Borley Rectory

A reminder there are real people behind weird phenomena! And not all of them appreciate being the focus of attention.
 
Borley Rectory in context, from the OS 25" to the mile series, revised 1896:

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The locus as it appears from the air today:

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A (slightly simplified) outline of the rectory, superimposed onto the aerial view:

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A LIDAR scan, suggesting that nothing of the former rectory remains above ground:

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All you'll glimpse today from the road, through the trees and past No. 1, Hall Road, Borley. (That's the locus, over the wall and gate to the middle left):

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A 3D interactive model (in Sketchup) of the rectory, downloadable if you sign up with the parent site.

maximus otter
 
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Upcoming film version of the events at Borley:
From acclaimed genre director Chris Smith (Creep, Severance, Triangle) comes the true story of the most haunted house in England. A young reverend and his wife and daughter move into a manor with a horrifying secret. When a vengeful spirit haunts the little girl and threatens to tear the family apart, the reverend and his wife are forced to confront their beliefs. They must turn to black magic by seeking the help of a famous Occultist...or risk losing their daughter. Starring Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey), John Heffernan (Collateral ), John Lynch (The Terror) and Sean Harris (the Mission: Impossible franchise).
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MrRING said:
Upcoming film version of the events at Borley:
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It's only very loosely about Borley, mostly they just make stuff up. OK, you could say the same about Harry Price, but he is depicted as a raving madman in it, like he's out of his mind on drugs or something. There's also a storyline about the Catholic Church in league with the Nazis. It's pretty stupid, and a real missed opportunity. I expected better from this director.
 
Souleater said:
We are talking about the director of the tongue in cheek comedy horror 'severance' starring Danny Dyer as the lead character.

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Yebbut, Severance is a very enjoyable film, and an intentional comedy. The Banishing is deadly serious. If anything, it's like his time bending movie Triangle.
 
I listened to this today. It's interesting that the lack of squealing and silly music gives the whole thing an air of old fashioned gravitas. Although you just cannot help wondering what was truly causing those noises in the church - it's all very well leaping to conclusions as the well-spoken investigator often seems to do. There is a bit of well-placed scepticism too! It's still worth raising the hair on the back of your neck for. (I don't know what its origins are but it's evidently old and professionally made).
Also you may like to see Peter Underwood being interviewed in Borley here
and inside the church (including some of the recordings on the previous radio programme):
One thing that struck me was that it's all very well complaining about ghosts messing with your recording equipment but it does rather rely on ghosts keeping up with what modern technology is for :) However, anyone who can keep calm in a pitch black church whilst hearing noises and seeing weird things, and not run for the hills, gets some respect from me.
 
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Eponastill said:
I listened to this today. It's interesting that the lack of squealing and silly music gives the whole thing an air of old fashioned gravitas. Although you just cannot help wondering what was truly causing those noises in the church - it's all very well leaping to conclusions as the well-spoken investigator often seems to do. There is a bit of well-placed scepticism too! It's still worth raising the hair on the back of your neck for. (I don't know what its origins are but it's evidently old and professionally made).
Also you may like to see Peter Underwood being interviewed in Borley here
and inside the church (including some of the recordings on the previous radio programme):
One thing that struck me was that it's all very well complaining about ghosts messing with your recording equipment but it does rather rely on ghosts keeping up with what modern technology is for :) However, anyone who can keep calm in a pitch black church whilst hearing noises and seeing weird things, and not run for the hills, gets some respect from me.
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It's an interesting thing that isn't discussed much in ghost hunting is subjecting unitentionally ghost hunters to sleep deprivation and sensory deprivation.
 
Swifty said:
I've been dying to watch this. Is it any good?.
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I thought it was excellent. Essential fortean viewing, and visually really interesting to watch. I learnt some things. and make sure you watch the credits with their crazy ghastly song.

I'd not really call it 'animated', that makes it sound like something disneyesque :) I'm no film student so don't have the vocabulary to explain what it's like... but it's like a creaky 1930s film. And it sort of superimposes actors onto atmospheric and I imagine often true-to-life backgrounds of the rectory.) With overlaid effects (much swirling mist and little orb-like dustmotes) and some things that give the impression of stop-motion. Also rather scary at times in a Raiders of the lost ark sort of way!
I think you will like it a lot. I think it's certainly for people who know something about Borley and the sort of culture of British ghosts and ghosthunting, people into the creepy and strange. (I'm not sure what sherbetbizarre means in 'it's not for everyone' of course, but yeah someone who prefers fast and furious 8 will probably be disappointed and confused. I think most people on here would like it though). Thanks for the heads-up, Sherbetbizarre.
 
Here's a fab podcast on Borley Rectory by Ben of Dark Histories:
https://www.darkhistories.com/ S05EP16 – The Borley Rectory Affair

Very through, grounded and dryly humorous presentation of facts, without any loss of wonder for the story.
Appreciates the humanity of those involved, including Harry Price, who made psychical research "exciting and spicy" for the man in the street even when there were no exciting and spicy facts to report, and who applied "scientific" approaches to studying stuff that was "completely bonkers" without a real grasp of the scientific method. Informative, entertaining and humane.
 
IbisNibs said:
Here's a fab podcast on Borley Rectory by Ben of Dark Histories:
https://www.darkhistories.com/ S05EP16 – The Borley Rectory Affair

Very through, grounded and dryly humorous presentation of facts, without any loss of wonder for the story.
Appreciates the humanity of those involved, including Harry Price, who made psychical research "exciting and spicy" for the man in the street even when there were no exciting and spicy facts to report, and who applied "scientific" approaches to studying stuff that was "completely bonkers" without a real grasp of the scientific method. Informative, entertaining and humane.
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Thanks, @IbisNibs, going to give this a listen later in the week!
 
I’m just reading the Most Haunted House in England’ by Harry Price. Never read it before. I find it quite charming, not really sensationalist (maybe it was for the time?). While I suspect that some of the more dramatic things were staged, going by some of the reports of other people who stayed there or ’investigated’ the place, it’s hard for me to think there was nothing at all going on. Reports like a matchbox etc were moved half an inch! (to quote from the book) etc. I think mice or rats, but under all the froth, I‘d like to think there was some kind of a haunting. The house certainly deserved one, monstrous pile that it was! :oops:

I was also reading Bank’s ’Engima of Borley Rectory‘ a few weeks ago, and the place the Harry Bull lived and came from looks like it ought to be even more haunted, come to that! (Pentlow Tower). I find these Victorian monstrosities incredibly fascinating (and oppressive) but I doubt I’d want to live in one. (Stay, yes).
 

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Those plates are from The End of Borley Rectory, Price's exhaustive post-war volume about the case. It also contains extensive transcripts of the planchette sessions, which would be comic, if they were not so tedious.

Time was when I lapped it all up and wished for more but it seems feeble to me now, alas!
 
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