Borley Rectory

I personally have only read O'Donnell's book, and that was years ago. I remember finding it an easy read, but much salt was pinched.

Wasn't there a film adaptation of one of these books starring Robin Askwith?

Has anyone made that joke yet?
 
PeteByrdie said:
I personally have only read O'Donnell's book, and that was years ago. I remember finding it an easy read, but much salt was pinched.

Wasn't there a film adaptation of one of these books starring Robin Askwith?

Has anyone made that joke yet?
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Nobody will confess to it.
 
A while back, we had a new forum member who posted pictures of an old box he'd bought with, from memory, 'H.Bull' written on it. I think he bought the box in Borley. I've just tried to re find those pics in this thread with no success. Does anyone know where they are please?.
 
Swifty said:
A while back, we had a new forum member who posted pictures of an old box he'd bought with, from memory, 'H.Bull' written on it. I think he bought the box in Borley. I've just tried to re find those pics in this thread with no success. Does anyone know where they are please?.
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A while back I wanted to look at those photos too mate but couldn't view/find them either.
Been fascinated by Borley Rectory since I read The Most Haunted House when I was 10 - nearly 50 years now.
I have periods when the fever recedes, but it always returns ;)
 
Blind Davey said:
Been fascinated by Borley Rectory since I read The Most Haunted House when I was 10 - nearly 50 years now.
I have periods when the fever recedes, but it always returns
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I feel that the literary element of ghost stories - real-life ones, as well as fictional stories - is often tremendously important; this, as much as anything else, makes the stories insistently memorable and far more so than other tales or news and so on. Just to give two personal examples of this from the Borley Rectory legend:

* The messages scrawled upon the walls: a writer of fiction could not have done better, as regards creating a certain and 'poetic' atmosphere. This aspect suggests that the dead are not truly far away from us, the living; and, in some instances at least, they are instead 'lost' and confused. A very slender 'veil' indeed. The aspect, haunting as it may be, actually haunts our memories because of the supposed ghost's appeal for our help and not only Marianne's (which is in itself a rather poetic, Romantic name).

* The - probably unconfirmed - incident when, supposedly, a young woman fell to her death through glass. Such is the drama of the alleged incident, such was the power of that image that I could 'see' it in my mind's eye...and yet it may well be merely a fictional invention, one created to shock the reader into caring about a tragedy when, sadly, tragedy is part of our everyday reading because of newspaper headlines etc.

Of course, there are many more elements of the Borley story that trigger our imaginations and sympathy/empathy: e.g. how many of us have pondered on the life, the struggles, and the afterlife of the 'nun' whose sigh was supposedly recorded in the local church? A whole world of imaginative 'sympathy' is opened up to us from that one incident alone; the accounts of the Borley hauntings are, in many ways, so resonant that they are almost symbolic - we read into them what is already within us. No wonder that they linger in the memory.
 
Steven said:
I feel that the literary element of ghost stories - real-life ones, as well as fictional stories - is often tremendously important; this, as much as anything else, makes the stories insistently memorable and far more so than other tales or news and so on. Just to give two personal examples of this from the Borley Rectory legend:

* The messages scrawled upon the walls: a writer of fiction could not have done better, as regards creating a certain and 'poetic' atmosphere. This aspect suggests that the dead are not truly far away from us, the living; and, in some instances at least, they are instead 'lost' and confused. A very slender 'veil' indeed. The aspect, haunting as it may be, actually haunts our memories because of the supposed ghost's appeal for our help and not only Marianne's (which is in itself a rather poetic, Romantic name).

* The - probably unconfirmed - incident when, supposedly, a young woman fell to her death through glass. Such is the drama of the alleged incident, such was the power of that image that I could 'see' it in my mind's eye...and yet it may well be merely a fictional invention, one created to shock the reader into caring about a tragedy when, sadly, tragedy is part of our everyday reading because of newspaper headlines etc.

Of course, there are many more elements of the Borley story that trigger our imaginations and sympathy/empathy: e.g. how many of us have pondered on the life, the struggles, and the afterlife of the 'nun' whose sigh was supposedly recorded in the local church? A whole world of imaginative 'sympathy' is opened up to us from that one incident alone; the accounts of the Borley hauntings are, in many ways, so resonant that they are almost symbolic - we read into them what is already within us. No wonder that they linger in the memory.
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I think I've probably posted this before sometime, but when I was spending Xmas in Long Melford one year I walked (might have been on Xmas day!) to Borley one afternoon, it was getting dark by the time I got there. Not much to see except the new estate where the rectory was and the church. A local guy, a gardener, knew a lot about it and told me that the church was still very active -- most recently men repairing the wrought iron gate had found the cable from their welding device pulled out of its socket inside and thrown across the church. (This would have been around 2004-5 I think).
 
If anyone here fancies watching, Norfolk's Forgotten History are doing a live stream from the grounds of Borley Church tonight from19:00.

This link should take you to the live stream as and when it happens. They've/we've got a sense of humour so it shouldn't be a dull watch. Apart from the dull parts. But at least you and I won't be there and freezing your/my tits off.

https://www.tiktok.com/@jasongottsygotts/live?_r=1&checksum=3da739cf828c3f929e69925a2fa622b954a08834b93e1ed50c98bc5ee21a053c&enter_from_merge=share&enter_method=share&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAMSwPAa2Tcu9bfK0NntslPlvvWm50gkUrBBjHT9rdt7ghLZAdCISK-5HfR3DhQv7L&share_app_id=1233&share_from_user_id=6902859133843244038&share_link_id=f76bfe84-213d-4227-bb4d-e61d896fdd79&social_share_type=10&source=h5_m&timestamp=1733956411&ug_btm=b2001,b0928&ugbiz_name=LIVE&user_id=6902859133843244038&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=android&utm_source=messenger
 
Nothing ghostly happening about 5 minutes ago in Borley's churchyard ..

aNFHborley001.png



A cat ball's just gone off on request ..

aNFHborley002.png
 
kesavaross said:
What's a cat ball? Thanks.
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It's a small plastic ball normally used as a toy to entertain cats. When they touch it with a paw, the lights flicker inside it. Paranormal investigators also use them to encourage spirits to touch them. Fans and hairdryers in controlled conditions won't set them off (waits for someone here to post a video of that happening) so wind can usually be ruled out on location setting them off. In theory. They're about the size of a traditional bouncy ball, have electronics inside and an on and off button.
 
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Swifty said:
It's a small plastic ball normally used as a toy to entertain cats. When they touch it with a paw, the lights flicker inside it. Paranormal investigators also use them to encourage spirits to touch them. Fans and hairdryers in controlled conditions won't set them off (waits for someone here to post a video of that happening) so wind can usually be ruled out on location setting them off. In theory. They're about the size of a traditional bouncy ball, have electronics inside and an on and off button.
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I never knew that!

So the small source of light on the grave stone in the second picture is the cats ball?
 
kesavaross said:
I never knew that!

So the small source of light on the grave stone in the second picture is the cats ball?
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Yes. They need to be physically touched by something to go off. I've never run temperature tests on one to see how that affects them though.

It looked to be raining in Borley this evening but I haven't seen these thing affected by rain before.

 
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Swifty said:
Yes. They need to be physically touched by something to go off. I've never run temperature tests on one to see how that affects them though.

It looked to be raining in Borley this evening but I haven't seen these thing affected by rain before.
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Any where, where there is the media involved I instantly do not trust. Especially paranormal type stuff. They're more about viewing figures than anything else because that means £££££'s.

Temperature tests. I would be interested to see the results of that.
 
Last night I took the dog out for her late walk and had to wait a few minutes while next door decanted their dogs while parking (the dogs all like each other but it was a bit late for enthusiastic dog greetings). So I took my dog to the graveyard at the end of our row of cottages and hung about looking into it through the gate (didn't want to go in, dog gets VERY excited because of cats). It was moonlit and peaceful and very very quiet and it made me ponder why people would think that ghosts hang around in graveyards. After all, by the time the body is buried (or more commonly these days, the ashes are buried), then any soul or consciousness has departed long ago. There is nothing left except physical remains. I can get my head around people haunting places they knew in life, or the location of their death, being unable to move on, but why would they haunt somewhere that 90% of the time they'd never even been to?

This question isn't specific to Borley, because i know the graveyard there will have had comings and goings by the (now dead) incumbent and could be on the site of older buildings. But...the question still remains.
 
catseye said:
Last night I took the dog out for her late walk and had to wait a few minutes while next door decanted their dogs while parking (the dogs all like each other but it was a bit late for enthusiastic dog greetings). So I took my dog to the graveyard at the end of our row of cottages and hung about looking into it through the gate (didn't want to go in, dog gets VERY excited because of cats). It was moonlit and peaceful and very very quiet and it made me ponder why people would think that ghosts hang around in graveyards. After all, by the time the body is buried (or more commonly these days, the ashes are buried), then any soul or consciousness has departed long ago. There is nothing left except physical remains. I can get my head around people haunting places they knew in life, or the location of their death, being unable to move on, but why would they haunt somewhere that 90% of the time they'd never even been to?

This question isn't specific to Borley, because i know the graveyard there will have had comings and goings by the (now dead) incumbent and could be on the site of older buildings. But...the question still remains.
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I've often thought the same thing. Also, Christians believe that God created the Earth so why do they stand in cold man made buildings to worship God?. Imagine you're God. You've made everything amazing outside and humans decided to stand inside something they've built instead to sing about him. I'd be well pissed off.
 
catseye said:
Last night I took the dog out for her late walk and had to wait a few minutes while next door decanted their dogs while parking (the dogs all like each other but it was a bit late for enthusiastic dog greetings). So I took my dog to the graveyard at the end of our row of cottages and hung about looking into it through the gate (didn't want to go in, dog gets VERY excited because of cats). It was moonlit and peaceful and very very quiet and it made me ponder why people would think that ghosts hang around in graveyards. After all, by the time the body is buried (or more commonly these days, the ashes are buried), then any soul or consciousness has departed long ago. There is nothing left except physical remains. I can get my head around people haunting places they knew in life, or the location of their death, being unable to move on, but why would they haunt somewhere that 90% of the time they'd never even been to?

This question isn't specific to Borley, because i know the graveyard there will have had comings and goings by the (now dead) incumbent and could be on the site of older buildings. But...the question still remains.
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Personally I have never felt uneasy in a graveyard, not heard of many convincing ghosts reports from them either, although the ghostly/time-slip funeral in the Elizabeth Dacre Uncanny episode (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0013hb5) was powerful stuff
 
catseye said:
Last night I took the dog out for her late walk and had to wait a few minutes while next door decanted their dogs while parking (the dogs all like each other but it was a bit late for enthusiastic dog greetings). So I took my dog to the graveyard at the end of our row of cottages and hung about looking into it through the gate (didn't want to go in, dog gets VERY excited because of cats). It was moonlit and peaceful and very very quiet and it made me ponder why people would think that ghosts hang around in graveyards. After all, by the time the body is buried (or more commonly these days, the ashes are buried), then any soul or consciousness has departed long ago. There is nothing left except physical remains. I can get my head around people haunting places they knew in life, or the location of their death, being unable to move on, but why would they haunt somewhere that 90% of the time they'd never even been to?

This question isn't specific to Borley, because i know the graveyard there will have had comings and goings by the (now dead) incumbent and could be on the site of older buildings. But...the question still remains.
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I've often had this notion too.... I mean, if you die (I mean THAT'D be unlucky, right??!!) and your soul or spirit supposedly has the free reign to travel anywhere in the universe, why would it hang about somewhere dreary or spooky that, especially in olden days, they probably spent most of their lives in. You could be zooming around the planets with Meshuggah blasting through your head. That happened the other day, I was back in a town in north Shropshire for the first time since about 1990 and was talking to a dearly departed ex and friend who grew up there and we met whilst doing A levels, anyway I was talking to her (I talk to the dead far too much) and then it occurred to me, why would your soul hang about here? You can go anywhere. Anyway, *cough*
 
I remember as a child reading one of those Unexplained Mysteries type of book and the photos of the faces in the floor at Borley Rectory absolutely terrified me. Didn't they catch recordings of some babbling in Spanish, was it ,from the faces?
 
kesavaross said:
What's a cat ball? Thanks.
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Another thing. If you look up cat balls on Youtube, it's mostly moron's videos of them flicking their cats in the balls (as I learned yesterday trying to find a video of cat balls instead). So I wouldn't recommend that approach.

There seems to be newer versions of these cat toys that have more tech trickery in them. I haven't watched any of those videos yet.
 
gojiramonkey said:
I've often had this notion too.... I mean, if you die (I mean THAT'D be unlucky, right??!!) and your soul or spirit supposedly has the free reign to travel anywhere in the universe, why would it hang about somewhere dreary or spooky that, especially in olden days, they probably spent most of their lives in. You could be zooming around the planets with Meshuggah blasting through your head. That happened the other day, I was back in a town in north Shropshire for the first time since about 1990 and was talking to a dearly departed ex and friend who grew up there and we met whilst doing A levels, anyway I was talking to her (I talk to the dead far too much) and then it occurred to me, why would your soul hang about here? You can go anywhere. Anyway, *cough*
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That's why I put a large hag stone in the grave hole when we buried our Mum. She always loved to travel and wouldn't want to be hanging around a graveyard. She didn't like the woman she's buried next to either. I like to imagine my Mum like 2000AD's Judge Anderson now, soaring through different dimensions and nudging things out of people's way so they don't get hurt like Superman. Then watching random blokes she likes the look of getting undressed with a glass of red wine in her hand. The first thing her old best mate (who used to change my nappies) said when I made the phone call was "Oh. She's probably sitting on Reg's lap now." .. Reg was this ladies husband who'd also passed on and we all grew up together and they were all party animals when I was a little kid. :cool:
 
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Swifty said:
That's why I put a large hag stone in the grave hole when we buried our Mum. She always loved to travel and wouldn't want to be hanging around a graveyard. She didn't like the woman she's buried next to either. I like to imagine my Mum like 2000AD's Judge Anderson now, soaring through different dimensions and nudging things out of people's way so they don't get hurt like Superman. Then watching random blokes she likes the look of getting undressed with a glass of red wine in her hand. The first thing her old best mate (who used to change my nappies) said when I made the phone call was "Oh. She's probably sitting on Reg's lap now." .. Reg was this ladies husband who'd also passed on and we all grew up together and they were all party animals when I was a little kid. :cool:
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That's excellent, sir. What the duties of a son should entail! Yea , my mom loved travelling too and the immediate family , I was first, has her ashes. Don't think there ever was a grave as such. My sister is into lots of weird stuff including reiki and she was told when mom died ,there was some 'disruption' in the afterlife... I told my brother this and we howled because we could imagine her in front of some celestial keeper shouting I'M NOT DEAD.PUT ME BACK RIGHT THIS INSTANT, OR THERE'LL BE TROUBLE.
 
gojiramonkey said:
That's excellent, sir. What the duties of a son should entail! Yea , my mom loved travelling too and the immediate family , I was first, has her ashes. Don't think there ever was a grave as such. My sister is into lots of weird stuff including reiki and she was told when mom died ,there was some 'disruption' in the afterlife... I told my brother this and we howled because we could imagine her in front of some celestial keeper shouting I'M NOT DEAD.PUT ME BACK RIGHT THIS INSTANT, OR THERE'LL BE TROUBLE.
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I can imagine her also stalking that lawyer in Spiral/ Engrenages , Gregory Fitoussi is it (?)from the other side so I hope she's back in her twenties now!! My sister had a dream about my late granddad , I THINK when she was in Cyprus where he repaired plane engines in WW2 and she said he introduced her to a lady he was with and it wasn't my nan !! I refer you to the previous Terry Scott quote in the Robins section
 
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