'The Sidelights of Borley Rectory' is a collection of essays about Borley Rectory. It grows whenever I notice something whilst doing research into Borley Rectory, or have an idea. Existing sidelights change as I discover new material, do corrections, or have second thoughts. It is an attempt to take a new look at what really happened in those years when the Borley ghost stories took root and Borley Rectory gained its reputation as 'The Most Haunted House in England'.
This may seem a silly question, since we know where the monstrous brick building was. Fine, but where was the splendid Georgian rectory built for the Herringhams? and what about the previous rectory that must have been on the site? How did it link with the cellars? And how old is the Rectory Cottage?
The wall writings are one of the most fascinating parts of the Borley saga, even though it is generally accepted that Marianne wrote them. It is probably the repeated calling of Marianne's name, their chilling pleas for 'Rest', exhortations for 'Light Mass Prayers', and pathetic
scribbling, redolent of a tortured soul desperate to communicate.
The wall writings are also mysterious because they were scrubbed off the walls soon after being done, yet were somehow described and photographed years later
This sidelight covers the events behind the climax of Harry Price's second book, when a party of people, including a priest, barrister, pathologist, and army officer, excavate the ruins of the rectory and discover the bones of the nun, Marie Lairre, beneath the Well Tank, exactly as predicted. As usual, all is not as it seems when one examines the evidence.
This is about Frank Pearless, the self-styled Francois D'Arles. He was the lodger at Borley Rectory whilst the Foysters lived there and he was a small-time conman. He was a cockney opportunist who was an inveterate liar, and who managed to insinuate himself into the household. Marianne had a rather physical affair with him. It is quite likely that he is responsible for some of the more spectacular manifestations that happened over the period,
The 'paranormal' ringing of bells was a striking feature of the haunting. Whereas there is a normal and perfectly natural explanation for the occasional bell ringing, the simultaneous ringing of all thirty bells at once requires us to suspect mischief on a fairly large scale. It was Marianne's son who accidentally discovered how it was done…
Added Additions to 'Tunnels'. and to 'Bullsheet' required by the investigation into the Monks Hall ghost and tunnel at nearby Glemsford. Slight alteration to 'Bells, Black Ink and bird-cages.' in the light of the discovery of Lord Charles Hope's 1943 testimony that he visited with HP in 1932
Added to "Where was Borley Rectory" an illustration of a contemporary rectory plan that fits the ground-plan of Rev. Herringham's Rectory demolished by H Bull to build his more famous rectory.
Some Additions to the BullSheet sidelight as more of the stories about Borley Rectory are traced to their original sources in the neighbouring parishes.
'The Demented Female' updated with the evidence from two of the official observers that there was a second entrance into the cellars which led from the courtyard via a trapdoor. This would have allowed Frank Pearless, or whoever the accomplice was, to get into the cellar in order to 'spook' the members of the Marks Tey Spiritualist Circle with bottle-throwing stunts.
'Bullsheet' again updated as more and more of the antecedents and probable inspiration for the Borley Rectory legends come to light, including the supposed monastery, just two miles away at Glemsford Bridge.
'Tunnels' updated with extra material and also evidence that the tunnel discovered in the 1950s did not go near the rectory. The tunnel seen by Ian Shaw and Guy Smith has yet to be rediscovered.
Sidelight on the Bulls (Bullsheet) has been expanded with new materials, in the light of continuing research.
'Borley Bellsheet' amended to put in some material about the outside bell in the courtyard.
The Smell of Fear' has been expanded to give more examples of people noticing the 'paranormal smells', and also Marianne's heartfelt expanation that the idea of the goblins cooking in the kitchen was originally supposed to be a joke
Sidelight on the Thump Ghosts expanded, including extract from Mrs Bain's interview with Mary Pearson's husband, Fred Tatum, where he expresses the view that Harry Price was faking some of the 'Phenomena', and that Mary Pearson confessed that she pretended to be the Nun by putting her apron over her head!
Things that go creak in the night' has been expanded with a thoughtful quote from Marianne Foyster about the way old houses occasionally give wierd creaks
'The Sidelights of Borley Rectory High Watermark' changed slightly to include Edwin's later remark that Price had lost his critical faculty when writing 'The End of Borley Rectory'
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The books on Borley Rectory tend to tell us a lot about the writers, but do not always illuminate the subject. The mass of evidence of the haunting is like a Rorschach inkblot test, on which the viewer projects his own inner life. The writers all come to the task with their set agendas, and make the evidence fit their prejudices. They try too hard. Sometimes, it is better to relax, take a backseat, and let the participants speak in their own voices. When one does this, a curious thing happens, the whole subject comes alive. It is certainly an interesting exercise for the amateur historian, because one never quite knows where things will lead. It is a journey of discovery.
The Sidelights of Borley Rectory are a collection of essays that were written to explore a particular thought or theme. They do not attempt to construct an encyclopaedia on the subject of the haunting. Each essay tries to illustrate one of the complex processes that end up producing stories of 'incessant paranormal bell ringing', supernatural smells of lavender, or apparitions. Wherever possible, I like to go to the original source, whether a witness statement, letter, article, or manuscript. The intention is for each essay to be self-contained, so it can be read in isolation without flicking to other sidelights, and without assuming too much prior knowledge of the Borley Rectory story.
For me, no other story based in the years between the wars so illuminates the spirit of the times. It is not just the importance of examining the best evidence so far produced for the persistence of the spirit after death, but also the strange ways in which the story becomes an allegory for the age, telling us about the pains and strivings of a generation. No author could have ever had the temerity to construct such a potent myth. For many people, it shares a special place in history along with the Salem Witch trials, the Ripper murders, or the Tay Bridge disaster. It is a fairytale for our times, from which we extract whatever message we can manage.
The Borley Rectory affair ensured that the participants were given historical permanence by accident. They achieved fame by sheer chance. Those who were caught up in the events were artificially preserved, like a fly in amber. In understanding them, their lives and their motivations, we understand something of the period in which they lived and the place they inhabited: It is this that long outlasts the fascination of the events themselves.
What makes the Borley Rectory Affair unusual is the way that the characters leap out of the books as if larger than life. Marianne Foyster, an extraordinarily modern woman; sensual, intelligent and feisty; Harry Price, with his mesmeric manner and his compelling journalistic style; Lionel Foyster, the loveable, dignified, but ineffectual, English Gent; Harry Bull, the engaging but eccentric 'Hedge Parson', Edwin Whitehouse, the tormented man pursued by memories of his experiences in the war, Frank Pearless, the sinister sexual predator, Ethel Bull weaving a fantastic web of fable around the Rectory and its incumbents. The further one explores, the more figures burst out of the pages, so real that one can imagine being amongst them. Perhaps these are the real ghosts of Borley.
The generation that created the Borley Rectory legend died thinking that interest would soon die out, that theirs was an ephemeral event. Curiously, this has proved not to be the case. Very little new evidence has came out since Marianne finally placed the last piece in the jigsaw, but a great deal of the evidence has now been made generally available, due to the dogged tenacity of Marianne's son Vince. Of course, several opportunities were lost in the first rush to get to print in 1940. Frank Pearless, the sinister lodger, was never interviewed, as few understood his pivotal role in events; the maid, Mary Pearson's testimony would have been most valuable. A whole host of people who knew Borley Rectory at the time, and whose testimony would have helped enormously in our understanding of events, were ignored because their testimony was negative; they saw no nuns, headless coachmen, or materialising bottles. It is now too late; Sadly, as I write this, few of those who knew Borley Rectory in the twenties and thirties are still alive and well. We must also sigh for the material which has been lost; Mrs Mabel Smith's manuscript of "Murder at the Parsonage", for example, which would have told us so much about the strange stories told her by the Bull sisters, Lionel Foysters' letters to his family, or the parts of the Swanson tapes that were accidentally destroyed.
A curious obsession in the past writing about Borley Rectory was the endless speculation about whether Harry Price, who did so much to popularise the Borley Rectory business, was a fraud. One can get so distracted by this question that one can lose a grip on the important issues. Harry Price was a complex individual, who needs to be examined with the same forensic detachment as the other participants in the business, such as Lionel Foyster, Mrs Mabel Smith, Mollie Goldney or Mrs Wildgoose. Harry Price traversed the entire spectrum of emotions and beliefs, from complete scepticism to uncritical belief in the paranormal, from amused mischief to desperate faith. At different times, he did what we, in hindsight, adjudge to be silly or irresponsible. Because he was also difficult to like, he had few real friends who understood him well enough to defend his reputation. Several tried, but each time they managed to make things worse. Because the Borley Rectory story is so entwined with the personality of Harry Price, we get nowhere until we have a portrait of him in all the shades of grey, but he is too complex a person to have a simple label such as 'fraud' stuck on him.