QUESTION - (all the following questions are courtesy of Karen Fowler)
Something still remains at Borley but I’m trying to pin point what it is. Before the Rectory was built it might have been a graveyard, and when people started to build on the site they disturbed the spirits.
ANSWER
It was unlikely to have been a graveyard. There was a story, which was told to Harry Price that there had been a Plague Pit in the garden, though it is unlikely in such a small village. The mediaeval population was not much different from the later population.
QUESTION
Long before Borley Rectory was built and before the monastery was built, does any body know the facts about what was there first?
ANSWER
We have a number of wills, inventories and other documents relating to the Waldegraves who lived there, and also the highly detailed account of the Extent of Borley, dating from 1308. There is no mention of a monastery in any of the records. There was an ancient building on the site of the later Georgian and Victorian rectories, facing due north/south and probably built of wood. There is still more yet to be discovered about Borley’s history.
QUESTION
You know the nun who haunts the nuns walk, I know she was bricked up alive. Do you think that many people have tried to set her free? Do people ask questions about the nun and why she haunts the nuns walk for every year on July 28th? I think it was then that she got bricked up alive, so lonely, not knowing where she is going, and lost.
ANSWER
This story about the nun being bricked up alive came from the Bull sisters. I am not sure where they heard it. If it happened, it wasn’t in England, as nuns were treated very well, and all punishments were carefully recorded.
QUESTION
It might be as well of all the paranormal activities going on at Borley that could be as well of all the things what went on the murders and poltergeist activity, There is one person and this person is a spirit this person could of started it all off. What was the name of the nun?
ANSWER
One has to rely on the evidence of the séances, which are well known as being extremely unreliable. The séance held by the Braithwaites identified one of the spirits as Joe Miles, who appeared to think he was still alive and in the pub. The Marks Tey Spiritualist Circle identified the ‘demented female’ spirit as being Evangeline Westcott. It was Sidney Glanville’s daughter who came up with the name ‘Marie Lairre’ during her planchette sessions, but it is this name that has stuck.
QUESTION
Is this nun looking for her lover, as she walks through the nuns walk without a smile? With her moaning and with a broken heart she is still waiting for her lover to return, she can’t find him anywhere. She haunts this place so she could find him but he isn't coming back.
ANSWER
The nun is a very rare sighting. She has only once been seen by more than one person simultaneously, and that was the famous occasion of the Bull sisters in 1900. They could not see her face, and nobody has ever heard her moan.
QUESTION
She wants people to notice her, and not to be afraid of her. She isn't there to harm people. Many people think that she is the one who caused all the poltergeist activity, but I don’t think she was, she must have been held back, like this strange force holding her back.
ANSWER
The only times that anyone was harmed was when Adelaide was hit. Frank Pearless received a black eye, Marianne was struck by a metal object. However, there may have been a more prosaic explanation for these bruises.
QUESTION
And why did the Smiths stay at the Rectory for a short period only? Did they have strange things going on?
ANSWER
They moved out because the rectory turned out to be almost uninhabitable due to the lack of modern amenities. Neither of them believed in ghosts.
QUESTION
In this Paranormal world we live in, no one can explain why the supernatural are on this earth. Scientists don’t even know the answer.
ANSWER
The Paranormal has been investigated a great deal by scientists, particularly psychologists and physicists, but they have discovered nothing. They have concluded that the paranormal is more a matter of personal belief than objective science.
QUESTION
Borley Rectory's ghost's do they still remain after Borley got burnt down, and where are these ghost now?
ANSWER
Borley is now a peaceful and tranquil spot. Nobody who lives there has ever seen anything paranormal, so we have to conclude that the spirits have gone.
c. 25 Jan. 2011, Vincent O'Neil