• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Borley Rectory

Most of these haunted houses can be easily checked out these days without groups of people running around scaring themselves silly.

Just install remote wireless cameras, day and night vision. Two or three in all rooms and monitor the signals from them from outside the premises.

The you will see if there is anything really happening.

INT21
What if the spirits pick up on human's being present though? .. I reckon tech is an amazing addition to a haunted house vigil but humans get the strongest reactions ?..
 
Then repeat the experiment with humans in the building. Compare the tapes afterward.

It is often said that things move about etc when no one is there. Why not put it to the test.

We have Gigabytes of memory for very little money these days and it should be no problem to set up. Also a very interesting experiment.

INT21
 
Indeed, my Dad told me about it when I was about 5 years old (and as we all know, it's every son's duty to ignore his Dad) .. so I eventually watched it and he was right .. and it still scares the shit out of me now .. the finest haunted house horror film ever made.

Just using sound lets the viewer's imagination run riot and by the end of the movie, you're so scared that you don't want to see what's haunting the place.
 
Just using sound lets the viewer's imagination run riot and by the end of the movie, you're so scared that you don't want to see what's haunting the place.
The scenes where Elanor's being seduced by the house, because she's got no where else to go in life is perhaps one of the most haunting elements of the story; that she ultimately chooses to become a ghost herself instead of returning to her old unsatisfying life gets under my skin.

Yes the music played a huge part in that film as all the best horrors do, but there's that one shot when she's standing on a balcony, a small person in the shot filmed from a long way away and the cameraman decides to violently zoom in on her .. that made me jump big time ..

The camera work was fantastic ..

The film Waxwork 2 even did a homage to The Haunting featuring none other than Bruce Campbell ..

 
The Haunting (the original version) is one to watch on your own and then go to bed, peeping over the covers at any little noise. Great film.
 
The Haunting (the original version) is one to watch on your own and then go to bed, peeping over the covers at any little noise. Great film.
It's so good, it's still not up for free view on Youtube yet after about 50 years .. seriously, anyone reading this who's never seen the original (not the Liam Neeson CGI remake fest) The Haunting ? .. don't watch it now .. watch it on your own and tonight .. with your heating switched off is the best way .. in the dark .. in the night ..

 
It's so good, it's still not up for free view on Youtube yet after about 50 years .. seriously, anyone reading this who's never seen the original (not the Liam Neeson CGI remake fest) The Haunting ? .. don't watch it now .. watch it on your own and tonight .. with your heating switched off is the best way .. in the dark .. in the night ..

I bought the blu-ray recently, a great watch on a cold, dark night.

With modern movie sound technology, I'd like to see someone have the willingness to make a horror movie that relies solely on sound effects rather than over the top CGI cartoonery.
 
Borley Rectory, Halloween Special 2013, a low budget production but contains a nice Borley Church anecdote .


.. and the essence of vomit/embalming fluid ghost of Borley Church ..

 
Last edited:
As an aside, my partner and I recently acquired Revered Bull's (we assume the senior) church box from a local auction. Unbelievably we managed to win it as it was miscatalogued as being from Bornely Church, or some such misspelling. So it's currently sat in our living room, the most haunted box in England! Paperwork inside says it was discovered in the roof of the church during renovation. We were contacted by someone else who had a wood carving from the church/rectory and after we swapped photos they were clearly carved by the same hand. I'll try to add some photos later on if anyone is interested in seeing it.
 
Last edited:
As an aside, my partner and I recently acquired Revered Bull's (we assume the senior) church box from a local auction. Unbelievably we managed to win it as it was miscatalogued as being from Bornely Church, or some such misspelling. So it's currently sat in our living room, the most haunted box in England! Paperwork inside says it was discovered in the roof of the church during renovation. We were contacted by someone else who had a wood carving from the church/rectory and after we swapped photos they were clearly carved by the same hand. I'll try to add some photos later on if anyone is interested in seeing it.
Very interested in seeing loads of pictures of it! .. nice find, I'm envious, has it got his name written on it? :)
 
Very interested in seeing loads of pictures of it! .. nice find, I'm envious, has it got his name written on it?

Yes, his name takes up most of the box! It's quite crudely carved, not very ornate. We only strolled in to browse the auction as it's at the bottom of our road, we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the box! We've both been fascinated with Borley since we were kids, so we made sure to touch it just in case our bid wasn't successful - we were so sure another enthusiast would bid above our budget! I'll attach some photos. There are the only ones I have at the moment as I'm stuck at work.


2uzw9dw.jpg


2hg4dci.jpg


fjkkg8.jpg
 
Yes, his name takes up most of the box! It's quite crudely carved, not very ornate. We only strolled in to browse the auction as it's at the bottom of our road, we couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the box! We've both been fascinated with Borley since we were kids, so we made sure to touch it just in case our bid wasn't successful - we were so sure another enthusiast would bid above our budget! I'll attach some photos. There are the only ones I have at the moment as I'm stuck at work.


2uzw9dw.jpg


2hg4dci.jpg


fjkkg8.jpg
Brilliant! .. thanks for showing those pics, I'm looking forward to seeing inside the box, the handle and what looks like a locking clasp (?) .. what a great thing to own :)

edit: do you think the person who showed you pictures of their Borley related carvings would mind you posting those pics here as well ?
 
Brilliant! .. thanks for showing those pics, I'm looking forward to seeing inside the box, the handle and what looks like a locking clasp (?) .. what a great thing to own :)

edit: do you think the person who showed you pictures of their Borley related carvings would mind you posting those pics here as well ?

I'll try to take some more pictures for you tonight @Swifty and I'll ask Mr Rabbit if he still has the photos, I don't recall him showing them to me! If I remember it was some kind of sign, but I might be mistaken.
 
I'll try to take some more pictures for you tonight @Swifty and I'll ask Mr Rabbit if he still has the photos, I don't recall him showing them to me! If I remember it was some kind of sign, but I might be mistaken.
Thanks Rabbit Will Run.
 
As an aside, my partner and I recently acquired Revered Bull's (we assume the senior) church box from a local auction. Unbelievably we managed to win it as it was miscatalogued as being from Bornely Church, or some such misspelling. So it's currently sat in our living room, the most haunted box in England! Paperwork inside says it was discovered in the roof of the church during renovation. We were contacted by someone else who had a wood carving from the church/rectory and after we swapped photos they were clearly carved by the same hand. I'll try to add some photos later on if anyone is interested in seeing it.

This sounds like the opening of one of M.R. James' ghost stories :) Hope nothing nasty is unleashed.

I'd love to see some photos.
 
Ha! I'll admit to sleeping a little uneasily the first night it was in the house! I'll try to take some more detailed photos tonight.
How big is it out of interest ? .. can I please ask you to put something like a coin in one of your photos next to it to get some scale ?
 
Last edited:
Here's the streetview image for the driveway into the grounds that the rectory once stood in .. 'The Old Coach House' is embossed into the entrance wall .. I'd love to climb over that wall with a metal detector, I'd be happy just finding an old brick or a roof tile :)

https://www.instantstreetview.com/@52.054744,0.69436,180h,-4.48p,1z

The spot Borley Rectory once stood on, behind this small metal fence in the background


Thanks for this Swifty - I plan a trip to Borley at the weekend weather permitting, and now I know exactly where the old place once stood.
I did visit around 15 years ago when I first moved to the area, but I wasn’t exactly welcomed by the locals, so didn’t stay very long and certainly didn’t explore.



https://www.instantstreetview.com/@52.054781,0.693926,163.62h,-5.2p,0z
 
Anybody know what became of the bell from the Rectory? Hanging in Harry Prices garden last I heard?
CW.
 
Not exactly welcomed by the locals is about right.
I can't blame them though, as there are a few drunk idiots out there ringing doorbells at night and asking "Where's the haunted Rectory?"
You wouldn't want it on your doorstep either.
Still Borley is well worth a visit, it's SO quiet.
Most of the bricks went off to be reused around the area after demolition, there was a war on / just over so nothing got wasted.
If I won a few million on the lottery I would buy the ground, demolish the bungalows and rebuild it as new, and move in, the plans are all there.
CW.
 
Anybody know what became of the bell from the Rectory? Hanging in Harry Prices garden last I heard?
CW.

No - it's moved on ...

Price himself claimed the Borley Bell as a souvenir when the Rectory was sold to Capt. Gregson in 1938 and hung it outside his workshop at his home in Pulborough, West Sussex. It remained there for several years after his death until it was given to Peter Underwood in 1973 by the University of London who were the executors of the Price estate. Underwood was then living in Bentley, Hampshire and hung the bell outside his own house. As Peter Underwood now lives in London it would appear that the Borley bell has travelled there with him.

SOURCE: http://www.harrypricewebsite.co.uk/Borley/ModernBorley/relics-borley.htm
(This webpage includes a photo of the bell hanging outside Underwood's Hampshire residence.)

Edit to Add:

Underwood died in 2014, so I guess the mystery of the bell's location has been re-opened.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11310318/Peter-Underwood-obituary.html
 
Last edited:
I am sure that I have read (and even seen a photo) that one of the more recent Borley researchers/authors, either Ivan Banks, Paul Adams or Eddie Brazil has the bell at one of their homes. I am sure I saw recently a photo in one of my books (possibly The Borley Companion) of one or the other of these gentlemen standing next to the bell attached to a wall at the rear of their bungalow.
I am at work now (night shift) and unable to check.

I hope I am not imagining this........it seems like a concrete memory and I can even see the photo in my mind lol.
 
I hope you're right, as I would hate to see these things lost.
I didn't know until I just looked at the HP site that the Pump Wheel and a set of Gateposts survived too, though the Posts may now be lost after Ivan Banks passed away.
 
Not exactly welcomed by the locals is about right.
I can't blame them though, as there are a few drunk idiots out there ringing doorbells at night and asking "Where's the haunted Rectory?"
You wouldn't want it on your doorstep either.
Still Borley is well worth a visit, it's SO quiet.
Most of the bricks went off to be reused around the area after demolition, there was a war on / just over so nothing got wasted.
If I won a few million on the lottery I would buy the ground, demolish the bungalows and rebuild it as new, and move in, the plans are all there.
CW.

From what I gather, there’s gangs of teenagers in the village until the small hours every weekend - so no I don’t blame the locals one bit.

Apparently every so often a coach load of American tourists turn up looking for the most Haunted House in England – what a scam, £50 to a London spiv, for a 2 hour coach drive to the middle of no-where, only to be told the house you had paid to see was demolished in the 1940s
 
Capt Gregson would have been proud. 70 years on and Borley is still making money like a Ghost Disneyland.
Just sad he went for the fast buck from the Insurance and deprived the rest of us who are genuinely interested in the place the chance of actually seeing it.

HP wasn't exactly innocent either, with his Flying Brick quoted above, pocket full of stones, and where did you get that skull Harry?

Shame is I really think BR was a great opportunity to study these things, but there's so much dodgy goings on as well it all gets lost in the glamour of the MHHIE.

CW.
 
Back
Top