Borley is a small hamlet in northern Essex, close to the border with Suffolk. Borley Rectory was built in 1862 for the Revd. Harry Bull senior, the rector of Borley, and his family; a previous rectory on the same site had been destroyed by fire in 1841. There were reports during Bull's incumbency and that of his son and successor, the Revd. Harry Bull junior, that the house was haunted, but it became nationally famous after Harry Bull junior died in 1927. His successor, the Revd. Guy Smith and his wife, allegedly experienced a series of paranormal events, and in 1929 asked the Society for Psychical Research to investigate. This led to an investigation by the famous psychic researcher Harry Price, who was to be involved with the house for the next ten years, until it in its turn was badly damaged by fire in 1939. It was finally demolished in 1944.
A series of sensational newspaper articles in the Daily Mirror and two books written by Price established Borley Rectory's reputation, in Price's own words, "the most haunted house in England". Legend had it that the house and its grounds were haunted by the ghost of a nun who, after it was discovered that she had been having a sexual relationship with a man, had been bricked up in the walls of the convent which had once stood on the site. (Her lover is variously described as either a monk or a groom). There were also reports of a phantom coach driven by two headless horsemen and of various paranormal phenomena in the house itself, such as mysterious footsteps, unexplained lights appearing, bells ringing and writing on the walls.
This film is a dramatisation of these events. It is billed as a documentary rather than a fictional drama, and is presented by a narrator, but Price and the other principal players are all portrayed by actors. It is certainly not made in what we would think of as the factual, objective "documentary style", but in the style of an old haunted house movie with black-and-white photography, spooky music, disconcerting camera angles and eerie special effects.
So was Borley Rectory really "the most haunted house in England"? I suppose I am not the best person to answer that question, as I have always been something of a sceptic where claims of the paranormal are concerned, but the Society for Psychical Research eventually came to the conclusion that the answer was "no". A formal study by the SPR published in 1956 (after Price's death) found that nothing had happened in the house which could not be explained rationally and that many of the alleged phenomena had been faked either by Price himself or by Marianne Foyster, the wife of the last Rector to live in the building. For most of its length the film rather hedges its bets, but eventually admits in a postscript that Price's claims have been debunked by the SPR's report and that there is no historical foundation for the legend of the ghostly nun. There is no evidence of any nunnery ever having stood on this site, and the legend appears to have been concocted by the children of Harry Bull senior.
Despite my scepticism about the supernatural, I have long been fascinated by ghost stories as examples of folklore, hence my interest in the Borley case and the reason why I watched this film when it was shown in television. Personally I would have preferred a more sober documentary, but the film will certainly serve as an entertaining introduction to the story for anyone wanting to know more about it. 6/10.
A series of sensational newspaper articles in the Daily Mirror and two books written by Price established Borley Rectory's reputation, in Price's own words, "the most haunted house in England". Legend had it that the house and its grounds were haunted by the ghost of a nun who, after it was discovered that she had been having a sexual relationship with a man, had been bricked up in the walls of the convent which had once stood on the site. (Her lover is variously described as either a monk or a groom). There were also reports of a phantom coach driven by two headless horsemen and of various paranormal phenomena in the house itself, such as mysterious footsteps, unexplained lights appearing, bells ringing and writing on the walls.
This film is a dramatisation of these events. It is billed as a documentary rather than a fictional drama, and is presented by a narrator, but Price and the other principal players are all portrayed by actors. It is certainly not made in what we would think of as the factual, objective "documentary style", but in the style of an old haunted house movie with black-and-white photography, spooky music, disconcerting camera angles and eerie special effects.
So was Borley Rectory really "the most haunted house in England"? I suppose I am not the best person to answer that question, as I have always been something of a sceptic where claims of the paranormal are concerned, but the Society for Psychical Research eventually came to the conclusion that the answer was "no". A formal study by the SPR published in 1956 (after Price's death) found that nothing had happened in the house which could not be explained rationally and that many of the alleged phenomena had been faked either by Price himself or by Marianne Foyster, the wife of the last Rector to live in the building. For most of its length the film rather hedges its bets, but eventually admits in a postscript that Price's claims have been debunked by the SPR's report and that there is no historical foundation for the legend of the ghostly nun. There is no evidence of any nunnery ever having stood on this site, and the legend appears to have been concocted by the children of Harry Bull senior.
Despite my scepticism about the supernatural, I have long been fascinated by ghost stories as examples of folklore, hence my interest in the Borley case and the reason why I watched this film when it was shown in television. Personally I would have preferred a more sober documentary, but the film will certainly serve as an entertaining introduction to the story for anyone wanting to know more about it. 6/10.