Location: In the hamlet of Borley, 2 miles north-west of Sudbury on the Hssex/Suffolk border. (TL 847430)
‘I'he most haunted house in England* no longer exists, having been burnt down in 1939 and the ruin later demolished. Whether the old rectory ever deserved that title bestowed upon it by ghost-hunter Harry Price is now open to doubt. 'I'he events which reportedly took place there engendered thousands of words, including several books, and at this late date the truth can probably never be known, but it has been suggested that a large part of the phenomena consisted of hoaxes, by more than one person, and that most of the rest was the result of poor eyesight or simple misidentification of natural events, by people keyed up in expectation of ghosts.
Borley church, just across the road, is also said to be haunted. Singing and chanting and organ music have been heard from the locked church, objects inside were moved overnight, again in the locked church, footsteps and other strange noises have been heard, and the ringing of the church bell, though the church was again locked. In 1949 a visiting priest saw the figure of a veiled girl who moved behind shrubs and was nowhere to be seen w'hen the priest went to investigate. He said that she looked frail, and ‘had the shape of a nun’s hood on her head from which hung the thick veiling - her features were not discernible.’ Other ghostly figures have been seen in the churchyard, including in 1967 a ‘luminous white figure’ which changed into a luminous white patch. This so alarmed the four witnesses that
The road separating Borley church from the site of Borley Rectory, ichich is behind thf trees on our left.
Thev decided to leave - only to find that their car unexpectedly refused to start. On other occasions the close presence of other strange jihenomena such as LhOs and alien animals has had this same effect on cars.
Manv ghost-hunters who have visited this area over the last fifty years have reported strange phenomena of some kind, either around the site of the rectory, by the adjacent cottage, in the road outside, or around the church. I here is some evidence to suggest that at least some phenomena are created involuntarily by the witnesses, and it seems likely that the people who visit Borley in a state of tension and excitement are prime candidates for subconsciously creating ghostly phenomena (through a mechanism not yet understood) which they then report as objective happenings. On the other hand, of course, there just might be evil spirits lurking around the scene of ancient crimes, appreciating the attention bestowed upon them by easily frightened ‘ghost-hunters’!
World History
