INTRODUCTION

In 1929, psychical researcher Harry Price began his investigation into "the most haunted house in England." Borley Rectory in Essex, England had earned that reputation before Price showed up with his queer little ghost kit, but it was his writings that brought the remote parsonage into worldwide headlines.

After his first visit in June of 1929, Price was called back to the haunted house two years later. New tenants at the rectory were having even more problems with the spirits than the previous occupants. Price returned again in June of 1937, when the house had been abandoned to the poltergeists. This time, he took a team of investigators with him to document the paranormal phenomena. The mysterious house was destroyed by fire in 1939, and razed in 1944. To this day, the grounds and the churchyard across the road remain objects of intense study by parapsychologists. Some say additional ghosts now prowl the property already haunted by several spirits.

Price wrote two books on Borley Rectory, and was preparing a third when he died in 1948. The Most Haunted House in England came out in 1940, and was followed by The End of Borley Rectory in 1946. Both volumes spurred decades of controversy and scores of publications. The work of Price was first severely attacked, then defended, and then attacked again by opposing researchers. Publications and broadcasts about Borley peak and wane over the years, but the mysteries surrounding the rectory will never die.

The church at Borley dates back much further than the rectory. A.C. Henning, the rector in 1936, discovered that the Domesday Book told of a Borley Manor prior to 1066, so he concluded a wooden church was probably also built around that time. He compiled a list of his predecessors that showed the first rector of record was probably Peter de Cacheporc, who was installed April 28, 1236.

Henning felt confident the initial portion of the current church was built in the twelfth century. This consisted of the chancel - the altar and seats for the clergy and choir - and the nave or central hall. About 1500 a tower and brick porch were added to the church.⁽¹⁾

Depending on which story is believed, in 1362 Benedictine Monks built a monastery on the site which would later hold the rectory. Legend told of a monk from the monastery eloping with a nun from the Bures nunnery, some seven miles to the southeast. A friend of the monk was to drive the getaway coach. They were caught - the monk hanged, and the nun bricked up alive in the walls of the nunnery. Tunnels supposedly connected the two locations.

A variation of the nun legend has her falling in love with a coachman. He enlists a fellow driver to assist in the elopement, and both men are beheaded. The nun is walled up.

Although he was beheaded near the Tower of London in 1381, Simon of Sudbury has been nominated as one of the restless spirits at Borley. Even though he died miles away, his roots were firmly planted in Sudbury and surrounding community.

Ghost book writer Wesley Downes proposed the theory in one of his volumes that the monastery may have been destroyed around 1538 after it was abandoned. It may have been deserted as a result of the Dissolution of the Monasteries Act enacted that year.⁽²⁾ That a monastery existed at all has been challenged by many researchers.

Henning discovered that King Henry VIII granted Borley to Edward Waldegrave in 1546. In 1553, Waldegrave was knighted, but he was later imprisoned twice as a papist. He died September 1, 1561 in the Tower of London and was returned to Borley for burial in a massive tomb inside the church. The congregation "had already adopted the revised prayer book of the reformed Church" according to Downes. "This is what a small section of people believe he cannot accept, and the disturbances within the church are his way of showing his disapproval."⁽³⁾

Henning could find no register dated earlier than 1656, and was unable to verify the church had ever been dedicated. Some would say that could open the site to visits from the unfriendly dead, if not the unhappy dead.

One source for the Borley ghosts was outlined by Borley researchers Eric Dingwall, Kathleen Goldney and Trevor Hall. They reported the legend of "a young French Roman Catholic nun, Marie Lairre, [who] was induced to leave her convent at Le Havre to become the wife of one of the Waldegraves [Charles] at Borley and was strangled by him in a building previously on the site of Borley Rectory on 17 May 1667 and her body buried beneath the cellar floor."⁽⁴⁾

Another possible source for the disquieted spirits comes once again from the Waldegrave family. Arabella Waldegrave was apparently accused of spying for the Stuarts and was subsequently murdered. Henrietta Waldegrave, mother of Arabella, died while acting as spy for the government. Some researchers believe the two nuns seen throughout the ages around the church could be mother and daughter.

A map of 1777 showed a "fairly wide road" crossed the present one, according to Reverend Henning. Its path went through the area where the rectory gate was later built. It may have been the ancient road used by the phantom coach which has been seen repeatedly.

Henning was told by a local farmer that a smaller rectory was built during the Herringham incumbency. Reverend "Will. Herringham" was rector in 1807, and he was followed by Reverend "Joh. P. Herringham" in 1819. It is unclear which Herringham built the rectory, but it was definitely built prior to 1841, since Downes discovered that a fire destroyed a rectory in 1841. It was supposedly built on the site of the old monastery.

To some, Borley Rectory was fated to be a haunted house from the start. When it was built, legends had already begun swirling about the remote valley. Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull, a relative of the Waldegraves, became rector of Borley in 1862. He built a large, brick building on the former rectory site the next year. Bull added a new wing to the already rambling building in 1875. He and his wife, Caroline Sarah Foyster, eventually had fourteen children. The rectory and other buildings were on a plot of ground almost four acres in size. A cottage adjoined the rectory with a stable below and servants quarters above. Two summer houses were on the grounds, one large, and one small. The dinning room fireplace included effigies of monks heads. The locals believed these were apparently installed by Bull "to perpetuate a legend in which he may have believed."⁽⁵⁾

Although no date is given, Henning reports that a worker repairing a house neighboring the church, discovered part of a tunnel. "The old man, pushing on a little, met foul air. [His] candle gutted and went out and his eyes began to smart and water. It was impossible to go on and he returned, the entrance was sealed up and the investigation . . . came to an end."⁽⁶⁾ This was some time in the 1800's.

During the first few years of its existence, the rectory was thought to be the scene of an attack on a girl wearing a white or blue dress. In an effort to escape, she crawled through a window in the "Blue Room," but lost her grip and fell to her death. Nothing was heard more of the "screaming girl" until she was seen by two people about a week after the place burned down.

P. Shaw Jeffrey witnessed stone throwing and "other poltergeist activity" during his visits in about 1885. This marks the first reported paranormal activity at Borley Rectory. Other unexplained events are scattered throughout the early years of the rectory. A former headmaster of Colchester Royal Grammar School said he saw a nun several times about 1885-86. In 1886, a nursemaid by the name of Mrs. E. Byford left the rectory because of ghostly footsteps.

Henry Bull died in the Blue Room of the rectory May 7, 1892. He was succeeded by his son, also named Henry. The younger Bull was named "Harry" to avoid confusion with his father. A nickname for Henry had been "Carlos." That nickname later became part of the Borley Legend.

On July 28, 1900, three Bull daughters saw a figure on a path called the "Nuns Walk" to the rear of the rectory. They recruited a fourth sister to help greet the stranger, but the apparition disappeared when approached. Ethel Bull and a cook saw the nun again in November of 1900.

In the early 1900's, Ethel Bull "awoke suddenly and found an old man . . . standing by her bed." Once or twice she also felt "someone sitting on the side of my bed."⁽⁷⁾

The groom-gardener, Edward Cooper, "saw coach and horses with glittering harness' sweep across Rectory grounds" during the period from 1916 to 1919.⁽⁸⁾ Mr. and Mrs. Cooper heard a dog walking, and saw a nun "many times." In 1919, the Coopers saw a "black shape" in their bedroom.

On June 9, 1927 Harry died in the "Blue Room" of the rectory. Earlier, he had said he had "communications with spirits," and that he would throw moth balls after his death. Excerpts from a letter by Mr. J. Harley were published in the Daily Mail a couple of years later. Harley wrote that, "In 1922 I resided for some weeks at the rectory with the Rev. H. Bull, and I distinctly recall him assuring me that on many occasions he had had personal communications with spirits. In his opinion the only way for a spirit, if ignored, to get in touch with a living person, was by means of a manifestation causing some violent physical reaction, such as the breaking of glass. . . . the rector also declared that on his death, if he were discontented, he would adopt this method of communicating with the inhabitants of the rectory." On the cover of this book is a previously unpublished photo from the 1950's showing a peculiar glow emanating from the grave marker of Harry Bull.

The rectory stood empty for several months after Harry's death. During the autumn of 1927, and while it was still unoccupied, a local carpenter named Fred Cartwright saw a nun four separate times by the gate.

Then, on October 2, 1928, Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife moved to Borley. Soon thereafter, he heard whispers and moans, including the words "Don't Carlos, don't." While living in the rectory, the Smiths heard the loud ringing of the doorbell, noticed keys disappeared, experienced small pebbles being thrown, heard slippered footsteps, noticed lights being turned on, and also saw a horse-drawn coach.

Very early in their 18 month tenure, Mrs. Smith found the skull of a young woman wrapped in paper. Reverend Smith buried it in the churchyard.

The Smiths contacted the Daily Mirror in June of 1929 asking for help. The newspaper, in turn, approached psychical researcher and author Harry Price.

The Daily Mirror sent a reporter named C.V. Wall to the rectory June 10, resulting in the first published report of paranormal activity. Wall listened to the tales of the Smiths, and saw a "mysterious light" in the window during his visit.

Price was alerted to Borley June 11, 1929. The editor of the Daily Mail tracked him down while he was visiting a friend and asked him to "take charge of the case." Price found a copy of the June 10 newspaper and read about the visit to Borley by Wall:

Ghostly figures of headless coachmen and a nun, an old-time coach, drawn by two bay horses, which appears and vanishes mysteriously, and dragging footsteps in empty rooms. All these ingredients of a first-class ghost story are awaiting investigation by psychic experts near Long Melford, Suffolk.

The scene of the ghostly visitations is the Rectory at Borley, a few miles from Long Melford. It is a building erected on the part of the site of a great monastery which, in the Middle Ages, was the scene of a gruesome tragedy. The present rector, the Rev. G.E. Smith, and his wife, made the Rectory their residence in the face of warnings by previous occupiers. Since their arrival they have been puzzled and startles by a series of peculiar happenings which cannot be explained, and which confirm the rumours they heard before moving in.

The first untoward happening was the sound of slow, dragging footsteps across the floor of an unoccupied room. Then one night Mr. Smith, armed with a hockey stick, sat in the room and waited for the noise. Once again it came - the sound of feet in some kind of slippers treading on the bare boards. Mr. Smith lashed out with his stick at the spot where the footsteps seemed to be, but the stick whistled through the empty air, and the steps continued across the room.

Then a servant girl brought from London, suddenly gave notice after two days work, declaring emphatically that she had seen a nun walking in the wood at the back of the house. Finally comes the remarkable story of an old-fashioned coach, see twice on the lawn by a servant, which remained in sight long enough for the girl to distinguish the brown colour of the horses.

This same servant also declares that she has seen a nun leaning over a gate near the house. The villagers dread the neighborhood of the Rectory after dark, and will not pass it. Peculiarly enough, all these "visitations" coincide with the details of a tragedy which, according to legend, occurred at the monastery which once stood on this spot.

A groom at the monastery fell in love with a nun at a near-by convent, runs the legend, and they used to hold clandestine meetings in the wood on which the Rectory now backs. Then one day they arranged to elope, and another groom had a coach waiting in the orad outside the wood, so that they could escape. From this point the legend varies. Some say that the nun and her lover quarreled, and that he strangled her in the wood, and was caught and beheaded, with the other groom, for his villainy. The other version is that all three were caught in the act by the monks, and that the two grooms were beheaded, and the nun buried alive in the walls of the monastery.

The previous Rector of Borley, now dead, often spoke of the remarkable experience he had one night, when, walking along the road outside the Rectory, he heard the clatter of hoofs. Looking around, he saw to his horror an old-fashioned coach lumbering along the road, driven by two headless men.⁽⁹⁾

Wall visited the rectory over the weekend, and followed his initial article with a second:

With a photographer, I have just completed a vigil of several hours in the "haunted" wood at the back of Borley Rectory, a few miles from Long Melford.

This wood, and the whole neighborhood of the Rectory, is supposed to be haunted by the ghosts of a groom and a nun who attempted to elope one night several hundred years ago but were apparently caught in the act.

Although we saw only one of the manifestations which have, according to residents, occurred frequently in recent years, this by itself was peculiar enough.

It was the appearance of a mysterious light in a disused wing of the building - an appearance which simply cannot be explained, because on investigation of the deserted wing it was ascertained that there was no light inside - although the watchers outside could still see it shining through a window!

When we saw the mysterious light shining through the trees we suggested that somebody should go into the empty wing and place a light in another window, for the sake of comparison. . . the Rev. G.E. Smith, the Rector, who does not believe in ghosts, volunteered to do it.

Sure enough, the second light appeared and was visible next to the other, although on approaching close to the building, this disappeared, while the Rector's lamp still burned. Then we were left alone to probe the mysteries of the haunted wood.⁽¹⁰⁾

Price wasted no time in asking Smith when he could visit, and headed for Borley June 12. Along with his secretary, Lucie Kaye, he took his ghost hunting paraphernalia. These items filled a large suitcase, and included soft felt overshoes for creeping about unheard, a measuring tape, gear for sealing a room, a camera with flash bulbs, a movie camera, a thermometer, and a finger-print kit. Price thought enough of his equipment to include a picture of it in his article on "Psychical Research" in the 1939 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica Year Book.

With Price and his secretary on the first visit, was the reporter Wall. New phenomena included the throwing of stones and other objects, and the appearance of "apports." Wall saw the nun.

That night, a seance was held in the Smith bedroom. With Harry Price in the "Blue Room" were two Bull sisters, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Mr. Wall, and Lucie Kaye. True to his reputation and to a promise made before his death, Harry Bull made his presence felt during the meeting. For emphasis, soap jumped to the floor during the sitting. A mirror on the wall started tapping, something it had done before. The Smith's did not join the circle at first, and when they did, the "conversation" became much too frightening for them.

Harry Bull tapped out that he was unhappy, and that there was money trouble. When he told the group that he had been killed, the Smiths stopped the seance immediately. They would not permit any more sittings while they lived in the house.

A report in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press on June 13 told about "a domestic...who, two days after entering the Rectory and knowing nothing of its past history, almost went off in a dead faint as she informed her mistress that she had seen a nun dressed in black."⁽¹¹⁾ The maid was Mary Pearson.

Price returned for a second visit June 27. Various phenomena were reported, including the appearance of a Catholic medallion and other articles. There was also incessant bell ringing.

Despite all that happened to them, years later Mrs. Smith wrote a letter to the Church Times saying the house was not haunted. In his book, Poltergeist, supernatural researcher Colin Wilson guessed this letter "seems to have been a belated attempt to stem the flood of publicity that followed the Daily Mirror story." It didn't work.

Lord Charles Hope, Harry Price, and Miss Kaye visited July 5, and experienced additional phenomena, including the ringing of all the bells at once. On July 10, the Smiths saw a small table in the "Blue Room" thrown several feet.

By July 14, 1929, the Smiths moved out "owing to [the] lack of amenities and the nuisance created by the publicity."⁽¹²⁾ They moved to Long Medford and continued to conduct the parish. They wrote several letters to Price describing unusual events.

Charles Sutton of the Daily Mail visited the rectory with Price on July 25. He claimed Price - not a ghost - threw stones at him, but was unable to convince his editor to print that doubt, since Price had a positive reputation at the time.

The Smiths left Borley altogether by April of 1930, and on October 16 of that year, Reverend Lionel Foyster, his wife Marianne, and their adopted daughter Adelaide moved in to Borley Rectory. Thus began the most famous period in poltergeist history. A period Harry Price referred to as "the most extraordinary and best documented case of haunting in the annals of psychical research."⁽¹³⁾

Indeed, Price estimated "that at least two thousand Poltergeist phenomena were experienced at the Rectory between October 1930 and October 1935."⁽¹⁴⁾ This was during the tenancy of Lionel and Marianne Foyster.

The following summary includes events that have puzzled researchers for over 60 years. The paranormal activity started on Day One, when a mysterious voice addressed Marianne by name. Lionel said he had not called his wife. Events snowballed from that time forward. They included:

- the disappearance of Mrs. Foyster's bracelet

- the appearance of a bag of lavender

- the disappearance, and then reappearance of some crockery

- Mrs. Foyster was given a black eye

- tools were thrown at the Foysters while in bed

- Mr. Foyster was pelted with stones after performing an exorcism

- interior doors were locked

- a traveling trunk, a china box, and a strange wedding ring appeared

- Mrs. Foyster was hit on the head by a piece of metal

- a flat-iron was thrown at Mrs. Foyster

- Mrs. Foyster saw Harry Bull

- bells strung about the house were rung, even though the pull ropes were cut

- Mrs. Foyster was thrown out of bed several times

- furniture was thrown about

- wine was turned into ink

In later years, Mrs. Foyster came up with explanations for how many of these paranormal events could have happened naturally. There were at least three other phenomena she was never sure about, however. A bottle appeared out of nowhere and was dashed to the floor; a fragile tumbler dropped to the floor, circled around and then came to rest without breaking; and various writings appeared on the walls and on slips of paper that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere. The wall writings were thoroughly examined and investigated by experts without a satisfactory solution.

Price was thought to have visited Borley unofficially at other times. The time period between April and November of 1932 has particularly been suggested, but none of those visits have been confirmed.

Reverend Foyster and his pretty wife stayed precisely five years in the "Most Haunted House in England." Some have said it was the nightmares that chased the Foysters away from the huge rectory in Suffolk. Was it really the ghost of a nun or a headless coachman that drove them away?

Lionel Foyster died in April of 1945, and was buried in Campse Ashe, many miles northeast of Borley. His ghost, complete with clerical skirts and a limp caused by rheumatism, is now thought to walk the church yard.

Shortly after Lionel died, Marianne married an American G.I. name Robert O'Neil. Shortly after, she adopted a "war baby" named Peter Richard. I was baptized as Robert Vincent O'Neil, and we came to America in 1946.

I never knew about the most haunted house in England until after my foster mother died at the end of 1992. I have now turned my full attention to studying this most famous paranormal site. Several books have resulted, and much of my research is posted on the Internet at http://www.borleyrectory.com

My study has spanned three continents and several unpublished manuscripts and letters. I have been privileged to see documents not available to other researchers, and lived with the most famous resident of Borley longer than anyone else. This inquiry will continue until I have been able to piece together the entire mosaic of what really happened at Borley Rectory. For example, during a 1978 investigation, researchers Iris Owen and Pauline Mitchell elicited the following piece of the puzzle from Marianne:

. . . she stated flatly that by far the majority [of events] were completely invented by Lionel, as part of [a book he was writing]. However, she stated that from time to time odd things would happen of a poltergeist nature which would puzzle her, and which she did not think Lionel or anyone else was responsible for.

. . . She believes Harry Price performed a magic trick when he converted the wine [into ink].

. . . Marianne says that Lionel threw objects many times. . .He threw things in order to observe [guests] reactions and to note what they would say. She says the minute these people left the house all such throwing of objects stopped. The phenomena ceased completely when Lionel became confined to a wheelchair. Marianne says she herself was never sure who threw what, because she says, other people would join in, particularly the village children. Foyster's intention was not to frighten and deceive so much as to observe and test people's reactions to the phenomena. Marianne also says he would relate, with great relish, stories of phenomena that were alleged to have happened, and which the family members present knew were not true, in order to observe his visitor's reactions.

. . . Marianne says that sometimes there were events and happenings that puzzled them. They did hear footsteps from time to time, when there really did not seem to be any cause. Objects did sometimes appear to move entirely on their own. The wall writings were an example of phenomena that puzzled them. These would initially appear, apparently from nowhere.

. . . Marianne herself confirms that the events of the bottle, tumbler, and stiletto happened as described."⁽¹⁵⁾

Owen and Mitchell concluded, "We feel that what Marianne has told us makes sense. It is logical, and, what is more important, everything she has told us fits in with what is already known about the Borley hauntings during the Foyster incumbency. It has the ring of truth."⁽¹⁶⁾

Contrary to popular belief, the Foysters were not frightened away from Borley. They left only because Lionel's ill health made it impossible for him to continue his work. As Owen and Mitchell discovered, ". . . Far from wishing to leave the rectory, as has been alleged, they were happy there. . . Marianne says she loved the place, especially the garden and grounds."⁽¹⁷⁾

The Foyster incumbency has been attacked and even vilified from many angles. To eliminate the five year period they were in residence still leaves over 130 years of unexplained paranormal activity. In a 1938 letter to the BBC, Price admitted, "the Foysters play a very small part - so far as we are concerned - in the Borley story."⁽¹⁸⁾

After the Foyster's left, the phenomena continued. Although the presence of Marianne seemed to precipitate the most paranormal activity, unexplained events occurred at Borley before and after the Foyster incumbency.

Price said "Every person who has resided in the rectory since it was built in 1863, and practically every person who has taken the trouble to investigate the alleged 'miracles' for himself, has sworn to incidents that can only be described as paranormal."⁽¹⁹⁾

Price had an opportunity to study the haunting further when no one could be found to live in the rectory. After leasing the empty building for a year, he advertised in the newspaper for unscientific investigators who would spend several nights in the abandoned building. The lease began in June of 1937, the eight-year anniversary of his first visit.

Before he died, Price interviewed scores of neighbors and cultivated another long list of unusual happenings either at the rectory or at the church. Other investigators continue to add new observations up to the present time.

While the rectory was still available for study, the ongoing events included such things as:

- the appearance of an unidentified coat

- the appearance of a blue box and a petrified frog

- a 50 pound bag of coal moved 18 inches

- more wall writing, including one instance witnessed as it happened

- unidentified lights were seen in various windows

- a gluey substance was found on the floor in the rectory chapel

- a lamp was mysteriously knocked over, causing a fire that destroyed the rectory

After the fire, the phenomena persisted. They included:

- strange figures seen in the flames

- horses were heard running past the ruins

- pieces of a woman's skull were found buried in the cellar

- the church organ has been heard on many occasions when the building is empty

- various photographs have been taken with unexplained images

- John Deeks, a vicar from the time of Cromwell, has been seen at the church

If all parts of the legend are taken in to account, there are ghosts for at least: the nun and the monk, or the nun and two coachman, Simon of Sudbury, Sir Edward Waldegrave, John Deeks, a Loyalist cavalier, a Catholic priest, Marie Lairre, Henrietta and Arabella Waldegrave, a screaming girl, two condemned murderers, Harry Bull, and Lionel Foyster.

With the scores of witnesses and thousands of events taking place at Borley, could the place really be haunted? Ghost historian Peter Underwood said in his autobiography, No Common Task, "Ninety Eight percent of reported hauntings have a natural and mundane explanation, but it is the other two percent that have interested me." If only two percent of the alleged happenings at Borley during the five year Foyster incumbency were real, there were roughly 40 unexplained phenomena. Marianne tried to explain away most of them, but even she couldn't dismiss everything.

Price summed up the feelings of many about Borley when he told Eric Dingwall in 1946, "if you cut out the Foysters, the Bulls, the Smiths, etc., something still remains."⁽²⁰⁾

Indeed, to this date, something mysterious and unexplainable still remains in this remote country valley called Borley.

********

What follows is the Borley haunting from 1930 through 1935 as told in the actual words of Lionel and Marianne.

Lionel wrote three different versions of his manuscript. All three are included here.

Foyster's Diary of Occurrences was probably written between March and July of 1931. It states those were the dates he composed it on his own cover sheet, and the manuscript describes dates during that time period. Trevor Hall believed Foyster sent the 31 typewritten pages to Harry Price October 3 of that year. A letter with the manuscript said the Diary was written "chiefly to send round to members of my family." In The Haunting of Borley Rectory, Hall said, "It is manifestly not a diary. . . It is clearly the first account of the alleged haunting written by Mr. Foyster, and much of the preliminary section is evidently written from unaided memory."
From the way Foyster wrote in vague terms about dates, and the order in which he remembered things as happening, Hall concluded, "It seems clear that no written record of some of these events was made until some time after their occurrence." Hall pointed out "No part of it is quoted in either of the Borley books [by Harry Price]."

Hall figured Fifteen Months in a Haunted House was probably completed by Foyster after May of 1934 - while still at Borley. Since it was a much longer version of the events at Borley, and since it contained pseudonyms for the people involved, Hall concluded this was the version Foyster was trying to get published. Hall believed Price did not acquire a copy of this manuscript until after The End of Borley Rectory was published in 1946. Price, therefore, could not have used it while writing his books, according to Hall. The text confirms the May, 1934 date in the last chapter.

Hall then calculated that the Summary of Experiences at Borley Rectory was written by Foyster between January 24 and February 11, 1938 - a little over two years after they left Borley. "This brief account [seven pages] was written by Mr. Foyster for inclusion in MHH at Price's request." (HBR, p. 84). Hall pointed out that "Price reproduced the Summary of Experiences with some variations [in MHH], and called it 'The Rev. L.A. Foyster's Diary,' which of course it was not."

Hall figured by the dates each manuscript was written, Foyster did not keep "a diary of the strange events that occurred [at Borley Rectory]. . . from the very first day [he] entered upon his duties," as Price said in MHH (p. 74). Hall pointed out this "would appear to be deliberately misleading."

Lionel began Fifteen Months with the observation, "it is a record of facts and therefore is true." In a letter to Sidney Glanville dated 16 September 1937, he explains that although he uses pseudonymns, "I have though kept to the actual facts of the haunting with possibly even over scrupulous exactness." In the middle of his Diary of Occurrences, he states, "I could declare, if it was necessary, on oath, that the foregoing is to the best of my knowledge an absolutely true statement of the facts as to what has taken place in this house since we came in."

Marianne wanted to escape the unpleasant memories associated with war-torn England. She wanted to get away from the hordes of curious Borley fanatics. One pugnacious researcher stayed on her trail for many years, and eventually sent a private investigator to our doorstep in Jamestown, North Dakota, USA. She swore everyone to secrecy in order to protect me, but knew the story deserved to be told. Pehaps she told Iris Owen the truth, but then again, she may have said what she was expected to say in order to get through one more ubiquitous inquiry. In 1956, she was asked to create her own account, in her own words.

These few words of Marianne shed a fascinating new light on the entire Borley Legend. In this record, she had no reason to fabricate or obfuscate - this was the truth the way she remembered it. A line here - another line there - and suddenly, the history of the alleged haunting deserves reconsideration. Her notes disrupt many of the opinions and second-hand reports that received public acclaim. Among other things, her notes show she liked the place. She also thought some of the unusual events she witnessed were unexplainable.

Unfortunately, her version of what happened at Borley was never finished nor has it ever been published - until now.

1. Henning, A.C. Haunted Borley. London: Shenvel Press, 1949.

2. Downes, Wesley H. The Ghosts of Borley. Clacton-on-Sea: Wesley's Publications, 1993. Research by Paul Kemp.

3. ibid, p. 19

4. Dingwall, Eric J., Goldney, Kathleen M., Hall, Trevor H. The Haunting of Borley Rectory. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. 1956. p. 15.

5. ibid, p. 13.

6. Henning, op. cit. p. 16.

7. Dingwall, Goldney, Hall, op. cit. p. 19

8. Price, Harry. The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1940. p. 246.

9. Wall, C.V. Daily Mirror. June 10, 1929. (Reprinted by Price, MHH, pp. 2-3.)

10. Ibid. June 11, 1929. (As reprinted by Price, MHH, pp. 3-4.)

11. Downes, op. cit. p. 7.

12. Dingwall, Goldney, Hall, op. cit. p. xi.

13. Price, op. cit. p. vi.

14. Price, Harry. The End of Borley Rectory. London: George Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1946. p. 47.

15. Owen, Iris M., Mitchell, Pauline. Marianne's Story. Toronto: New Horizons Research Foundation, 1979. pp. 35, 36, 43, 43-44, 45.

16. ibid. p. 50.

17. ibid. p. 49.

18. Dingwall, Goldney, Hall, op. cit. p. 76.

19. ibid. p. 45.

20. ibid. p. 77.