Borley Rectory: England's most haunted house, later said to be fabricated by the investigator himself

In Essex, England, there is a small village called Borley, and in the village stands a red-brick manor, a rectory built in 1862. Older villagers say the house was built on the foundations of an older monastery, where a nun once fell in love with a monk. They were discovered; the monk was killed, and the nun was bricked up alive in the wall. No record can verify this story, but it has circulated in the village for many years.

Those who lived there saw things first. The rector's daughters said that on the garden path at dusk, they saw a woman in black walking slowly, and the path came to be known as "Nun's Walk." At night, some heard a carriage pass by outside the window, but when they went to look, there was nothing.

In 1929, the Daily Mirror invited Harry Price, then Britain's most famous paranormal investigator, to take a look. He wrote several consecutive articles in the paper, calling it "the most haunted house in England," and the whole of England came to know Borley. Afterwards, a new rector and his wife moved in; the house bells rang incessantly, and writing in pencil appeared on the walls, as if pleading for help. In 1937, Price simply rented the house for a year, placed advertisements to recruit dozens of volunteers, who took turns staying overnight to keep watch, recording where sounds were heard and what objects had moved.

In February 1939, the house changed owners. While moving and unpacking, an oil lamp was knocked over, and a great fire burned the entire house down. Price later wrote a second book, called The End of Borley Rectory.

He died in 1948, and a few years later, three researchers went through the materials he left behind. In 1956, they published a book stating that in his records, many of the "miracles" had as their first eyewitness either Price himself or his assistants, and the writing on the walls was very likely written by the rector's wife who lived there. After that book came out, Borley's reputation was more than halved. But some people spoke up for Price, saying the book was unfair to him and some of the accusations did not hold water.

To this day, books from both camps are still on sale in bookstores. There is nothing left to see at the original site of the manor, but the village church is still open, and occasionally someone makes a special detour to take a few photos at the door.

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