Forums

Posted: 30-04-2002 15:15 Post subject: Borley Rectory

Hello to all.

I am a message board virgin so treat me gently.

I wondered if I could tap into your collective memories/knowledge: I remember when I was about 9 or 10 (late 70s/early 80s) a documentary on Borley church being shown by the BBC. All I can remember is that it consisted of a BBC team (presenter/cameraman/sound recordist) spending the night in the church. At one point - at about 3 o'clock in the morning - the bolt to the church is heard unlocking along with the sound of footsteps walking from the door to the altar. As if that wasn't bad enough once the footsteps reach the altar and stop, a long mournful sigh is heard echoing throughout church. At this point, on the verge of fainting with fright, I think I must have switched the television off as I do not remember any more.

Does anybody else remember this documentary? And does anybody know if it is available still? I would love to see it again as a friend of mine stated not long ago that he also remembers the show and recalls one of the BBC men running from the church in sheer terror after the 'moan' at the altar.

Posted: 30-04-2002 15:25 Post subject:

Its not this is it?

Posted: 30-04-2002 15:42 Post subject:

Carole made reference to the recording here.

Posted: 15-05-2002 12:12 Post subject: Recording at Borley Church

Hi Hopester!

I actually have an audio tape of this programme, which was available commercially some years ago, by the SPR I believe!

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can let you have a recording on CD if you like, no charge.

I've also got a video recording of the programme somewhere, probably in the depths of the garage, which I can unearth if you're desperate!

Please let me know and I'll get the recording off to you. Please respond to derrickstott@beeb.net, not the address shown on this message (it's a work address).

All the best

Derrick

Posted: 20-07-2003 00:28 Post subject:

I've been looking for this for yonks, finally found it.

And here it is.

The scary bit at the start is Danny Baker, as the clip is a capture from his short-lived chat show in 1993 where I first heard this, and for Halloween he unearthed the original clip.

Sleep well, grown ups.

Posted: 20-07-2003 04:32 Post subject:

My memory is probably playing tricks but i remember this documentary (probably from a re-run because theres is no way i would have been allowed to watch it originally), I seem to remember they set up cameras in the church and I think they caught some strange lights on film which they attributed to the ghostly nun said to haunt the place.

I live near-ish to Borley and its a curious little church, completely over-whelmed by a massive momument to the once ruling family (the Waldegraves?). The church is supposed to have an over-whelming feeling of menance and dread but i felt nothing.

Posted: 20-07-2003 19:21 Post subject:

Posted: 05-07-2005 23:13 Post subject: borley rectory furniture

Not a particularly good story, but something of an interesting history note.

I grew up on my grandparent's farm in Suffolk near the location of the infamous Borley Rectory.

My grandfather told me that when he first arrived in Britain after the war he had purchased several pieces of furniture at an auction in the town of Bures. According to him, the furniture had come from Borley. I am fairly certain that my grandfather, an old European, had no interest in ghost stories and was unaware of the legend of Borley. At the time I just about plotzed at the thought of "haunted furniture". My god, I was sleeping in a room with the stuff!! Shocked

Long story short, my grandparents unfortunately passed away in the mid-1990's and my mother inherited the lot, including the infamous "furniture". In turn she gave me a large "tall boy" (armoir) from this collection. Given my childhood interest in ghosts etc. I was tickled by the possibility of owning a piece of ghostly history.

A couple of years ago I emailed the webmaster on the borleyrectory.com site. I believe that he has some family connection to the whole saga. I asked about the furniture- he informed me that he was unaware of any furniture being sold in an auction. However, I believe that such an auction would have been held a decade or two before his birth.

All this to say that now I don't know what to think: Is my armoir from Borley or not? In any event, I have inherited a lovely piece of furniture that always reminds me of my grandparents.

Posted: 05-07-2005 23:53 Post subject:

This interests me, as, apart from the Fortean aspects, I am familiar with Bures, as a friend of mine lived there. Wonderful rural location. Memories of walking a mile or so to the village pub on summer evenings...

Incidentally, Bures played a part in an international thriller, but I forget now the title or who wrote it!

Posted: 06-07-2005 00:17 Post subject:

When I was very much younger and less skeptical I read some of the accounts of Harrry Price -and the so callled "most haunted house in England" Given the often dramatic mythologising that goes with this sort of stuff surely there's a film or drama to be made based on it -

or perhaps it already has?

Posted: 06-07-2005 03:56 Post subject:

I seem to recall that the BBC did a drama based on the Borley haunting during the 1970s. It was very loosely based anyway. As a kid totally absorbed by the Harry Price books, it seemed pretty prosaic.

They conjured up a leisured long-lost world of gentlemanly spook-hunting. Magical at a certain innocent age. Smile

Posted: 06-07-2005 12:00 Post subject:

Hey Deke,

Had any ghostly-type/strange occurences around the furniture??

Posted: 06-07-2005 15:21 Post subject:

Sad to report no ghostly incidents.

Like the others, I was just fascinated Borley as a kid. Got the Harry Price book out of the Sudbury library. Then spent many sleepless nights waiting for the Borley nun to pay me a visit! haha! I had read about the levitating brick at the Borley site, and incidents in which the nun had been spotted at other locations.

I don't know why I found the Borley story so captivating- I think what really creeped me out was the often told vignette of the ghostly nun staring through the window into the dining room while the family ate supper. Apparently happened so much that they eventually bricked up the window! For some reason that really terrorized me as a youngster. As an adult I say, "Nice try, but if it happened every bloody night the least you could do is take a picture!".

Posted: 06-07-2005 15:48 Post subject:

As far as I was aware the rectory burnt to the ground, save the skeletal structure, so I doubt any wooden furniture would have survived. If I am, however, wrong, then please someone correct me! Wink

Posted: 06-07-2005 15:54 Post subject:

I think it was the writing that appeared that freaked me out at the time.

strange that the site appears more or less abandoned as well.

http://www.borleyrectory.com/

I can't seem to see anyway to get past the homepage - is it just me?

-