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Borley Rectory

@Rabbit Will Run: what a find!!

I was listening to an Unexplained podcast the other day and it talked about the "pre Harry Price" era of Borley Rectory. The host mentioned that it was on the border of Essex and Suffolk. "Oh, like Bures" I thought, having once spent a weekend there and thoroughly enjoyed it. If I'd known Bures and Borley Rectory were that close, I'd have excused myself from the party for a couple hours for a mini pilgrimage to the site :D
 
@Rabbit Will Run: what a find!!

I was listening to an Unexplained podcast the other day and it talked about the "pre Harry Price" era of Borley Rectory. The host mentioned that it was on the border of Essex and Suffolk. "Oh, like Bures" I thought, having once spent a weekend there and thoroughly enjoyed it. If I'd known Bures and Borley Rectory were that close, I'd have excused myself from the party for a couple hours for a mini pilgrimage to the site :D


Perhaps one of the best ways to explore Borley, is to wait until the Village has its summer fete.

For obvious reasons the locals then embrace visitors, and are used to strangers walking around and exploring the village.

I’m not sure if the fete is held every year, and I don’t think its advertised online, but give it a few months and I’ll check the local rag every week, and if I see it advertised I’ll post the date on here.
 
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.

For me, the delicious twist in this tale is the fact that one can't go and see it now.
 
Around about this time last year, I was sitting up late at night browsing you tube, and came across purely by chance a full length feature film on Borley Rectory.

The film (which was made quite recently) centred on the relationship between the Rev Lionel Foyster, his younger wife Marianne and Frank Peerless the rectory’s lodger / handyman.

It starts by Lionel interviewing then offering Frank a position within the rectory, who accepts, but just a few weeks into his new job starts a sexual affair with Lionel’s wife.

Unfortunately I dozed off before the end (not due to the films quality, but because it was late and I was tired) so the other night I decided to search for it again, but to no avail - I can only think that for whatever reason you tube have taken it down.

I don’t recall the exact name of the film, nor the actors who played the characters, sooooooo any ideas anyone…..?
 
seems daft to produce this sort of thing without the name in the title.....?


There have been a few films about Borley that have come out in the past few years Frides.

There is one called “ The haunting of Borley rectory” which is on youtube, but looks bloody awful.

I may give it a go though, let you know what I think.
 
Yes please :) I get so involved in my own burrowings that I need someone to curate and recommend!
 
yes please! leave the coincidence here as part of Borley Oddities but also put it into Coincidences? :)

Frides

PS thanks for taking that bullet. And my commiserations to Mrs DT.
 
yes please! leave the coincidence here as part of Borley Oddities but also put it into Coincidences? :)

Frides

PS thanks for taking that bullet. And my commiserations to Mrs DT.

Thanks Frides. I shall pass on your commiserations to Mrs DT. :)

The Tithe barn by the way is adjacent to Borley church and her house backs directly on to the Church Yard, with the old Rectory site being just the other side of the country lane.

I’m dead Jealous, I would have loved to have grown up in such a location, she’s a lucky girl.

I said to Mrs DT (which stands for driving teacher HA) why didn’t she invite the young girl out for dinner somewhere - I don’t mind buying someone dinner where I can question her about growing up in such a notorious place like Borley – could have found out if all the stories are just that i.e. stories, or is there truly something supernatural going on in that lonely little village.
 
Details on the animated Borley Rectory DVD / Bluray... Lots of interesting extras, including a tie-in with the re-release of Usborne's "The World of the Unknown: All About Ghosts" book.

Special Features:
  • 5.1 DTS / 2.0 PCM
  • Optional English Subtitles
  • Audio Commentary 1: Ashley Thorpe and Kevin Lyons (EoFF)
  • Audio Commentary 2: Johnny Mains
  • Ultrasound of a Haunting: The Making of Borley Rectory (80 mins TBC)
  • Haunted Generation: The Legacy of Usborne's World of the Unknown Series (30 mins TBC)
  • The History of Borley Rectory: The Most Haunted House in England (with Stewart Evans, Paul Adams and Eddie Brazil) (60 mins)
  • Anatomy of a Scene: Animating Borley Rectory (10 mins)
  • Celluloid Screams: On Stage Q&A with Ashley Thorpe & Nicholas Vince (32 mins)
  • At the Mercy of Ghosts: In Conversation with Stephen Volk (30 mins)
  • Night Visions: Borley Rectory in Helsinki (30 mins)
  • Reece Shearsmith & Jonathan Rigby: Q&A at the British Library (17 mins)
  • Grimmfest Interview (11 mins)
  • Conjuring the Spirits: Making the Borley Rectory Ouija (10 mins)
  • 2 x Teaser Trailers
  • Trailer
  • Gallery
  • Plus Ashley Thorpe's Early Short Films:
  • Harry Price and the Martian Lighthouse (5 mins)
  • Scayrecrow (12 mins)
  • The Hairy Hands (12 mins)
  • Screaming Skull (10 mins)
https://www.nucleusfilms.com/borley-rectory-blu-ray-ltd-with-card.html
 
In your opinions how likely is it that much of the borley legend, like the nun or the headless coachman etc, came straight out of the imaginations of the Rev Henry Bull’s Children?

It couldn’t have been much fun for Bull’s kids to grow up in such an isolated location, so the chances that the legends were made up by them are high IMO.

Borley then (as like today) had no village pub, no shop, no post office, nothing - just a few scattered houses and the old church.

I’ve recently found out that the Rev Bull frequently gave services at the parish church in the nearby village of Great Yeldam.

I drive through Great Yeldam most Saturday mornings on my way to grocery shopping and pass the small country lane that gives access to the church - the small country lane in question is called “Nuns walk”

Interesting eh?
 
I have one of HPs books on Borley somewhere

its really interesting, as all his stuff is.

The bit that got me was his taking friends to overnight in the hose, and the things they witnessed.

These were all important people, several sets of letters after their name sort of folk.

And yet they were prepared to put their respected names to all sorts of strange events.
 
Are they showing OK? I'm having great trouble verifying if they uploaded OK. I'm at a town library and all kind of "security" warnings are flagging up.
 
Are they showing OK? I'm having great trouble verifying if they uploaded OK. I'm at a town library and all kind of "security" warnings are flagging up.

Yes, well, they downloaded onto my Mac with no trouble!
 
I was doing some rummaging on the British Newspaper Archive website and found the following snippets. Maybe of interest to scholars of this case?
There is a fabulous headline further down the page: "He obviously had paper and envelopes." It almost takes up more real estate than the story it tees up, but you'd be a sub-editor with a heart of stone to resist it.
 
Yes, that newspaper is fascinating. I particularly like the article about the WAAF changed with stealing goods marked with the letter 'K'; presumably these were K-rations, a particularly unpalatable form of rationing issued to troops in combat situations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-ration
At the sight of a box of K-rations carried by the visitors, two of Wingate's men vomited.
 
Ferguson televisors in 1949? Has BBC done TV broadcasting since the war?
 
Has BBC done TV broadcasting since the war?

Television had existed in London before the war. It was suspended for the duration and began again in 1946, famously resuming the Mickey Mouse cartoon which had been interrupted in 1939! It took a while to spread through the nation but the Home Counties could receive programmes by the late forties. Most of the country was television enabled by the Coronation in 1953. The BBCs Genome site has the Radio Times issues which document the rising importance of the media.


presumably these were K-rations

Love the details about the horrid rations but the 'K' inscribed on the cans in the newspaper-story was put there by the owners to identify their stock. If they had been selling rations, they would have been in the dock. It is unclear why they chose 'K.' :dunno:
 
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