28 June 2004 BGS Newsletter Issue 72
Welcome to the seventy-second edition of the Borley Ghost Society Newsletter.

BORLEY GHOST SOCIETY Greeting Cards

Eddie Brazil has gone the extra mile to try and raise money for the Borley Ghost Society Church Preservation Fund. Order his special greeting cards directly from Eddie at: http://www.borleyrectory.com/GreetingCards/

Cool!!! I will buy some for the cause. I still like to write a few Snail Mail Cards occasionally. - KATHY RAGEUR

Barbara's ghost

I was thinking of painting Marie Lairre standing in front of the house on the road, as the stories tell she had been seen there a few times. I thought if she looked somewhat 'unsolid' you could see someone viewing her and wondering, 'is it the snow making her look that way, or is it a ghost? That is my eventual goal. Anyhow, it is going painstakingly slow and laborious, and yet I love it.
I have copied the picture from the black and white picture in the book Haunted Britain and Ireland. I am going to try to make the whole thing in a snowfall, and try to tone down the ugly red brick of the place under a gentle falling snowstorm. I've seen it done by another painter I love, named Robert Bateman, the pictures I particularly like by him are Sudden Blizzard, Red Tailed Hawk and Junco in winter, both I have in two books. He tends to use acrylics which I hate, and watercolors, but the mistyness of the snowfall creates an atmosphere which seems isolated and silent, and I could imagine the house in the silence of the snow falling. That sound that snow makes when it falls without another sound around has always intrigued me. When I was a little girl I would stand and look at our house while it snowed, with all the trees around it and it seemed beautiful.
I looked at [the picture] very closely for detail and today I noticed that above the walled up window, in the window above is a girl looking out, and you know what? It looks like your mother. No kidding. You need a magnifying glass to see it. If it isn't your mother then maybe a maid, but it sure looks like your mother to me. Get a magnifying glass, there is a woman, you can see her face, hair, clothing of the 30's. She may be a maid, but her face is very easily seen. She is pretty.
I was photographing the picture of Borley I'm working from to see if I could enlarge it and bring up the girl in the window and my flash was captured on the reflective surface of the page and voilla!!! Ghost at Borley:) Cool huh? I love it. - Barbara Clements

Did M.R. James visit Borley?

"Montague Rhodes James is considered the greatest writer of ghostly fiction in the English language and also father of the modern ghost story. He was born in 1862 at Goodnestone in Kent and later raised at Great Livermere in Suffolk where his father was Rector. James attended Eton college where he would later become provost, and Cambridge University where he was vice chancellor during the first world war. He was an antiquarian, medievalist, bibliographer and an expert on the early history of the Bible. Yet today he is best remembered for his ghost stories. Which is a little ironic for he wrote them mainly for his own amusement or to entertain friends at Christmas. All are classics of the genre and still 100 years on have the power to chill the reader. And yet did he visit Borley Rectory? That great rambling, red bricked pile in remote Essex which would gain the sobriquet " The most haunted house in England." Well on the surface there appears to be no firm evidence. James doesn't mention it in his stories and neither of his two biographies refer to it.However if we dig a bit deeper there are one or two clues to suggest he may well have done so." - Eddie Brazil - COMPLETE ESSAY

BORLEY RECTORY CRYPTIC QUIZ

Here is a bit of fun - the BORLEY RECTORY CRYPTIC QUIZ. - Eddie Brazil
1/ Plead with the bereaved latin automobile twice.
2/Like fine champagne and a sly English King in Pennsylvania Avenue.
3/Nine below zero facial imperfection.
4/Moor yellow and green on the painters palette.
5/Almost a palladromic ecclesiastical perambulation.
6/Wedding for Shakespeare?s wife.
7/Eight English Kings see red in Pamplona.
8/Admirers of Jefferson?s mode of transport.
9/How much is the 33rd President worth?
10/Sounds like a ridiculed culinary kitchen hand.

Rare old church photo

I loved the new photos from Andrew Clarke. - Linda Cody

Andrew Clarke's photo of the church in last months newsletter is dated 1900. I have some resevations about it.Without sounding to "artty" The composition and general feel of the picture seem to me to be of a later date.I cant imagine any victorian photographer taking a picture in this fashion.It seems to be saying "this is the haunted church long before the activity in the church had become common knowledge.Also it seems to be sloppily composed as if the photographer had the means to take a "quick" snapshot and not take his laborious time to set up a huge plate camera and compose his photo with care.It is just my observation and i am sure Andrew will put me right. - Eddie Brazil

Letters to the editor

I was wondering -- is Six Martlets Publishing still offering copies of The Final Analysis? I wasn't able to get a copy earlier, due to finances, but I'd love to have one now, if I could arrange it. They were requesting a bank draft of £15, plus £5.80 postage and packing airmail, when last I heard, to their address in Sudbury. Do you know if any of this information has changed? I know there are problems with the book, but not as glaring as those with some of the other books which I have no interest in, such as Widow of Borley. - Linda Cody

I am a parapsychologist. I run a paranormal investigation team for the celtic anabaptist church in the united states where i am also a priest - Jason Crowder

I find the whole episode very absorbing and i would like to discover the truth Retired with plenty of time to solve mysteries. - Derek Forbes

i have been intrested in ghosts for years and borly has fasinated me and i feel i have some sort of link with it i cant explain it i need to talk to som1 about it. i can talk to spirits i dont know how i just can, im 19 and live in wales. - Daniel Merchant-Jones

i go to wroughton middle school i love ghosts and haunted places. - ryan harrower

I became interested in Borley Rectory after reading a book (of which I do not remember the name of) and wish to find out more and become more involved. I'm a 25 year old operating department practicioner and have recently spent the night alone in a haunted operating theatre, disappointingly, nothing happened, this time! - David Abrams

Eddie's Ghost still haunts him

I still think this photo is something unknown,IE not a blemish on the neg. The original is on the main index under "What others report." If it is a real ghost then it is the only proof on film, for over 140 years of a paranormal incident occuring at Borley. That in itself is a mighty statement to make. Am I right or do the other BGS members have different views? I have lived with this photo for 30 years. i have looked at it for to long to get a real perspective on it.Can the BGS give me a different view? - Eddie Brazil

Bibliography

Roden, Katie. In the footsteps of the GHOSTS. London: Aladdin Books Ltd., 1997. pp. 5, 17. Distorted photo after the fire, and Ernest Ambrose etching of the flying coach. (Children's book. "Certain houses seem to attract more than their fair share of ghosts. Borley Rectory in the UK was said to be one of the most haunted houses in the world, with a wide variety of ghostly inhabitants.") **
[Thanks to Jamas Enright for sending a copy of this book!]

BORLEY RECTORY CRYPTIC ANSWERS

1/ Dont,Carlos dont
2/Dom Richard Whitehouse
3/Cold spot,or zit
4/Blue room
5/Nuns walk
6/Marry-Anne
7/Henry Bull
8/Phantom coach
9/Harry Price
10/Locked book= Mocked cook
Borley Rectory "home page"
Founded October 31, 1998 by Vincent O'Neil to examine without prejudice any and all existing records and research related to the alleged haunting of the rectory and church of Borley, Essex, England. It is not the purpose of the Society to cause undue hardship, embarrassment, or discomfort to the present residents of Borley.