Reflecting on the Borley Rectory Mystery

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Selection d is by location Hello. How are you? Thanks for all of your recent messages on our cold cases in just a couple of weeks time We're going to be doing a huge case update episode going through all of your theories and answering all your questions as we look back at every single story that we've covered. but right now We are going to climax this series in style with a two part investigation That's got everything. ghostly nuns, violent poltergeist activity, headless horsemen riding a spectral carriage, and a stakeout by the greatest ghost hunter of his age. It has been called the mostost haunted house in England. It is of course Bally rectory Can we separate the reality of Borley from the legend has grown up around it? Is this really the greatest haaunted house or one of the most extensive paranormal hoaxes ever concocted. We're going to be torn bothoth directions, buckle up. Dive into one of the most notorious hauntings in world history I'm Danny Robbins and this uncanny cold cases. What has pass Cusic. In the co were lear St st. secret still rem. Welcome to the final investigation of this series. It is a two partarter because it doesn't get any bigger than this one. The story of Baly reectory, much like many of its apparent inhabitants, refuses to die. But over the years, this case has stirred up as much controversy as it has paranormal intrigue. To try and make sense of it now, I am joined by two of the greatest ghost hunters of our age. for teeam skeptic, forensic psychologist doctor Kirin O'Keeffe, and for team believer, writer and parapsychologist Evelyn Hollo. Evelyn, what a case we have here. It's hard to overstate the impact of this, isn't it? It's the stadium filling legacy act of the paranormal It is. I think if you were to stop anybody on the streets of Britain and say what is the definitive haunted house story they would say Boly Rectory. And it was investigated by Harry Price, who is arguably the most famous ghost hunter of all time. He's an incredibly weird and interesting character. He wrote several books about Boly Rectory. They were the da Vinci code of their time. totally, and Harry Price is going loom large in this case isn't, Karen I know he's a real inspiration for you for people less familiar with him ual him for us. his impact, his status within the paranormal world. Yeah, definitely he used a scientific method for ghost hunting and that impacts on what we do today Although he was an inspiration for me, he was also hugely impactful in popularizing the paranormal. And I'm sorry, Danny, but if Harry Price were alive today, he would be sitting where you would be sitting right now because ultimately he was the uncanny of the day. Okay, well let's get this paranormal party started. We're going to travel back to the twelfth of June nineteen twenty nine As Harry Price and his secretary, Lucy Kay. setet off by road for his first visit to Bulleing Bink and you'll miss it village on the Essex Suffolk border in the east of England. Lucy, twenty seven, blonde and stylish, contrasts with forty eight year old Harry, boald, hollow eyed and constantly puffing away on his pipe. It's a sixty mile drive from London and they packed everything they will need for their investigation. cameras, a thermometer, notebooks, torches, and a bottle of brandy for emergencies. They have heard stories about the goings on in Borley to suggest they may need it. But right now, they're slightly lost, so they stop to ask a local for directions to rectory. Oh, he says, looking these fool hardy strangers up and down. You mean the most haunted house in England? Because rumors have been flying around about Ballley ectory for decades by this point. It was built in eighteen sixty three by the Reverend Henry Bull, a clergyman from an impressively wealthy family. But a young carpenter working on the build drowned during a lunchtime swim nearby And the rectory was said to be cursed even before it was finished. Over the years, further extensions have made the house warren like, full of creaking floorboards and shadowy passageways Henry Bull had fourteen children and a large retinue of servants, but none of them ever felt comfortable there. Stories circulate of odd things seen and heard until in eighteen ninety two. Henry Bull dies aged just fifty nine and is succeeded at the parish by his eldest son errible a sporty man fond of amateur boxing. He lives out with his sisters and on the sunny afternoon in july nineteen hundred Three of those bull sisters are returning from a tennis party. Eterering the garden. O of them stops and points Look There's a nun walking there But there's something that feels both sinister and unreal about this dark figure who drifts down the pathway towards them and the sisters flee to the house in fear. They're met by a braver sister, Dodi, who goes out to confront the visitor, but as she does so, the nun disappears in front of her Holy Mother, Sperior, and it isn't long before others see this seemingly phantom bride of Christ. A housemaid sees her dematerialize at the garden gate and is so terrified she faints The church organist sees her standing at the front door of the rectory waiting to enter. The bull sisters spot her peering out of a bedroom window As the stories start to spread Pathway Where the nun appears becomes known as Nun's walk And it's not the only odd activity going on. Inside the house, servants bells ring by themselves from empty rooms, and Reverend Harry Bull claims to see a ghostly horse and carriage ride by the house at night, driven by two headless men The legend of Bay Rectoring has very much begun. Kirin, we have only just dipped our toes in and already we've got phhantom nuns Headless horsemen, look at these things with our twenty first century eyes. They feel almost like cliches, don't they? in a ghost story. Is that because Bory got so famous? This is like the original tune that all ghost stories sent up in cover versions or remixes of. Yeah, I think it is. These are real tropes within ghost stories. But not only that, there are elements here that are really interesting. The Phantom carriage, for example, it's a precursor to kind of road ghosts And thatat of course is a feature, and we've talked about that un. That's a really interesting way of looking at it. Yeah The idea of a haunted vehicle is a fascinating one. It is, it really is. but also the nun. We love the idea of a nun. We see that as a trope that pops up all the timeolutely and Hollywood horror films, I mean been terrifyingly so that they film The Nun from the Cjuring. Exactly. And here we have what I feel like is kind of the origin of that. you know, an amazing story that features through a number of different accounts and has had such an impact that we see it so often now. Totally. And guess know, Evelyn, we think of a Victorian house as being an old place, but this is a new build back then, isn't it? team believer point of view. If it's a new house, where is the haunting coming from That's the big question. So this structure was built in eighteen sixty two. There was a previous structure on the ground that had burnt down during a fire. Now we know that there's no convent on the ground, so why is there a nun? But it is after all a rectory. It is connected to a church. So who's to say that you know a nun or nuns plural haven't visited? And then the next question is, why the carriage being pulled by headless horsemen? That's the sort of thing we would expect to see In old Irish mythology, you have the Douahan, who is the headless horseman. When we think of things like Sleepy Hollow, the Johnny Depp film with the headless horseman, that's where that comes from. It's not something we would expect to see in this a in this part of England. Sleepy Hollow, obviously the second most famous hollow after ever Here and look What would you be doing here if you could get your feet on the ground in Balie Rectory, which sadly doesn't exist anymore. But what would your investigation want to look at in this house I guess the first thing I'd be doing is looking at environmental influences. I'd be looking at the building itself. You know, we know that, for example, there would have been potentially kind of elements to this house and by toxic, I mean, we potentially have arsenic in the wallpaper, we have lead paint. So you should not lick those walls. Definitely don't lick the walls. We're dealing with toxins here that you know repeated exposure to them, or like you say, ingesting of them could have a real influence. The neurotoxins that can affect our brain also we've got to think about the way that this building has been built where it's placed. it's exposed, it's on a slope going into a valley, and they've made sure there are no gaps at all in the buildings. And because of that, there is no flexibility And therefore you're going to get drones, you're going to get creaking, you're going to get really anomalous sounds that you can't place, but actually they're coming from the building because the changes in temperature that happen can affect it. Well, I feel like I'm on paranormal grand designs here. This is a level of detail I hadn't expected. Evelyn is the environment an important veor here always, but there are lots of incidents in this case that can't be explained simply by groaning noises or the structure of the house. We've got that a visiting friend claimed to have seen a phantom carriage sweep down the adjoining lane. Okay so that's the carriage again. One of Henry's daughters saw a man standing by her bed and she was so scared that she insisted in sharing a bed with her sister every single night from then on And we've also got that every night afterwards between nine and ten o'clock at night, the girls would always hear three raps on their bedroom door and when they opened it, nobody would be there. So those are all things that aren't caused you know by a house simply creaking. Okay, some interesting thoughts then only just getting warmed up on this cold case Harry Bull. and his sisters live at the rectory for twenty years, the alleged paranormal activity becomes their norm n Phantom carriage odd fixtures that they tolerate then In nineteen eleven at the age of nearly fifty Harry shocks everyone. by announcing He is getting married. His new bride, Ivy, moves into the rectory and boots out Harry's unmarried sisters who reluctantly move to the nearby village. Harry and Ivy's marri is not a happy one and they constantly quarrel right up to the moment when in nineteen twenty seven Harry dies in his sleep age sixty four. The official cause of death is heart disease and bronchitis Harry sisters who, as you can imagine, are not big fans of Ivy suspect that she had a hand in it. Poison Ivy indeed. Once the funeral is over, Ivy moves to London and the rectory sits empty. It has now acquired such a reputation thanks to the supposedly spectral apparitions and the untimely deaths of both Henry and Harry Bull, that the church cannot easily find enough a vicar to take it over. And it sits empty for a long time until the Reverend Eric Smith walks into the picture Eric has just moved to England from India and he's desperate for his own parish He's surprised that people aren't competing to take up the post at bulling soon He will discover why. He and his wife Mabel arrive at the rectory along with a maid that they bring with them from London. On only their third day in Borley, the maid decides to head off for a bike ride around the village. But minutes later, she is back hysterical and covered in mud. She says that she has seen a nun by the front gate and that she could see right through her. The smmiths try and reassure the maid. She must have imagined it, but the girl is so terrified. She hands in her notice that day and returns to London Eric and Mabel are disappointed in her. They're well travelled, well educated people that dismiss her fears as common superstition. There is no such thing as ghosts, right problem now, no m. and in the time since Harry's death and Ivy moving out, the reetory has fallen into a terrible state. It's dirty, disgusting, infested with rats and death beetles So Ael rolls, her sleeves up and gets tidy Whilst cleaning out a cupboard in the Rectory's library, she discovers a pile of rubbish and amongst it human skull, later identified as a young woman. And then In the cellar, amidst some empty wine bottles, she finds a small bottle labelled Toiser It's not a great start, but things soon get worse. At night, she and Eric hear heavy, muffled footsteps outside their bedroom. One afternoon, whilst alone, Eric hears whispering above him as he walks from the master bedroom onto the landing. The whispers seem to follow him. Suspecting a prank, played by some locals who have broken in, he waits on the landing Armed with a hockey stick, the whispering begins again. But when he rushes out swinging, no one is there One evening alone in the house. Mabel hears the gate open. She looks out and sees what appears to be two headlamps and the outline of a carriage in the drive, though it makes no sound on the gravel And this is not the only thing that sounds horribly reminiscent of what the Bull family experienced Because those old servants bells start ringing constantly throughout the house. In frustration, Eric cuts many of the wires, yet the bells continue to sound After just six months of Blly rectory, worn down, Eric and Mabel no longer think that their maid was crazy for running away. In fact, that is what they try to do now, asking the church authorities if they can move parish. Their request is denied. Desperate, they get in touch with a daily mirror newspaper to ask for help. The paper's editor phones the offices of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, Harry Price's organization, famed for exposing fake mediums and investigating alleged tauntings It is time for Harry Price to get involved lotickens. Even twenty years Harry Bull and his sisters live in this house experiencing phenomena all that time. That's a long time to be haunted. It absolutely is. I think the thing is that the buildills are sort of accepting of it. I think Harry in particular, he's used to the nun. He's interested in a supernatural, if anything, he probably has some sort of enjoyment in it. Harry did however joke to a pu that if after his death He didn't approve of the rector who succeeded him. he would come back as a poltergeist and he would pelt them with mothballs, which is a very specific detail. Yeah have really interesting detail. Its so specific. It really does feel like we are developing the agga for Christie territory here, doesn't it? We've got Harry actually dying and people suspecting that it might be at the hands of his wife, Ivy But we also have sightings of the nun again. and this time not from a member of the bull family, but from a maid who's come with the Smiths from London So be totally unconnected to this. Does that make it more convincing So it's interesting in that there shouldn't be a priming effect there. We have to assume that she arrived not knowing much about the house, but it's some local legendsn't there There are So the local legend states that there was a monastery once on the same site and that a man from the monastery fell in love with a sister from a local Catholic convent. They wanted to elope in secret, so they had a friend pull up a carriage to the placeless horsemen? Well, about to be because they were caught. What? And apparently the person, the man driving the carage And the man himself from the monastery were both decapitated. Oh my goodness. And then the nun was walled up alive inside the walls of the what would now be the reectory. I'm having none of it. Wow, is that true? No. So no. So the story is amazing and it fits all of the details, but when you look into the history of it, there was no monastery on that site that we can find There's no evidence of anyone being decapitated. We don't currently have a nun's body walled up in the house. It's so interesting, isn't it how we interpret it these things, Kirin. And of course, the people interpreting it for us now are the Reverend Eric Smith and his wife, Mabel Do we know about them They're an interesting couple in the sense that they come into this kind of typical English village. Eric Smith is Anglo Indian but also dark skinned and Anglo Catholic. This is kind of this very traditional kind of church u so there is a number of elements at this particular point a number of elements of that couple that means that they could potentially be ostracized the village And because of that, for me, it raises suspicion about the possibility that some of this phenomenon might be caused by the locals. They simply might be wanting to scare this couple out and you know trying to get them to leave Borley. They get so scared, Kira. They contact the Daily Mirror newspaper. somethingomet that we see in the Efield pololtergeist's case as well, the family there contact that same newspaper Some people watching or listening will see that as a publicity seeking act. Yeah, I think we've got to remember that this would have been a call made to a newspaper from a position of trust It's almost as though they would trust that a journalist or a newspaper would get involved in the investigation or at least know what to do. They would have a network of contacts and know who to contact And it leads them to Harry Price, of course. Kiran said he was like the uncanny of his day. He's about to get in there and investigate Yes, he's a very interesting character. He's quite a striking figure. But for us it's important because it means somebody with an interest and background in science is about to go there and actually start taking measurements and recording the information. . The ultimate cookout starts with the ultimate ingredients. At Whole Foods Met, no antibiotics ever burgers and kebabs are prepped and ready to throw on the grill Fire up a juicy ribeye, grab creamy potato salad and savory flatbreads from the prepared foods department, and round it all out with three hundred and sixty five brand condiments, chips and dips at everyday low prices. Whole Foods Market. Make your summer sizzle Tonight, you're planning on watching the ultimate soccer showdown. 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As Harry Price's car swings through the gates of Borley Rectory and pulls to a halt on the gravel Standing by the front door to greet Harry and his secretary Lucy are an anxious looking Eric and Mabel Smith. And with them, Vernon Wall, a Daily mirror journalist. They usher Harry and Lucy inside the house for lunch, over which Eric and Mabel recount their experiences in the house Harry decides on a course of action. He seals the doors and windows of the retctro to stop any intruders gaining access and ruleout He positions himself in the summer house built by the other Harry, Harry Bull. It's the ideal viewing location for the pathway known as Nun's Walk. For an hour, Harry and Vernon Wall, the journalists sit there in silence smoking their pipes. Then, Wall grabs Price's ar. There she is, he whispers Before Harry can stop him, Vernon dashes across the lawn, but by the time he's reached the nun's walk, the apparition has disappeared. Disappointed, the pair walk back to the main house. As they approach the front door, a large glass pane from the roof of the verandah falls and shatters inches from their feet, showering them with shards of glass. They rush inside the house, swinging their torches wildly in the darkness when a vase whizzers past Verner's head splashing on the floor They suddenly under attack it seems from an invisible assailants. They are pelted with pebbles and remember Harry Bull's earlier promise Moth Bs too. It is quite a welcome for Harry and his fellow investigators. Later that night, they are joined by the now elderly bull sisters once kicked out of this house by Ivy, remember? They're visiting from the nearby village The sisters remain convinced that their former home is haunted, and they're glad that Harry is investigating. The assembled gathering move up to the master bedroom. After twenty minutes in there, they hear distinct knob than another. The noises seem to be coming from the back of a mirror. They attempt to communicate with this apparent spirit, asking it to knock once for yes and twice for no Is that Harriable Yes Are you happy No Were you killed Yes Price asks the identity of the murderer. The entity claims to have been murdered by his wife Iy Bull OMG, the revelations keep coming here. Kan this has shades of the cocklane poltergeist that we looked at together earlier this series, a ghost accusing somebody of murder. Can we hone in on one detail here? A really crucial one? Evelyn talked about earlier, Harry Bull threatened to throw Mothballs a rector that succeeded him Harry Price and Vern Mall are being pelted by mothballs. Yeah, It's quite a significant moment because you've got that connection with Harry Ball's promise and now it appears to be happening. The only thing I would say is that are we just dealing with a coincidence? We forget in today's day and age, we don't see mothballs that often, but of course back then they would have been quite prevalent. So flying through the air No flying through the air. I'll give you that I want to hone in on the bull sisters There is a potential motive here Remember that they've effectively been thrown out of that building. And you know, they're almost pointing an accusatory finger A the wife. thinking that she may have murdered Harry Bull. So there is almost a motive here for them to perpetuate the idea or to somehow paranormally point the finger. Evan, when Harry Price arrives in this house, things really step up again here, don't they? We've moveved from Agpha Christie to action movie here.'ve Paines of glass nearly falling on people. We got vases whizzing past people's heads. Yeah, I think it's one thing to be living somewhere where people are seeing apparitions, that's passive phenomena. Active phenomena, the sort of noises, people feeling like they're being hit with small objects. It is frightening. There's a difference between that and active bodily harm, which is things like the paines of glass falling and people being physically injured. It's a huge level of danger. Kirn, what would you do if you were on a ghost hunt and a vase goes past your head. be the first thing I'd do abbsolutely, but also I'd be looking at that trajectory. I've always said it on ghost hunts that I am part of. You know If we can be very, very sure that we've got the trajectory from its start to its's finished and there's no human hand involvement, then that means potentially you've got something paranormal going on here. Have you ever had anything fr at you on the Ghost hunt Hf actually, yes I've had stones thrown at me, I've had coins thrown at me, I've had broken bits of brick that have flown past my head But me again. These objects for me, they came out of the dark You know, I don't know if somebody threw them at me and that always leaves a bit of doubt for. Like the idea of Keran just going on gohost taunted to the somemone at the back of the pocket full the stones, she's being like juck. I was gonna say just getbody with a slingshot. Based on what we've witnessed on Tour, I would imagine it was like middle aged ladies knnickers of right. All those old most taunted fans love you, Kean Sorry, terrible image to flant into everybody's heads there Thank you both So much. Let's dip straight back in, shall we? Because word is out now It' about the celebrity ghost hunter up at the Rory, and Harry Price's visit brings an avalanche of curious visitors to Borlei. It becomes a paranormal tourist destination, and they drunkenly rampage around the rectory garden, singing, shouting and making a general ruckus. But when no ghost materializes to them, they get annoyed. They throw empty bottles at the house, smashing the drawing room window. It is pandemonium And along with the alleged paranormal activity, it forces Eric and Mabel Smith to pack up and leave They had enough Harry Pryiceo is the opposite. He is desperate to return and investigate further. but Church, perhaps understandably, doesn't want any more bad publicity around the rectory and they refuse him access A new rector is found The Reverend Lionel Fster kindly liberal man in his fifties, prematurely aged from ill health. and his wife, Marianne is much younger than him, something of a free spirit. They move into the house and just as with everybody else who has lived up before them. they begin to feel almost immediately. somethinghing is not quite right Ojects start to move. There are strange smells. Those servant bells ring by themselves even though Reverend Smith cut the belloirise a year before. And then one evening Marianne sees an old man on the landing. wearing a distinctive plum coloured smoking jacket, she sees them again on another couple of occasions. And when she describes the man to her cleaner Tina turns pale Because the woman has lived in the area for a long time. And she says that the man Marianne is describing is none other than the Reverend Harry Bull himself Ean this story It has more twists and turns than a roller coaster, doesn't it? Reverend Harry Bull, it seems, does not want to go gentle into that good night. No, I think this is the first time that we can possibly attribute a name to one of the ghlosts that are in the house. It's this really striking image of him repeating in this sort of plum coloud smoking jacket. It's a sort of thing I imagine Kirin might suit. he's got a brown one at the moment, but we're getting a plum one and a pipe movie. You should definitely take up smoking pipe, Kirin. It's such a fascinating sprawling cases, isn't it? So much already that we've talked about so much more to come