Borley Rectory

England, Essex · United Kingdom · Rectory

Borley Rectory — England, Essex · United Kingdom · Rectory

'England's most haunted house' according to Harry Price — burned in 1939, demolished in 1944, but the stories live on.

Borley Rectory was a house in Borley, Essex, known for having been described as "the most haunted house in England" by the psychic researcher Harry Price. The large Gothic-style rectory was built in 1862 to house the parish rector and his family. It was badly damaged by fire in 1939 and demolished in 1944.

The rectory had been claimed to be haunted ever since it was built. Reports suddenly increased in number in 1929 after the Daily Mirror published an account of Price's visit — he later wrote two books supporting claims of paranormal activity at the site.

Price's reports led to a formal investigation by the Society for Psychical Research, which dismissed most of the sightings as either imagined or fabricated and cast doubt on Price's credibility. In 1948 three SPR members — Eric Dingwall, K.M. Goldney and Trevor H. Hall — examined his claims. Their conclusions were published in the 1956 book The Haunting of Borley Rectory, which found that Price had fraudulently produced some of the phenomena.

"The Borley Report" concluded that many of the phenomena were either faked or due to natural causes: rats, the building's peculiar acoustics, the wind. Marianne Foyster later admitted that she had never seen any apparitions, and that she had at times lied to her husband.

Source: Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borley_Rectory

FAQ

Where is Borley Rectory located?

Borley Rectory is in England, Essex, United Kingdom.

More haunted places in England, Essex

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Wikipedia: Borley Rectory (Public domain)