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Post by demdike on Aug 20, 2017 3:30:33 GMT -5
Hello All,
I was just doing some research on the Bridgeport haunting and came across this amazing site. I have a lifelong interest in the supernatural and finding a whole site devoted to it is a gift. I am slightly obsessed with the Borley Rectory story, I will look out for any members views on that one. I was wondering whether the peter underwood book might give me a good perspective. I have the Borley Rectory companion which is perfect, and I have read Harry Prices the most haunted house in England, but interestingly he isn't such a compelling writer as some would say and he fell for the myth that the place was built on the site of a monastery which isn't true. Anyway, I am looking forward to,getting stuck into this place...
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Post by natalie on Aug 21, 2017 15:17:38 GMT -5
Welcome to the group!
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Post by demdike on Aug 21, 2017 17:42:23 GMT -5
Thank you ❤️
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Post by Sam on Aug 21, 2017 17:48:15 GMT -5
Hello All, I was just doing some research on the Bridgeport haunting and came across this amazing site. I have a lifelong interest in the supernatural and finding a whole site devoted to it is a gift. I am slightly obsessed with the Borley Rectory story, I will look out for any members views on that one. I was wondering whether the peter underwood book might give me a good perspective. I have the Borley Rectory companion which is perfect, and I have read Harry Prices the most haunted house in England, but interestingly he isn't such a compelling writer as some would say and he fell for the myth that the place was built on the site of a monastery which isn't true. Anyway, I am looking forward to,getting stuck into this place... Welcome to our site, demdike.
I don't know a lot about Borley Rectory. I read the book by Harry Price a long time ago, but some of the others here, like Jane and April, know a lot about it. It's included in an article called "Haunted Houses" at whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/179/haunted-houses Also our members who went to England in 2009 visited Borley Rectory.
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Post by demdike on Aug 21, 2017 17:53:46 GMT -5
Hello All, I was just doing some research on the Bridgeport haunting and came across this amazing site. I have a lifelong interest in the supernatural and finding a whole site devoted to it is a gift. I am slightly obsessed with the Borley Rectory story, I will look out for any members views on that one. I was wondering whether the peter underwood book might give me a good perspective. I have the Borley Rectory companion which is perfect, and I have read Harry Prices the most haunted house in England, but interestingly he isn't such a compelling writer as some would say and he fell for the myth that the place was built on the site of a monastery which isn't true. Anyway, I am looking forward to,getting stuck into this place... Welcome to our site, demdike.
I don't know a lot about Borley Rectory. I read the book by Harry Price a long time ago, but some of the others here, like Jane and April, know a lot about it. It's included in an article called "Haunted Houses" at whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/179/haunted-houses Also our members who went to England in 2009 visited Borley Rectory.
Thank you. I will look up that thread. The actual Rectory was burnt down in 1939 but the church is still there. I would love to visit.
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Post by pat on Aug 21, 2017 19:27:18 GMT -5
Hello All, I was just doing some research on the Bridgeport haunting and came across this amazing site. I have a lifelong interest in the supernatural and finding a whole site devoted to it is a gift. I am slightly obsessed with the Borley Rectory story, I will look out for any members views on that one. I was wondering whether the peter underwood book might give me a good perspective. I have the Borley Rectory companion which is perfect, and I have read Harry Prices the most haunted house in England, but interestingly he isn't such a compelling writer as some would say and he fell for the myth that the place was built on the site of a monastery which isn't true. Anyway, I am looking forward to,getting stuck into this place... Hello, demdike, and welcome. I knew about the Bridgeport haunting, but didn't know a lot about it until I read Lee's post about Marsha Godwin's death in 2015 - whatliesbeyond.boards.net/thread/3692/woman-center-bridgeport-poltergeist-haunting - which, I'm sure you read, too.
We stopped at Borley when we were in England in 2009 and Jane wrote it up in the journal she kept and emailed to the group so that they would know what we were doing.
To Jane: If you read this, could you please copy and paste that part of your write-up?
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Post by demdike on Aug 22, 2017 4:46:46 GMT -5
I willl look forward to that. I can't get enough of Borley at the moment. I have started to write a novel about it. I find the character of Mrs Foyster most interesting. I want to encompass the whole story though, including the reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull in the 1860s. By all accounts he was something of a lively person.
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Post by Joanna on Aug 22, 2017 20:48:00 GMT -5
I willl look forward to that. I can't get enough of Borley at the moment. I have started to write a novel about it. I find the character of Mrs Foyster most interesting. I want to encompass the whole story though, including the reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull in the 1860s. By all accounts he was something of a lively person. Welcome to our site.
It's interesting that you're writing a novel about Borley. Have you read We Faked the Ghosts of Borley Rectory by Louis Mayerling? I posted a review of the book in one of our old groups and recall that most who commented dismissed it as as nothing more than a money-making scheme. If you've read it, do you believe any of Mayerling's claims are valid?
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Post by Kate on Aug 24, 2017 0:31:02 GMT -5
I willl look forward to that. I can't get enough of Borley at the moment. I have started to write a novel about it. I find the character of Mrs Foyster most interesting. I want to encompass the whole story though, including the reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull in the 1860s. By all accounts he was something of a lively person. I've read a lot about Borley and would love to go there. I'm sure it's not all that far from where you live. Have you been?
Sometimes we have a story/poem contest at Halloween. Maybe you could write a short story about Borley and enter it in the contest.
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Post by jane on Aug 25, 2017 1:05:38 GMT -5
I willl look forward to that. I can't get enough of Borley at the moment. I have started to write a novel about it. I find the character of Mrs Foyster most interesting. I want to encompass the whole story though, including the reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull in the 1860s. By all accounts he was something of a lively person. Here’s a summary of the day we visited Borley during our 2009 trip to England. Hope you enjoy it. The lady at Borley had a lot more to say about Marianne Foyster, which I omitted from my daily journal, but if you’re interested, I’ll be glad to post what I can remember.
Norfolk - Day 4 23 September 2009, 9:30 p.m.
Today was overcast, but the temperature was still in the 60’s until dark and I guess it’s going down into the 40’s tonite. The temperatures on signs are in Celsius and, apparently, no one cares enough to try to convert it.
We left the hotel around noon and had lunch at the very atmospheric Spaniards Inn in Hampstead Heath. It’s a very old traditional English (in spite of its name) pub with a lot of history and many famous patrons, including Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley and John Keats (he wrote “Ode to a Nightingale” in the garden of the Spaniards Inn). But it’s the highwayman, Dick Turpin, who haunts the building, along with several other spirits. There were framed articles on the wall that tell of its haunted status and a warning printed on the menus: “Dishes May Contain Nuts and All Areas May Contain Ghosts.” The lunch was basic English pub food and we all ordered the Wild Boar & Apple Bangers (sausages) and lager (lager is what the English call beer). Giles called ahead and explained that he was bringing in a group of Americans, so they served our lager in very, very cold chilled glasses. The English don’t drink warm beer, like most Americans think, but it’s served at cellar temperature, not cold. No, we didn’t see any ghosts, but we were the only ones in the dining room where we were seated and Serena said that she felt like we were being watched. She kept looking over her shoulder, but there was nobody there. She claims to be psychic.
Giles then drove us through Epping Forest, a very small forest by American standards, but it has a lot of history. It is said that Celtic Queen Boudicca made her last stand against the Romans in Epping Forest and there are several ghost stories. We then drove through the Essex countryside because Maddie, Serena and Pat wanted to see Borley, where the haunted rectory was, which is a tiny village that doesn’t even have a pub, and doesn’t welcome visitors. We turned off of the highway onto a narrow, winding road with trees and huge fields on both sides. There were very few houses along the way and they were large, older houses, not the ugly things like you see on what they call “council estates” (what we would call “the projects”). The drive was pleasant and by the time we got to Borley, the skies seemed to have darkened., I’m surprised that Borley is called a village, because it’s nothing more than a few houses and a church and cemetery. We stopped at Borley Church and a woman who helps look after the church happened to be there. Joe explained we were Americans (though I’m sure she had already figured that one out) and we were interested in the cemetery and wanted to take a few pictures of the grave that had a cage over it, called a “mortsafe,” to keep grave robbers out (I didn’t know there was one there). The person in the mortsafe died in 1790, which means there were body-snatchers around Borley at one time. It’s hard to imagine body-snatchers going to such a remote location to steal a body. I guess the lady, who asked that we not use her name if any of us wrote anything about our visit, could tell from the way that we were dressed, with all the women in skirts and the men wearing jackets, that we weren’t going to trash the graveyard or break into the church, so after showing us the grave with the cage and several others, including those of the Bull family of Borley Rectory fame, she offered to unlock the church and show us around.
Oddly, you don’t enter the church through the tower, which faces west, but through a side door. Before you get to the door, there’s an iron gate that’s also kept locked. When you enter, the tower is to your left and the altar to your right. The interior of the church isn’t all that big and it’s overwhelmed by the huge tomb of Sir Edward Waldegrave and his wife, Frances, which is to your left if you’re facing the altar. In the other corner, to your right, is the pipe organ. The tomb, which has effigies of Sir Edward and Frances on top with their hands together as though they are lying in bed praying, looks like it’s about 15 feet tall. There are all kinds of carvings on the tomb, which has six pink-veined marble pillars and there are effigies of the Waldegraves’ five children carved on the base of the tomb. Sir Edward was Catholic and a member of Mary Tudor’s court. She was known as “Bloody Mary” because she had so many Protestants killed. When she died and Elizabeth I became queen, the Catholics were persecuted and Waldegrave ended up in the Tower.
The church is surrounded by beautifully-trimmed yew hedges. (I didn’t know that they were yews until some of the others told me. It’s my understanding that yews are deadly poisonous and I was reminded of “A Pocketful of Rye.” After leaving the church, we returned to the grave of Harry Bull, who died in the notorious “blue room” of Borley Rectory on June 9, 1927. His father, Henry Bull, also died in the blue room on May 2, 1892. While talking about the deaths in the blue room, our hostess pointed to the red brick house across the street which was once the carriage house for the rectory with an apartment above the stables. This was where Edward Cooper and his wife lived. Edward was the one who saw the phantom coach. He also saw the phantom nun and both he and his wife said that they were bothered at night by the “padding” of a dog, which they described as a “black shape,” running around their room.
We then walked across the road and our hostess showed us where Borley Rectory once stood, but even the foundations are gone, the Nun’s Walk and other locations. According to our hostess, the nun is most often seen at the end of July. She said that she had never seen the nun herself, but knew people who had. She said people in Borley don’t talk about anything that happens around the church or the old rectory site, because they are bothered by trespassers who leave trash all over the graveyard and some have even broken the lock on the iron gates trying to get inside of the church. So far as anyone knows, there was never a convent or monastery in Borley and many doubt the story of the nun’s ghost because of that. However, Borley Church, which goes back to the 12th century, was once a Catholic church, and nuns didn’t spend all of their time in the convent.
Our hostess said that a lot of what Harry Price and others said about Borley Rectory was exaggerated. She didn’t seem to think too highly of Marianne Foyster, the wife of Rev. Lionel Foyster, and called her a “disturbed person.” Apparently there was a lot of gossip about Mrs. Foyster and some said the Foyster marriage was a marriage in name only and that Marianne was something of what the British call a “goer.”
Later, when we were on the bus, again, Serena said that she had felt something while we were on the grounds of what used to be Borley Rectory. At least she had the good sense not to say it in front of the nice lady who was showing us around!
After leaving Borley, we started for Norfolk and got to our old manor house inn around 5 p.m. I was impressed because there’s a long tree-lined, driveway up to the inn, which actually does look like a house out of an Agatha Christie novel. It’s surrounded by huge gardens, which are in the middle of a big wooded park. The innkeepers, three of them, welcomed us and were extremely helpful and very nice. We all have rooms in the manor house and Giles and Audrey have a room in what is called the carriage house. Lee, Pat and I have rooms on the second floor at what I think is the east end of the building, Julia, Maddie and Ken have rooms at the other end. Serena & Lance, Andy and Joe have rooms on the ground floor. We all had the saddle of venison at dinner, which we had ordered ahead of time, and it was exceptionally good, and afterwards, we had cherry brandy, which we had bought earlier, in the library. There are only two other guests staying at the hotel, a young couple from Northumberland. We invited them to have brandy with us and they were very interested in our stop in Borley, and the things we planned to do. They said that we were different than what they had expected Americans to be. We didn’t ask them what that was. It’s exceptionally quiet and peaceful here. I don’t know if the house is haunted, but the innkeepers told us that there was a suicide here not long after World War I. Four of the men in the family that owned the house went to war, but only one came home, and he was severely shellshocked. He shot himself in the head in one of the upstairs rooms, but they don’t know which one.
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Post by natalie on Aug 28, 2017 16:45:12 GMT -5
I'd love to visit England someday, and the Borley Rectory as well.
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Post by kitty on Aug 30, 2017 18:30:24 GMT -5
What happened to demdike? I was looking forward to what she had to say about Borley Rectory.
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Post by demdike on Sept 4, 2017 1:17:40 GMT -5
Hello Kitty, I have just been on holiday in the Isle of Skye but back now. Thank you for asking. Thank you for that Jane, I would love to know more about what you heard about Marianne. The 'disturbed' comment matches my impression. She was having an affair with the odd job man Frank Peerless, which Lionel knew about. It is said they concocted some of the phenomenon themselves and they also ran a florists together in London. He also called himself Francois D'Arles. She already had a child when she was fifteen which was brought up as her brother and she seemed to spend much of her life seeking a good marriage. She adopted more children but never had any more, although she faked a pregnancy to snare a man later on.
First day back at work today, but I will spend more time here now when I have got acclimatised to work after the long summer break. I like the USA perspective. I didn't know your beer was our lager!
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Post by Kate on Sept 4, 2017 18:04:22 GMT -5
Hello Kitty, I have just been on holiday in the Isle of Skye but back now. Did you visit any standing stones or other ancient sites while you were on the Isle of Skye? I've always wanted to visit the islands off of the coast of Scotland and see places like the Callanish Stones and other Neolithic and Bronze Age locations.
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Post by demdike on Sept 7, 2017 2:33:28 GMT -5
Hello Kitty, I have just been on holiday in the Isle of Skye but back now. Did you visit any standing stones or other ancient sites while you were on the Isle of Skye? I've always wanted to visit the islands off of the coast of Scotland and see places like the Callanish Stones and other Neolithic and Bronze Age locations.We went to see the Quiraing and the old man of Storr. They are not standing stones in the sense that someone put them there but Lewis and the Callanish Stones is next on the list. I found a man who carved me a wonderful staff. I energised it at Niest Point. I will write about that later, work beckons. I adore Scotland.
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