The results of their investigation dealt a tremendous blow to Price's reputation as a critical psychical researcher as the authors accuse him of fraudulent practices, faking and manufacturing evidence and misrepresentation in practically all aspects of his involvement with Borley.  When Professor Anthony G.N. Flew reviewed the report in the Spectator on 27th January 1956, he described Borley Rectory and its ghostly associations as nothing but a "house of cards which Harry Price built out of little more than a pack of lies", a quotation which Trevor Hall, the third author and then newest S.P.R. member, enjoyed using so much that he included it in practically everything else he wrote, about Borley as well as his other literary forays into psychical research.

The entire 'Borley Report' is reproduced here, including the original plates and figures, and as with all the other online books and articles, the original page numbering is retained.  The intention over a period of time is to hyperlink the various sections and quotations in the book with the relevant sections of the quoted works which are or will be available online on the website.  The intention of including this book on the site is not only to provide as comprehensive a resource of Borley material concerning Harry Price online, but also to allow the text to be annotated with commentaries on the material and cross-referenced with other documents which appeared after it was published in 1956.  Where this occurs, there will be a lettered hyperlink in the body of the text which will link with the modern comments in a grey panel at the bottom of the relevant page.

http://www.harryprice.co.uk/Borley/PriceatBorley/HBR/hbr-contents.htm
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« Reply #2 on: February 12, 2009, 12:05:10 am »

NOTE

This report is the result of an enquiry conducted by Dr E. J. Dingwall, Mrs K. M. Goldney and Mr Trevor H. Hall at the invitation of the Council of the Society for Psychical Research.  In making it available for study, the Council wish it to be clearly understood that the Society does not hold or express corporate views, and that the responsibility both for the facts and the reasoning in the report, as in all papers published or sponsored by the Society, rests entirely with the authors.  The Council also feel it desirable to point out that the late Mr Harry Price, who at no time held any office in the Society, should not be confused with Professor H. H. Price of Oxford University, a former President of the Society, who has been a member of its Council for many years.

The Council wish to take this opportunity of expressing their thanks to the Midland Bank Executor and Trustee Company Ltd and to Mr Paul Tabori for making available Mr Price's files on Borley Rectory.  The reader will appreciate the important part which these files played in this appraisal of Mr Price's investigation.

On behalf of the Council:

G. W. LAMBERT

          President, Society for Psychical Research

17 June 1955       

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« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2009, 12:05:29 am »

PREFACE

The purpose of this report is to contribute a critical survey of the evidence for a case of alleged haunting which may be considered, if not one of the best authenticated, certainly the most widely publicised story which has hitherto appeared.

The printed literature of the history of Borley Rectory is very extensive and the imprinted material proved to be far more voluminous than we had expected when we began our examina­tion.  Although much of the critical discussion of the evidence demands a fairly close acquaintance with the relevant documents, we have tried to make the story as clear as possible by quotations from the printed sources and extensive reference to the unpub­lished papers.  In dealing with this mass of material we have done our best to omit nothing relevant, and in many cases our sum­maries of the reports and correspondence by the persons quoted have been approved by the authors themselves before being printed in the following pages.

The forthright but unavoidable criticism of the methods of the late Mr Harry Price contained in this report has been prepared with reluctance in view of his death and his consequent inability to defend himself.  Our survey has been based on a close study of Price's own files which would not, during his lifetime, have been available for scrutiny.  Our criticisms have given us no satisfaction for we realise that distress will be caused to his widow and his friends and harm occasioned to psychical research as a whole.  Whilst expressing our regret, we consider that the follow­ing pages will make it clear beyond doubt that the results of our investigation have afforded us no choice in the matter.

It now remains our more pleasant duty to thank those of our correspondents and others who have so willingly assisted us and without whose help and advice we could not have completed our task.  Among those closely connected with Borley to whom we are especially indebted for their help in recalling incidents of the past we must mention Mr Alfred Bull and Miss Ethel Bull, whose recollections of the Bull incumbencies were of especial interest, and also Mrs G. Eric Smith, without whose kind assistance and constant criticism any adequate survey of the Smith incumbency would have been impossible.

Of the help given by observers who were associated with Mr Price during his tenancy, that of the late Mr Sidney H. Glanville

viii

was outstanding.  Mr Glanville not only made available to us all of his original documents but was always willing to discuss the many controversial points which arose when dealing with the period of his own activity.

Among many others to whom we are much indebted for infor­mation and advice we must mention Canon H. Lawton, whose account of his own residence at Borley is of exceptional interest; Mr Herbert E. Pratt, who undertook an immense amount of patient research into certain aspects of the Foyster case and who has prepared the index ; Lord Charles Hope and Major the Hon. Henry Douglas-Home, who made available to us some of their original notes and observations ; Mr Charles Sutton, Mrs Cynthia Thompson, Mr Roger Glanville and his sister Mrs Helen Carter, the late Lady Whitehouse, Dr H. Park Shackleton and Dr John Park Shackleton, Mr Roland Winder, Mr Douglas Craggs, Miss E. R. Gordon, and Mrs F. Tatum and Mrs E. M. Wildgoose, both of whom were at one time resident in Borley Rectory.

We must also record our especial thanks to Dr Paul Tabori who, as literary executor for Mr Price, was able to allow us to quote both from printed sources and from the mass of papers bequeathed to the University of London, and to the Goldsmiths' Librarian, Mr J. H. P. Pafford, for giving us facilities to remove temporarily some of these documents for extended examination.

Cambridge - London – Leeds

1955

E.J.D.

K.M.G.

T.H.H.

 

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« Reply #4 on: February 12, 2009, 12:06:18 am »

DIARY OF EVENTS AND ABSTRACT
   
Legendary Borley
 According to a legend, discredited in 1938, Borley Rectory was built on the site of a 13th-century monastery, with a nunnery nearby at Bures.  The legend told how an eloping monk and nun were caught and put to death.  Apparitions of the nun, the coach in which they fled, and a headless coachman figure in stories in the late 19th century.
The Bull

Incumbencies
   
1862-92
 The Rev. Henry D.E. Bull is rector of Borley.
1863
 He builds Borley Rectory and lives there with his family of 14 children.
1892
 Death of the Rev. H.D.E. Bull.  His son, the Rev. Harry F. Bull, succeeds him as rector and continues living at the rectory with brothers and sisters.
1900
 Four sisters, the Misses Bull, are said to have seen a phantom of a nun on the rectory lawn on 28 July 1900.  Other phenomena of various kinds reported.
1911
 The Rev. Harry Bull marries, and moves across the road to Borley Place, his sisters remaining at the rectory.  In 1920 the Rev. Harry Bull once more occupies Borley Rectory.
1927
 The Rev. Harry Bull dies on 9 June 1927.  Borley Rectory empty until October 1928
The Smith

Incumbency
   
2 October 1928
 The Rev. G. Eric Smith inducted to living of Borley.
1929
 He and his wife are disturbed by the rumours that the rectory is haunted and consult the Editor of their paper, the Daily Mirror, about contacting a psychical research society.
p.x   
10 June 1929
 The Daily Mirror sends down reporter V.C. Wall and contacts Harry Price
MR HARRY PRICE (1881-1948), who was one of the best known and most prolific psychic journalists of his generation, was both the Founder and the Honorary Director of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research which finally became the University of London Council for Psychical Investigation, an organisation which had actually no official connexion with the University.  He was at one time the Foreign Research Officer for the American Society for Psychical Research, and during his life conducted experiments with mediums both in England and on the continent of Europe.  He published a number of books on his investigations and activities, and towards the end of his life undertook an enquiry into the alleged haunting of Borley Rectory, issuing his results in two volumes, The Most Haunted House in England (1940) and The End of Borley Rectory (1946).  At the time of his death he was preparing, with Mr. Upton Sinclair, a scenario of the supposed hauntings.  In 1950 a biography appeared under the title of Harry Price: the Biography of a Ghost-hunter from the pen of his literary executor, Dr Paul Tabori.
 
12 June 1929
 Price visits Borley for the first time.  Immediately objective phenomena of a new kind appear: the throwing of stones and other objects, 'spirit messages' tapped out on a mirror, appearance of 'apports', etc.  The Smiths' maid, Mary Pearson, tells Price she has seen apparitions.
14 July 1929
 The Smiths leave the rectory owing to its lack of amenities and the nuisance created by the publicity, move to nearby Long Melford, and run the parish from there.  Price receives letters from the Smiths reporting various happenings.
p.xi
 
April 1930-2
 The Rev. G. Eric Smith leaves Borley and moves to Norfolk.  No further reports of manifestations reach Price for 17 months.  Borley remains without a rector for 6 months.
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« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2009, 12:06:40 am »

The Foyster

Incumbency
   
16 October 1930
 The Rev. Lionel A. Foyster (cousin to the Rev. Harry Bull), his young wife Marianne, and a child Adelaide (aged 2½) take up residence at the rectory.
1930-2
 The Rev. L. Foyster reports a variety of phenomena commencing soon after their arrival.  These increase in violence, reaching their height in June 1931.  Neighbours, Sir George and Lady Whitehouse, with their nephew Edwin Whitehouse (later Dom Richard, O.S.B.), constantly visit the Foysters and testify to witnessing the phenomena.
September 1931
 The Misses Bull call on Harry Price in London and ask him to visit the rectory once more.  He visits the Foysters on 13 and 14 October, and accuses Mrs Foyster.
January 1932
 Following a visit of exorcism by the Marks Tey Spiritualist Group, accompanied by the medium Guy L'Estrange, the phenomena, with a couple of slight exceptions, abruptly cease.

Price reported that up to this date at least 2,000 alleged paranormal phenomena occurred during the Foyster incumbency.
 
October 1935
 The Foysters leave Borley.

Borley Rectory is not again occupied.  The new rector (March 1936), the Rev. A.C. Henning, asked the Bishop's permission to reside elsewhere in view of the rectory's size and lack of amenities.  Later the livings of Borley and Liston were combined and Mr Henning moved into Liston Rectory.
 
The Price Tenancy

and after
   
May 1937
 Harry Price visits Borley (an interval of 5½ years having elapsed since his last visit)
p.xii
   
 
 and decides to rent the empty rectory for a year.  His tenancy began on 19 May 1937.
25 May 1937
 Price inserts advertisement in The Times inviting people to join a rota of investigators.  The keys of the rectory are entrusted to Mr and Mrs Arbon who occupy the cottage adjoining.  Visits are paid to the rectory at weekends by the 48 investigators, chief among whom are Mr S.H. Glanville and his son Roger Glanville, and Mr Mark Kerr-Pearse.
October-November 1937
 Mr S.H. Glanville's daughter, Helen Glanville, using a planchette for the first time, obtains scripts of considerable detail regarding the murdered nun.  Her name is now given as Mary or Marie Lairre, and the information that she came from France.
27 March 1938
 At a planchette sitting in Streatham with Helen and Roger Glanville a communicator, 'Sunex Amures', threatens to burn down the rectory that night.
19 May 1938
 Price's tenancy ends and he moves out from Borley Rectory.
1 November 1938
 Price broadcasts the story of Borley Rectory, and as a result becomes acquainted with the rectory's new owner, Captain Gregson. (1)
December 1938
 Captain Gregson takes possession of the rectory, which he renames Borley Priory.  He reports experiencing various phenomena; various visitors also report curious happenings.
27 February 1939
 Borley Rectory destroyed by fire at midnight.

'Phenomena' reported, strange figures seen walking in the flames.  Further happenings reported by various visitors in ensuing months.
 
1 Price broadcast on Borley in 1935, 1937, 1938, and 1941, and again in 1946 and 1947 with several others taking part.  Mr Guy L'Estrange broadcast on Borley in December 1936; and Captain Gregson in April 1939.
 
p.xiii
   
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« Reply #6 on: February 12, 2009, 12:07:09 am »

Later Borley
   
1940
 Price's first book on Borley, The Most Haunted House in England, is published.  He receives voluminous correspondence and many theories regarding the nun.  Chief among these is that put forward in a lengthy analysis of the case by Dr W.J. Pythian-Adams, Canon of Carlisle.
1940-6
 Many people write to Price claiming further unexplained experiences on the ruined site of the rectory.

Groups are formed to visit and investigate the ruins.
 
1943
 Price excavates the wells in the cellars of the ruined rectory and discovers human bones buried there.  The bones were assumed to be the remains of the Borley nun and were ultimately buried in Liston churchyard in May 1945.
1944
 The ruins of the rectory are finally demolished.  Price suggests that a brick is levitated paranormally during a visit by him with a photographer and a researcher (Miss Cynthia Ledsham) on the staff of the American magazine Life.
19 October 1945
 Mrs G. Eric Smith writes to the Church Times stating that neither she nor her husband believed Borley Rectory to be haunted.
1946
 The End of Borley Rectory is published.
1947-53
 'Phenomena' continue.  Scores of people still visit the site annually, hold séances in the grounds, etc.  Lectures are given; many newspaper articles written.
29 March 1948
 Death of Harry Price.

Later in the same year the Inky Way Annual (Book 2) contains an article by Mr Charles Sutton, on the staff of the Daily Mail, in which he accuses Harry Price of fraudently producing 'phenomena' himself on the occasion of a joint visit there in 1929.
 
1949
 Mrs G. Eric Smith writes to the Daily Mail (26 May) again asserting her disbelief in the Borley haunting.
p.xiv
   
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« Reply #7 on: February 12, 2009, 12:07:51 am »

I. INTRODUCTION: THE BUILDING OF THE LEGEND

Of all the phenomena investigated by psychical researchers, those connected with alleged hauntings and poltergeists may perhaps be considered the most puzzling.  For not only do they combine the physical and the non-physical but this interaction appears, if records are to be credited, to be associated with intelligent direction.  Moreover, some at least of the phenomena are facts which cannot be denied by anybody who is capable of understanding the nature of evidence.  Thus the fact that, through the centuries, persons have had experiences which they term 'seeing ghosts' is as certain as that other persons have had hallucinations when under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or morbid mental states.  The interpretation may be erroneous: the experience is certain.

If we look back through the past it seems that these hallucinatory experiences were often recorded as occurring in certain localities or in so-called 'haunted houses'.  Sometimes those experiencing them noted and preserved accounts of events of this sort which they could not explain, describing them as heavy knockings, thuds and taps, the sound of bulky objects being dragged about, resounding crashes, sighs, shrieks, and groans.  Indeed, the similarity of these experiences suggests that some common factors are to be sought which may be either external to the observers or a product of their own psychological structure or, perhaps, as seems more likely, a combination of the two.  The multiplicity and complexity of the material to be studied, coupled with the sporadic nature of the manifestations, make these events peculiarly difficult to investigate, and it is not surprising that in the whole of the literature there is hardly a single case which has been adequately examined in a scientific manner.  Indeed, at the time of writing, we do not know of any case where proper instrumental registration has been competently employed in order to determine whether the sounds heard were objective or subjective, although it would seem that in many instances those that are objective may be normal in origin and have no relation to other sounds which appear to be subjective in character.

For the purpose of convenient differentiation it has been found useful to distinguish between the alleged phenomena of haunting and those of the so-called poltergeist.  In the case of the latter, material objects are thrown about, furniture is upset and crockery smashed.  Whatever may be the cause of these destructive mani-

p.1

festations, they are not often associated with the phenomena of haunting proper, which partake rather of the nature of hallucination than of clean-cut interference with the material world.  Thus in the famous Ballechin case - 'the most haunted house in Scotland' (1) although Mr Harry Price maintained that poltergeist phenomena were observed this was not, we think, actually the case, unless it be urged that the reported pulling of the bedclothes was objective.  Indeed the combination of alleged haunting and poltergeist phenomena at Borley Rectory tended early in the case to create in the minds of informed critics a suspicion that the story of the Borley haunt was not precisely that which Price was trying to build up.  How abundantly justified these suspicions were will, we think, be clearly seen in this report.

As we have said above, there has been no carefully conducted survey either of the phenomena of haunting or of poltergeists.  Although an attempt was made in the case of Ballechin House, it did not prove possible to employ instrumental aids, and thus the question as to whether the tremendous thumps, clangings, and explosions were or were not objective could not be fully resolved.

 

In June 1929 the Daily Mirror (London) carried a series of articles on the alleged haunting of Borley Rectory in Essex and not far from Long Melford in Suffolk.  Through a series of circumstances to be discussed later, Price was asked to assist the newspaper's reporter who was at the rectory which was then occupied by the Rev. G. Eric Smith and his wife.  As the reporter said in the issue of the Daily Mirror for 10 June 1929, all the ingredients of a 'first-class ghost story' were awaiting the investigation of psychic experts.  Commenting on the newspaper's invitation Price in The Most Haunted House in England (2) (hence-forward called MHH) truly stated that he little dreamt that this first-class ghost story was to 'become the best authenticated case of haunting in the annals of psychical research'.  It is clear that at that time he had no idea in his mind that the events at Borley might become a framework around which could be, built a dramatic and complex ghost story arrayed in scientific garb.  The legend was already there.  It had only to be clothed, embellished, and supported by the testimony of others to become alive again.  We shall see later how subsequent events gradually persuaded Price to seize the opportunity with both hands, but it was not before 1940 that his first book on the subject (i.e. MHH) was published and created something of a sensation, converting

1 The Alleged Haunting of B- House (London, 1900), p. 70.

2 London, 1940, p. 1.

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« Reply #8 on: February 12, 2009, 12:08:11 am »

numbers of persons, including, oddly enough, jurists of reputation, to a belief in the paranormal character of the Borley phenomena.

It is on this volume and that subsequently published in London in 1946, (1) together with other printed material on Borley, that the present report is based.  In addition, however, we have had access to an immense mass of unpublished documents, correspondence, and notes, to which have been added the results of our own enquiries and personal interviews with persons who were involved in the case.  As enquiry after enquiry was pursued, it gradually became clear that in the alleged haunting of Borley Rectory we had a case of surpassing interest, not only for the psychical researcher, but also for the student of psychology generally and above all the psychology of testimony and its value under certain unusual conditions.  The tale of the Borley haunting developed into a really good ghost story because the legendary skeleton became clothed with a body of material which passed for reality and anything that weakened the flimsy structure was glossed over or treated as of no importance.  Normal causes were discounted, critics silenced or their objections overruled, and commonplace happenings were magnified into mysterious and incredible phenomena.  'Everything is incredible connected with Borley Rectory', wrote Price (MHH, p. 152), and even a queer insect seen in the grounds was 'Impossible ... just one of the many "impossible" things that have happened in this "enchanted" Rectory.' (2)

Price had, it seemed, found at last the repeatable experiment, 'laid on' as it were. 'As a scientist', he wrote, 'I can guarantee you a ghost'. (3)

 

Few reviewers, as far as we can ascertain, were bold enough to look behind the facçade of suggestion and direct statement put out by Price in MHH.  But Mr V. S. Pritchett, in the Bystander for 23 October 1940, ventured to mention how a Mrs Mansbridge, according to her husband's report of 5 September 1937, 'felt the end of the belt of her coat lifted and dropped again' (MHH, p. 233).  In Price's version of the incident (p. 128) the belt was 'lifted and dropped again by an unseen hand'.  How did Price know that it was a hand, asked Mr Pritchett, adding that no hand had been mentioned by the lady concerned. He forgot that when ghosts are guaranteed, unseen hands must surely be about.

1 The End of Borley Rectory (henceforward called EBR).

2 MHH, p. 136.  The only other case known to us of insects said to playa part in a haunt are the queer moths in the very curious Cape Cod case (see Harpers Magazine, November 1934, clxix, 733-41).

3 Listener, 10 November 1937, p. 1014.

p.3

Before passing to a detailed account of the various stages of the investigation of Borley Rectory, we propose giving the reader a few examples of the materials and methods used in building up the legend.

In cases of this kind it is, of course, useful to maintain that dwellers in the house have had nothing to do with Spiritualism or things psychic.  Had they been thus interested it might have been plausibly suggested that their observations and conclusions had possibly been influenced or biased by their beliefs.  Thus, in dealing with the life of the Bulls since the rectory was built in 1863, Price states (MHH, p. 74) that 'not one of the Bull family, including the Foysters, is concerned with psychical research or spiritualism or knows anything about the subject'.  The use of the present tense in this passage is to be especially noted.  But even as it stands, the alleged ignorance of those of the Bull family not at that time living in Borley Rectory is somewhat doubtful, considering the interest that their close relations and former rectors of Borley had in the spirits.  For example, Price reports that the small summer-house in the garden was often used by the Rev. Henry Bull to commune with the spirits (although this has been denied by a son and daughter in conversation and in writing); and that his son, the Rev. Harry Bull, assured a Mr J. Harley that on many occasions he had himself had personal communications from spirits and that when he died he would, if discontented, adopt devices causing violent physical reactions, such as breaking glass, in order to try to communicate with the inhabitants of the rectory (MHH, pp. 25, 50).

A further brief instance may suffice to show how, by omissions from the original reports provided by his observers, Price did not allow readers of his books the opportunity of considering normal causes as an explanation for many of the phenomena.  One of Price's principal observers, Mr Mark Kerr-Pearse, in his report dated 26 June 1937 mentioned a rose tree which was repeatedly blown backwards and forwards against the wall causing knocks which 'might provide an excellent "ghost" for the imaginative'.  This observation may also have been made by another observer, Mr M. Knox, of University College, Oxford, who, writing to Price on 19 February 1938, stated that he noticed 'several bushes near the house which might produce a rapping noise against the walls or windows if the wind blew', and further remarked that during the night he and his friends heard 'repeated and distinct thuds or raps, one every ten or twenty seconds', which they attributed, not to the ghosts, but to the bushes outside the house.  Price did not print the observations of either Mr Kerr-Pearse or

p.4

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« Reply #9 on: February 12, 2009, 12:08:57 am »

Mr Knox, although he mentions bushes as possible causes of sounds in the 'Blue Book' of instructions issued to his corps of observers.

From the above examples, which have been selected from a much more damaging mass of material to be discussed later, it will be seen how Price built up the case for the Borley haunting.  But before closing this brief introduction to our report on Borley, a word must be said on Price's scheme, formulated in 1937, by which independent observers should visit Borley and report their findings. (1)

 

In any scientific investigation of an alleged haunted house, it might be thought that the assistance of persons who had already had at least some experience in psychical research would have been sought.  After all, the ordinary person, however intelligent, careful, and acute he may be, cannot be expected to know of or appreciate fully the very many pitfalls into which even the most experienced psychical researcher occasionally falls.  In the majority of cases the layman knows little of the scope and range of hallucinatory phenomena, and is often unable to recognise that kind of abnormal occurrence which the expert knows at once should receive special attention.  If, on the other hand, what was wanted was bricks to build a good story, at least two points were to be favoured, (a) that the observers should know little about psychical research or the investigation of the alleged phenomena and (b) that they should receive every kind of suggestion as to what they might see, hear, or feel.  This was, then, the plan which Price in May 1937 began to put into operation.  He inserted an advertisement in The Times of 25 May 1937 in which he asked for the assistance of 'responsible persons of leisure and intelligence, intrepid, critical and unbiassed'.  'Scientific training' was, the advertisement stated, 'an advantage', and a private car was essential.

In discussing this plan Price stated that if these observers 'knew nothing about psychical research, so much the better' (MHH, p. 106).  To each of the observers who was chosen, certain conditions were indicated.  Each had to be interviewed by Price; each had to sign a Declaration Form and receive a copy of the Blue Book of instructions, (2) in which was printed an account of the phenomena which, it was asserted, had been seen or heard in Borley Rectory for over forty years.  Thus it was suggested to the visitors that the bells mysteriously rang; objects moved from previously determined positions; footsteps, heavy or soft, pattering

1 See MHH, pp. 116 ff.

2 See MHH, pp. 193 ff.

p.5

or shuffling, were heard; knockings, lights, perfumes, apports, apparitions, and other phenomena might be experienced.  On the other hand, the observers were told to make 'the greatest effort' to ascertain whether the phenomena were due to normal causes, among which were included rats and farm animals nosing at doors, a factor which must have been inserted by Price for some good reason, although we have neither found any such occurrence reported by any observer nor any reference to its possibility.

The influence of suggestion on the investigation of haunted houses cannot be exaggerated.  In every ordinary house sounds are heard and trivial incidents occur which are unexplained or treated as of no importance.  But once the suggestion of the abnormal is put forward - and tentatively accepted - then these incidents become imbued with sinister significance: in fact, they become part of the 'haunt'.

Borley Rectory was absolutely ideal for such psychological mechanisms to operate, and we shall see in the following pages what effect they had on numerous observers.  Here was a great rabbit-warren of a house, cold, draughty, and littered with rubbish, the walls covered with scrawls and squiggles.  The very construction of the property, with its peculiar acoustics (see p. 68), favoured the manifestations.  And Price took few steps to clear up the muddle and the mess.  Indeed, his instructions added to the confusion instead of modifying it.  No systematic record or log-book was kept, so that each batch of observers virtually started afresh in total ignorance of what their predecessors had done or what arrangements they had made.  Again, it might be thought, in view of the prominence given to the supposed paranormal wall-markings, that Price would have taken the precaution of having at least a couple of walls re-whitewashed.  No such thing was done.  It was considered sufficient to ring round observed pencil markings and to presume that others found later without a ring were, ipso facto, freshly (and paranormally) produced.  How faulty any such presumption was is well exemplified by notes written by Major the Hon. Henry Douglas-Home, who visited Borley and recorded as follows after reading MHH: 'To show how easy it is, in torchlight - or even daylight - to miss pencil marks on a distemper wall - which has been covered with scribbles, circles and dates - one night - a most observant parson friend of mine, my brother & myself, spent the night there.  It was amazing [twice underlined] the number of small squiggles which the first person omitted to see - (we took it in turn each room & the other two followed shoulder to shoulder) ... No. I missed things that Nos. 2 & 3 could see the whole time!!' The more objects

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« Reply #10 on: February 12, 2009, 12:09:18 am »

left about the greater the confusion, and the greater the confusion the more chance of 'phenomena' being reported.

Without these suggestions in favour of the paranormal little sensational might have been reported, and as it was, some observers experienced nothing out of the ordinary: a fact which, when reported to Price and occasionally coupled with some mild criticism, was received with but little appreciation.  The stock reply to all such objections was that one had to wait for phenomena to occur and stay in the house day by day in perfect quietness, watching and waiting.  Moreover, Price added, the phenomena at Borley were 'stronger and more frequent' when the place was occupied by a family.  But even these conditions were sometimes met and yet nothing happened.  The Rev. Somerset E. Pennefather rented the house towards 1895 for six weeks in the summer.  So far as was known by his son, Mr W. S. Pennefather, nothing strange or abnormal occurred.  This statement is brushed aside by Price, since, he said, it would be difficult to remember trivial but unusual happenings after forty-five years.  Had anything been remembered which would have supported the legend, we may be sure that it would have found a place in MHH.

Similarly, Canon H. Lawton (1) wrote to the Spectator in 1940 (p. 396) saying that in 1933 he and his family lived in the rectory for a month during the summer and never saw or heard anything out of the ordinary.  Canon Lawton, whom we have interviewed and whose testimony will be discussed later (see pp. 108-10), actually found and read the MS. written by the Rev. L. A. Foyster (see p. 82) in which he described the amazing phenomena said to occur during his incumbency.  Canon Lawton, however, who struck us as an extremely reliable and level-headed person and not at all suggestible, said nothing to his wife and during their stay they heard none of the bangs, thuds, or footsteps, or if they did, ascribed them to the normal accompaniments of life in a big country house with the doors and windows open.  The Canon's experiences were treated by Price just as he had treated those of Mr Pennefather.  To him these gentlemen were merely unlucky, inasmuch as either they proved immune to the psychic influences which permeated the very air of the most haunted house in England or those same influences remained in abeyance during their sojourn there.

 

From the few examples given above, the reader may get some idea of how the ground was laid for what was to follow and how

1 Hon. Canon of Manchester Cathedral (1950-53) and now (1954) Hon. Canon and Sub-Dean of the Pro-Cathedral at Buenos Aires.

p.7

the minds of the observers were prepared for the reception of just those ideas which Price wanted to plant therein.  In the succeeding chapters we shall trace the story of the rectory in detail and show how, owing to the flimsy nature of the early evidence, it was some time before Price himself realised what could be made of what in 1929 was already a first-class ghost story.

When it was over and the connected story printed and published, its reception must have surprised even Price himself.  Sir Albion Richardson, K.C., C.B.E., the eminent jurist, declared that the manifestations were proved by the evidence to the point of moral certainty (see EBR, p. 325) and Sir Ernest Jelf, then Senior Master of the Supreme Court, in discussing the case in the Law Times of 9 August 1941, stated that he was at a 'loss to understand what cross-examination could possibly shake it' (EBR, p. 323).  Sir Ernest's article reveals a strange inability to understand what constitutes valid evidence in cases of this kind.  It will be part of our task in this report to try to indicate how material of this sort is to be appraised, to show how one fact is to be weighed against another, and how the whole of the evidence must be considered against a background of wilful deception, incompetent investigation, and a barrage of suggestion directed against the observers, many of whom seem to have been chosen with at least one qualification: that is to say, a lack of acquaintance with the technical methods to be used in the enquiry with which they were expected to deal.

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« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2009, 12:09:48 am »

II. BORLEY RECTORY: ITS TOPOGRAPHY AND LEGENDS

Borley Church and the other buildings adjoining the site of 'the most haunted house in England' stand on a hill in Essex, less than a mile from and overlooking the valley of the River Stour (which forms the county boundary with Suffolk) and the single-track railway line between Long Melford and Sudbury.  These two small townships are both in Suffolk and, although respectively 2 and 2½ miles distant, are distinctly visible from the elevated site of Borley Rectory.  The grounds of the house (which was destroyed by fire in 1939) are situated on the road from Borley Green to Rodbridge Corner, the junction with the main highway from Bury St Edmunds to Sudbury.  Borley parish itself has a scattered and mainly agricultural population of approximately 120 inhabitants.

The position of the rectory and the buildings in its immediate vicinity is shown on Plate III which is a reduced photograph of part of the appropriate Ordnance Survey Sheet (edition of 1925) to a scale of 6" to one mile, and on Fig. III which is a reproduction of the 1/2,500 Ordnance map (1933 ed.) with added lettering showing principal buildings, etc.  It may be noted that the considerable agricultural buildings grouped around the rectory farmyard in 1925 are also visible in an aerial photograph taken after the complete demolition of the rectory in 1944 (see Plate IV), and were therefore obviously standing during the whole period of the alleged hauntings.  These farm buildings, which are not shown on the Key Plan on p. 21 of EBR, may be considered of some significance in connection with the presence of rats and mice in the rectory and its outbuildings and with sundry unpleasant odours noticed at various times.  Another point of interest demonstrated by the Ordnance Survey plan is the extreme proximity of the cottage to the rectory and therefore to the very narrow entrance to the enclosed courtyard with its obvious acoustic properties, the evidence for which is discussed in detail in this report.  The latter feature of the rectory is not shown on the small-scale Ordnance plan (Plate III) which was selected in order additionally to illustrate the position of the house in relation to Long Melford and Sudbury and to the railway joining them.  The courtyard and its entrance are, however, clearly shown on the plan of the rectory ground floor (Fig. I).

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« Reply #12 on: February 12, 2009, 12:10:07 am »

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« Reply #13 on: February 12, 2009, 12:10:27 am »

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The rectory grounds, buildings, and farmyard contained 3.732 acres, of which approximately half consisted of the rectory garden with its long frontage to the road.  What was in fact the side of the house (despite the fact that it contained the porch and main door) faced the road and was separated from it by a carriage drive with a gate at either end.  A lawn extended from the eastern and principal elevation of the house with its bay windows and glass verandah to the stream shown in Fig. III, crossed by a miniature bridge which led to the extreme end of the garden and the copse containing the smaller of the two summer houses built by the Rev. Henry D. E. Bull.  It was to this so-called 'Gothic' structure that the rector was said by Price (erroneously, we think) to retire in the small hours to commune with the spirits.  The larger circular summer house adjoining the road, where both Henry Bull and his son Harry spent much time, is actually marked on the Ordnance Survey.  The late Mr S. H. Glanville, who knew the house well and to whom we are indebted for much useful information, told us that the ring of tall trees surrounding the rectory and shown on the frontispiece of MHH had a very darkening and depressing effect inside the rooms.

The rectory itself was built by the Rev. H. D. E. Bull in 1863 and was a large detached two-storey red brick building.  A wing was added in 1875-6 almost entirely enclosing the small courtyard.  With the kind permission of Mr S. H. Glanville (1) we are able to reproduce his original plans of the rectory showing the ground and first floors (Figs. I and II).  The accommodation also included considerable cellaring and some storage accommodation in the roof.  There were in all some 23 rooms, large and small, on the two main floors which were connected, be it noted, by three staircases.  The house had no central heating, gas, or electricity and no main water supply.  Immediately adjoining the house, as shown on the plan (Fig. III), was the rectory cottage, forming part of the original stable block which had the usual coach house, loose boxes, harness rooms, and living quarters above for the groom and his wife, and, as we have said, there were the agricultural buildings grouped around the former rectory farmyard.  These latter were presumably included in that part of the 'nine acres' which 'formed the area of the original gardens, etc.,' and of which Price said that 'most of this has now been let off for farming purposes' (MHH, p. 24).  The reader of the two Borley

1 Mr S. H. Glanville was the leading 'official observer' during Price's 1937-8 tenancy of Borley Rectory.  He compiled a complete record of the rectory and its phenomena, a record known as the Locked Book from the fact that when bound it was fitted with a lock and key.  Mr Glanville lent this Locked Book to Price, who used it in compiling MHH.

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« Reply #14 on: February 12, 2009, 12:11:09 am »

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