Borley Rectory
An Essex rectory called 'the most haunted house in England' by psychic researcher Harry Price, after the Daily Mirror published an account of his visit in 1929.
1929 CE · 52.05, 0.69 · status: claim
The account
Built in 1862, the house had a reputation from the start, and Rev. Lionel Foyster sent Price notes of strange events from 1930 to 1935. Price wrote two books on it. It burned in 1939 and was demolished in 1944.
The sceptical view
A Society for Psychical Research study rejected most of the reports as imagined or fabricated and cast doubt on Price's honesty; ghost historians now largely dismiss his claims.
How the account grew
Local tales of footsteps and a nun at an Essex rectory were turned by Harry Price and the Daily Mirror into 'the most haunted house in England', complete with a séance-derived murdered nun; an SPR study in 1956 found much of it faked or natural, yet films keep retelling it.
| Year | Who | Added |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 | Four daughters of Rev. Henry Bull | A nun-like figure seen at twilight about 40 yards from the house; footsteps had been remembered from about 1863, and a phantom coach with headless horsemen joins the lore. |
| 1929 | Daily Mirror; Harry Price | A series of articles; on Price's first visit stones and a vase fly and messages are tapped out, ceasing when he leaves. The rector's wife later suspected Price. |
| 1935 | Rev. Lionel Foyster's account sent to Price | Bell-ringing, thrown stones and bottles, wall-writing and poltergeist attacks reported by Marianne Foyster; investigators suspect her. |
| 1938 | Helen Glanville's planchette séance, reported by Price | The nun gains a name, Marie Lairre, a French nun murdered on the site; a spirit 'Sunex Amures' promises the house will burn. The medieval monk-and-nun legend is shown that year to have no historical basis. |
| 1943 | Harry Price | After the 1939 fire, a dig in the cellars finds bones said to be a young woman's; locals think they belonged to a pig. |
| 1948 | Charles Sutton, Daily Mail | After Price's death, a reporter says he caught Price with pockets full of stones in 1929. |
| 1956 | Dingwall, Goldney and Hall, The Haunting of Borley Rectory (SPR) | Concludes Price faked some phenomena and others were rats or acoustics; the evidence 'appears to diminish in force and finally to vanish away'. Marianne Foyster later admits she saw nothing. (dropped: The haunting as an established fact; the Bull children say they saw nothing.) |
| 1975 | BBC, The Ghost Hunters | Interviews with researchers including Peter Underwood, who defends Price, and a night vigil at Borley Church. |
| 2021 | The Ghosts of Borley Rectory | One of several feature films (2017, 2021, 2025) retelling the haunting. |
Connections in the atlas
- Loftus Hall
- Borley Rectory
- Charles Sutton’s accusation against Harry Price (Daily Mail)
- The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall
- The Most Haunted House in England
- Ghosts of the Tower of London
- The Haunting of Borley Rectory (the Borley Report)
- Enfield Poltergeist