02 Sep 2009, kl. 17:30

The most famous haunted house

Borley Rectory was a gloomy building on the border of Essex and Suffolk that burnt down in 1939. It was Built in 1863 by the reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull. This house, made of bricks with 23 rooms, became centre for those who believed in ghosts and those who didn't.

When the Bulls moved in strange things happened. Footsteps and knockings was heard at night. One of the fourteen children was wokened by a slap in the face. Another of the children saw a tall man in old fashioned clothes standing by the bed. Twenty people saw a nun on the lawn. A decapitated man and a woman in white was seen.

1929, poltergeist activities began. Pebbles, keys and medals were thrown around for no particular reason. A door was always locked in the evening, just to find it unlocked again next morning. Journalists that stayed one night saw a spooky light in an abandoned wing of the house.

From 1930 the priest Lionel Algernon Foyster and his wife Marianne lived in the house. Strange things kept happening and messages were written on the walls. Mrs Foyster heard a voice calling her name and when she was assaulted by an invisible attacker the family moved away.

In 1939 the rectory, that now had been named Borley Prior by it's new owner WH Gregson, started burning. Several people claimed to have seen a young girl in one of the windows on the second floor. Other witnesses said they had seen a man in gray sneek away from the burning inferno.

Despite that the house was merely ruins, strange things continued to happen.

In 1943 the place was dugged out. Pieces of a female skull and a skeleton was found one meter under ground together with religious objects. As late as 1961, when the place was visited, head lights, cameras, and flash lights ceased to function.

Was Borley Rectory really hunted? I guess the dispute between those who believe and those who don't, will go on. No matter what, it deserves to be called "the most famous haunted house".