The Haunting of Borley Rectory

Speaker A: Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Haunted History Chronicles nothing remains of Bali Rectory having been destroyed by fire in February 1939 its burnt out remains were demolished in 1944 despite this, there have been numerous books debates, reports, recounts and articles devoted to this location either heralding it as proof of the paranormal or clever trickery. Balley Rectory was situated two and a half miles from Sudbury in Suffolk. There is some evidence that the rectory, which was completed in 1863, stood on the site of a much earlier building. In 1862, reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull was inducted to the Living of Bali. He and his family set up residence at Balley Place, which adjoined the church. Immediately, he set to building a new rectory, an L shaped building where he would live for the rest of his life. As the Ball family grew in size with at least 14 children, recorded additions would be added to the rectory over the years. And so it would grow into this irregular, sprawling construction with an open courtyard at the center. It had large bay windows, a glass roof, veranda, and numerous French windows facing the southeast. Where the view of the large lawns and gardens were set out. On the south side was a narrow path which became known as the nuns walk. And not far from this was an octagonal pavilion at the end of the property. About 200 yards from the rectory was a Gothic style summer house which looked over a former cat cemetery. Part of this garden was believed to have been the burial place of some of the victims of the great plague of 1664 to 1665. The persistent rumors of a network of tunnels between the rectory and an old nunnery 7 miles away have become part of the law and legend of Bali. The rectory front door faced onto. The road and driveway. From the ground floor, there were three staircases leading to the first floor with 14 bedrooms, a large bathroom and separate lavatory, and the so called chapel was situated. Between the bathroom and lavatory were another. Set of stairs leading to the attics. Adjacent to the rectory was an unattached building which had been the stables with some accommodations above. This survived the fire and would later be converted into a cottage which has been home. To successive owners of the rectory site. The rectory and its outer buildings have been the center of many local studies and legends of ghostly happenings, ranging from a nun, a monk or groom, and a phantom coach and horse. To name just a few. Tradition states that a local monk began a secret affair with a nun from a nearby convent. After the affair was discovered by their superiors, the lovers were brutally punished. The monk was swiftly executed. But the nun suffered a far worse fate being bricked up in the convent walls and left to suffocate and die. The local stories and rumours centered around the assumption that there was once a monastery on or around the Bali site. There is no evidence of a monastery having existed there or a nunnery nearby, and nothing that would support some of the wild stories that still get whispered about in dark corners of nuns walled up alive there. What we do have, though, is a clear record of the Bull family living at and around Bali for centuries. And when they began building the rectory, they clearly knew about some of these legends. They were reported to have built the pavilion in the garden to catch sight of the ghostly nun, hence the path bordering it, becoming known as the Nun's Walk. During his lifetime, many strange and curious incidents were recorded alleging paranormal activity. These would be related by three of the daughters, ethel, Frieda and Mabel, as part of the much later Bawley investigations. At night, they would report frequent footsteps followed by tapping. Bells would often ring for no explanation. On one particular occasion, they reported all 20 bells ringing out simultaneously. The Bull girls would be awakened by someone slapping their face. And at least once, Ethel Bull awoke to a dark figure of a man beside her bed. Incidents were not isolated to the Bull family. Mrs Byford, a nursemaid living at the rectory in 1886, would be so disturbed by the frequency of nightly sounds of footsteps that she would leave her job. Mr Jeffrey, a former headmaster of Colchester Royal Grammar School, would visit in 1885 or 1886 and claim to have seen the famous nun. The first rector and his wife both died at Balley and were buried in the churchyard there. In 1892, after the passing of Reverend Henry Bull, he would be succeeded by his son, the Reverend Harry Foyster. Bull, who held the position until his death in 1927. Like his father, he too passed away within the rectory itself and was buried within the churchyard. During the 35 years of Harry Ball's, incumbency stories of the hauntings would grow and spread with further encounters and strange sounds being reported. With 70 years of consistent reportings, the rectory would become known as the most haunted house in England. The sinister reputation of Balley at the time of Harry Ball's death made finding a successor particularly difficult. It would be 16 months before the rectory would see another reverend who would only stay for a mere nine months. Reverend Smith's brief tenancy from October 1928 would, however, prove an important turning point in the history of Balley. The Smiths would never really settle. Shortly after moving in, the skull of a young woman was found in a cupboard by his wife. This discovery was said to have been the trigger for supernatural activity within the house. Immediately after the skull discovery, a whole host of paranormal events were said to have occurred. Strange lights appeared, unexplained footsteps moved within the house and the ghostly apparition of a horse drawn carriage was seen nearby. Mrs Smith increasingly became more and more frightened and anxious by the strange events of the house. Reverend Smith, puzzled by what he was observing and fearful for his wife, would write to a national newspaper with the intent to try and make contact with the Society for Psychical Research. What followed were the first articles in national newspapers about the Balley hauntings. Two days later, the rectory would be visited by the British psychic researcher Harry Price and his secretary, the first of many visits investigating the rectory itself. Shortly after Price's arrival, the unexplained activity increased considerably. Price compiled a report of his dramatic experiences, recounting spirit messages and objects thrown about the house by unseen hands. Curiously, as Price departed, so did the phenomena. By June 1929, the Smiths would leave Balley and once again the rectory would stand vacant for several months, a replacement finally secured in October 1930 by the Reverend Lionel Alginon Foyster and cousin of the late Reverend Harry Bull. Marianne, his wife, and their daughter Adelaide would also live there and accompany the Reverend. It would be this family, and Marianne in particular, who had become most synonymous with the ghostly goings on. The family remained in the house for five years, during which time the Reverend compiled a substantial report of all the supernatural experiences the family had endured. This enormous dossier was subsequently submitted to Harry Price, whose interest would only grow as the years passed. The Reverend's report included a variety of distressing claims, including the breaking of windows, strange writing appearing on the walls, their daughter being locked in a room to which there was no key, and objects such as bottles and stones were thrown around the house. Marianne would make additions to the document that would eclipse anything reported before. The Reverend's wife appeared to be at the centre of the most extreme poltergeist activity, claiming to have been violently thrown from bed and periodically attacked by an unseen agent. Reporting back to the Daily Mirror, price was understandably interested and concerned after reading the Reverend's report and sought to exercise the house. He tempted So on two occasions, but to no avail. The phenomena was here to stay. Price's reports of 1929 gained instant and enormous public attention, and soon enough, a whole plethora of amateur reporters and psychical researchers would attend the rectory in the hope of studying the phenomena. However, for all the investigators'initial interest, one common conclusion pervaded Marianne was the cause. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, she was to be firmly placed at the centre of the storm. The allegible writing that appeared on the walls of the rectory has proved to be one of the most enduring images of the Bali saga and one that maintains interest to this day. Beginning in 1931 and addressed to Marianne alone, pleas for rest and mass prayers would scrawl across the walls and manic scribbles frequently illegible in their panicked state. When Marianne's name first appeared scrawled on scraps of paper, they soon attempted to establish a method of written communication asking what the spirit wanted, to which it replied Rest. It was years later that the scribbles moved to walls and the attempts to engage with the restless spirit continued. The writing and attempts at communication were studied, documented, enhanced with pencil, photographed and removed with no solid resolution to the pleas. These wall writings occupied a good many people with a love of and ponchant for cryptography and would lead to some of the most elaborate explanations of the Balley hauntings. The voices would leave Balley in 1935 and the building stood empty for a short while. However, in 1937 Harry Price would return and take up residence in the house for one year. Employing a group of 48 individuals, predominantly students working weekends price and his observers conducted a variety of experiments within the house recording instances of perceived paranormal phenomena. In a flurry of experimentation Price bought in several mediums and conducted a huge series of seances. In one instance of 1938 medium Helen Glanville was reported as having made successful contact with a nun and an unidentified male spirit. The latter spirit was to predict the rectory's ultimate destruction by fire on 27 March 1938 and for all the spirit's confidence, he nor the medium channeling him were too far from the truth. On the 27 February 1939 the rectory's new owner, a Captain WH Gregson was moving into the property when an oil lamp was upturned and the house was set ablaze. There was no saving the rectory and the house was gutted by flames. Although reported as an accident upon investigation the insurance company deemed Gregson's actions as deliberate and the house was left as a ruin, never to be rebuilt. The fact the house was now in ruins was not going to keep Harry Price away from Bali. After revisiting more of Marianne's Wool writings price believed that the message read the well tank bottom me or the well tank bothers me. Price was sure that the body of the nun whose restless spirit plagued the house would at last be found. He returned to the site and dug into the cellar finding the bones that would bring the full story of the rectory to a final dramatic closure. In 1940 psychical investigator and ghost hunter Harry Price produced an account of his stays in studies at Balley Rectory. The book was called the Most Haunted House in England. Paranormal triumph or Elaborate hoax is still heavily debated with parallels with the great Amherst mystery of Nova Scotia. It's a strange coincidence that the Foysters had lived there prior to their return to England and residence at Bali. Marianne Foyster herself would later admit to exaggerating and making up some of the incidents to help cover up the affair she was having something that would forever tarnish her reputation. Even Harry Price and his methods and reports would come under scrutiny. One example are the supposed human remains of a nun he discovered which were later buried in a church ceremony human remains or pig remains as many claim. Just one further example refuting some of the evidence presented. What is also irrefutable though, are the 70 plus years of records and eyewitness testimonies who all share an overwhelming belief that the rectory is the site of paranormal activity. Can all this evidence be exaggeration, conscious or unconscious? Fraud, distortion or misrepresentation? Whilst reported activity has certainly lessened at balley in the last few decades, by no means has it disappeared. And so the Bali story is likely to continue and provide more material for future investigators and enthusiasts. Thank you for listening. See you next time.

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