Borley Rectory
'The most haunted house in England' — burned down in 1939, its legend only grew.
Case File No. 053
FILE 01 The Legend
A Victorian rectory built in 1863 on the Essex-Suffolk border. Legend says a convent romance ended with a nun bricked up alive on the site in the 14th century. From the 1920s the Bull family reported phantom footsteps, the nun walking the grounds, and messages pebbles spelled out. In 1929 psychic researcher Harry Price arrived and made Borley famous; after the rectory burned in 1939, excavations claimed to find the bones of a young woman.
FILE 02 The Sightings Log
Marianne Foyster, wife of the last rector, reported objects thrown and poltergeist activity; Price documented 'Marianne... please copulate' etched on a wall. A BBC listener claimed to have seen the nun. Mysterious stone-throwing plagued the grounds for years.
FILE 03 The Skeptic’s File
After Price's death in 1948, the Daily Mail sent investigator Eric Dingwall to his archive — Dingwall, Goldney and Hall's 1956 book 'The Haunting of Borley Rectory' concluded the phenomena were faked by the residents, with Price himself possibly duped. Marianne Foyster later admitted producing some phenomena to cover an affair. Borley remains the great case-study of haunted-house mythology.