This Paranormal Life - #285 The Most Haunted House in England - The Borley Rectory

Episode Date: October 18, 2022

The Borley Rectory was famously described as "the most haunted house in England" by notorious paranormal investigator Harry Price. Once you learn about it's history, from ghostly writings adorning the walls to human remains uncovered in hidden corners of the house, it's easy to understand why. But after more than 100 years of paranormal history it's time for investigators Kit and Rory to dive head-first into the case and decide for once and for all - whether it's truly paranormal or not.Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Louis BlatherwickIntro music by www.purple-planet.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can explode a wine glass by singing, but is there a note that can kill? How do I know that yellow to me is the same as yellow to you? What if it's green? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! Hey! And welcome back to This Paranormal Life. This is the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday, two paranormal investigators sit down and confront a grisly paranormal case and decide by the end whether it's true or not. I'm Kit Greer-Melvena. Across from me sits Rory Powers.

happy to be here. Welcome everyone to the podcast. My favorite thing to do in life, you know, and that's coming from a guy who's got two ex-wives and 17 children. I would rather be here than spend time with any of them. That's actually somehow believable if there's 17 of the little buggers. Can I ask, where are 17 of them? I don't guess I don't need individual information, but just in general as a vibe. Judge says I'm not allowed to know. Judge says it's better for them if I don't need individual information, but just in general as a vibe. Judge says I'm not allowed to know. Judge says it's better for them if I don't know where they are. Okay. Well, sorry, I just wasn't expecting such a dark answer, but that's actually pretty cool. Now you can see why this is the place I want to be most on Earth.

So pass me a beer, brother, and let's forget our past mistakes. But no, Rory's private life, thankfully, is not the subject of today or any episodes. It's true. Despite how often it does come up on the show. Not that often. Not as much as it should, frankly. Because it's kind of an ongoing thing that affects my mood as we podcast. So it's like if anyone's wondering why one episode I'm just a little sour, I'm just a little bit down.

It's because alimony is coming in. It's because child support is coming out. It's because I'm getting fleeced by my family. I guess when you're not allowed to have legal communication with them, the only communication is cash. That is the legal bit. You know how they say keep your friends close but your enemies closer? What if your family are your enemies? Jesus Christ.

Do you keep them near or far? Because they feel far emotionally, but close financially in the sense that they're taking my money. I need money, kid, is what I'm trying to tell you, bud. Don't have 17 kids. You can't possibly have accidentally had 17 kids across only two marriages. I mean, that's an average of whatever it is, 8.5 children per marriage. It's astonishing for a 31-year-old. In my defense, I was very horny. It's barely a defense. Barely. Let's just do the episode, Matt.

I feel like I don't want to get... I don't want to... F*** you. F*** you, life. Leave me alone. That was almost... Roy just broke character for a second. Somehow completely on brand. I think we should just dive into today's episode.

Because we're here to talk about the paranormal, bud. This is the shit I love in life. The paranormal can't leave you. That is what we have in common, Rory. It's all we have left. We do have a absolutely giant case to get into today. This is one for the history books, I promise you. We're going to get right into it.

But first, some words from today's sponsors. All right, Rory, let's take it all the way back to 1862. We're in Borley, Essex. Ooh, 1862. We're going back in time. Back in time, of course. Now, we always, despite having a completely non-existent grasp of history, we always like to paint a little historical picture for our listeners

to give them a flavor. So really it falls on the campus of, was it pirate times, war times, or knights and shining armor times? Yeah. Weirdly enough, our frame of references when it comes to time is based around what kind of weapons they were using. Honestly, not a bad barometer. Yeah. I mean, that's why we so often visit the website guntimeline.com, which is a website that just tells you when people started using guns. Now, I'm assuming 1860s, this was gun times. This was. This was Victorian-era musket-type shit.

Right. Sexy little pistols strapped to your thigh. Okay, I see what you're saying. A kind of film noir style. A time when even lollipop ladies were packing heat You had to, it was dangerous out there Didn't thank the postman for the letters he dropped off that morning? You're getting blasted

You're getting blasted Thankfully, getting blasted back then was less deadly Due to the reduced efficacy of said weapons It was more of a Looney Tunes-style effect where you would have black holes just blasted all over your face. Yeah, your hair was like shot backwards, smoke coming out of your ears.

As they say, we're in Borley, Essex, where construction on a beautiful new house was about to be completed. Now, I say house, this was technically a rectory. That means it was built to house the church rector. Oh, okay. I have to explain that further because I didn't know what that was. This is someone who kind of works in the church as like an administrative type person.

Okay. All right. That's not what I thought it was at all. What did you think it was? To be honest, I'm surprised that a penis is not involved in the rectory. I just wanted to tease that out. I could see your eyes darting around as soon as I mentioned rectory for the first time. Where a gentleman would go, the erector, if they were having problems.

The erector, I thought they shut that place down. The old erector had burned down in 1841, and its replacement was a strange and imposing building. It had pointed rooftops and a little courtyard within the property. It didn't have the rustic country look like the previous one had, but still, the land kept its old legends. And it was a long list of legends. Monks have been living in this town in a monastery as far back as 1360. Sheesh. And let me tell you,

if those monks are celibate, it's definitely an erectory. No, it's not an erectory. It's a rectory. It's actually the opposite. And if you get an erection, you're out. There's problems.

That's kind of the definition of church. No, it isn't. Welcome to church. If you get a boner, we have a problem. Leave. It's like if you arrive with one, that's one thing. But if you get one while you're here, we got problems.

We are getting very sidetracked. Unfortunately, what we're discussing is extremely relevant to what's about to happen. Uh-oh. Locals tell of a story of a monk that began a secret affair with a nun from a nearby convent. Love this. But wait, affair? Like, a good affair or a bad one? Like, a cheating affair or like just a love affair?

Cheating against the Lord with an earthly woman. Got it, got it, got it. Okay. Needless to say, rule one of Christianity is monks and nuns can't bang. Sorry, that's rule two after if you get an erection, we got a problem. Yeah, these are some of the commandments that they didn't talk about much in the book, but they're there. They're there.

There is a reason monks and nuns are kept separate. It wasn't long until the illicit affair was discovered and word of this crime spread throughout the monastery. Once their superiors found out, their superiors in the church, not God, the lovers were punished brutally. The young monk was sentenced to a quick death. Oh shit. Reports vary from he was hung to he had his head chopped off. But hundreds of years later, it doesn't really matter. He's dead.

The nun, on the other hand, wasn't afforded the luxury of an instant death. Instead, she was buried alive. Shut up. Bricked up behind a wall in the convent and left there to suffocate and die. A church enforced these rules? This doesn't sound very holy. Which, by the way, Christianity is supposed to be a religion of forgiveness. What was all that stuff about, like, he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Yeah. Love thy neighbor. Actually, that could be kind of sexy. Turn the other cheek. That could also be kind of sexy. That's a sexy one. Yeah. But generally speaking, Jesus preached a life of forgiveness.

Yeah. What is the other famous one? Before you talk shit about the splinter in your friend's eye, take the goddamn log out of your own. There's no way. It's something like that. I'm not going to look it up. Well, maybe I will now.

The log in your eye? I'm telling you. I was a Bible boy. In the King James Version of the Bible, the text reads, Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Wow. Unfortunately, you were quite close.

Yeah. You know, there's a little translation issues there, but pretty close. I mean, hypocrite sums it up. Yeah. But I get it. Look, as I said, we don't know a lot about history, but I do gather that this is how Christianity rocked it for quite a long time across the entire world.

Now, we don't know exactly when all that happened, but what we do know is that in 1863, the year after the new rectory was finally complete, the sightings began. Uh-oh. Now, this rectory doubled up as a kind of afternoon hangout for schoolchildren. It had big grounds with beautiful gardens

and parents would bring their kids there to kind of blow off some steam. Almost like better do it there than in the house. I see, kind of like a Sunday school vibe. 100%. But on one fateful afternoon, a group of kids ran into a world of trouble. They were playing in the house, working their way up the corridor, darting from room to room.

They weren't looking for anything in particular, just messing about. When they came to the drawing room in the east wing, they flung open the door and raced inside. The rector could hear them, and it sounded like they were having the time of their lives. But the laughter faded abruptly when they entered the room. The energy inside seemed dark and unsettled. The children wanted to leave, but they felt frozen in place.

It soon became clear that they weren't alone in the dark room. Uh-oh. There was an old closet door at the far end, and a figure was prowling around outside of it. Look over there! There's someone in the corner! Blimey! Sure enough, there was a dark shape moving at the edge of the room. The children gasped and huddled together in fear. It looked to be an old woman dressed in long, flowing black robes. Uh-oh.

Nun robes? Does it matter? Does it matter, black robes? I guess not. You're either a Sith Lord or a nun. At this point, you're begging for it to be a nun. The figure started floating towards them slowly out of the shadows. In the light, they could see it was a nun.

Oh boy, that's what we didn't want. Her face was old and wizened. Her body almost skeletal under her huge robes. Her eyes sunken and glassy. Jesus Christ, what do you do in this situation? because usually if it's a ghost or a demon you would try and dunk them with holy water that's her f***ing red bull she's a nun you're gonna power her up like super mario what do you do i didn't even think of that then try and uh scare her away with some devil shit? She loves that.

She's a ghost. She's playing both sides. She's an inside agent. This is OP. If this wasn't bad enough, her feet weren't even touching the floor. She didn't even have feet. When the kids realized she was floating, they screamed and ran out of the room as fast as they could. Whoa, whoa.

What's all this commotion? You all know I need quiet to focus on my work. The children explained. We were talking in the bathroom and saw a nun. She wasn't even touching the ground, she was floating. Jesus Christ, one at a time, please. You, boy. We saw a ghost, a scary old nun.

I didn't like her. The rector chuckled and shook his head. Come now, the scripture teaches us that he who goeth down to the grave does not come up. He shall never returneth to his house, nor shall this realm know his spirit any longer. Job 7, verse 9. There are no ghosts. Now, perhaps go and play outside? Uh, what about the Holy Spirit? Huh? Listen here, you little smartass. What age are you anyway? I was held back a couple years. My name's David. I'm 23. I've never left the rectory. Rectory, not erector. The children knew to do what they were told and ran off into the grounds. But the rector

stood still, his eyes fixed on the doorway to the drawing room. Could it be true? The door was ajar and he couldn't help but peek in. He couldn't see anything. The kids were clearly imagining things, or maybe just telling tall tales for the fun of it. He looked away from the open door and was almost back at his desk when he heard the drawing room door slam closed. He spun around. How curious. I could go and investigate, of course, but I am reminded of Leviticus 19 verse 21. but I am reminded of Leviticus 19, verse 21. Give no regards to mediums and familiar spirits. Do not seek after them.

Do not be defiled by them. The rector went back to his office, hoping to never hear of the ghost nun again. Smart, smart. I feel like he was being tested there. Where it's like, if he had have opened that that door he probably would have seen something pretty horrific kind of like uh arc of the covenant style like when the nazis open it up in indiana jones it's like everyone gets their face melted except for indy and uh the woman i do not remember her name because they they weren't looking they didn't peek they were

like hey we're not gonna look we're not gonna tempt the evil inside of this thing uh we're gonna avert our eyes and nothing bad's gonna happen to us interesting now this does go against our general uh motto of uh live fast investigate die young yeah no stone unturned right poke about see what happens find out. Yeah. Ask for forgiveness, not permission. A lot of the slogans we promote on this podcast are dangerous ones that, you know, legally we can't say that we endorse.

But between you and me, brother, I'd have a little peek in that door. And if I didn't see anything, I'd start provoking demons. I'd start throwing some shit around, seeing what would happen. Between you and me, brother, have a swig of that holy wine

when no one's looking and go have a f***ing bite. Between you and me, brother, I might draw a little pentagram on the floor. Whoa! Between you and me, brother. Between you and me, brother.

You know, gotta summon something. No, you don't. You don't. As a priest, as a rector. This is the rector talking to the priest. Between you and me, father. Yeah, I said a little prayer to the dark lord.

We'll see what he's up to. Sometimes, if I'm cooking a steak, I just take a little bit of blood and smear it all over my face. Just see what happens. Just between you and me, father. Just between you and me. Well, the rector did not want to think about that ghost nun, and he didn't have to for a very long time. 37 long years passed. Wow.

He, at this point, was getting on and was ready to enjoy his retirement. He was only a couple of days away. As usual, there was a band of children wandering around the property. He'd always loved listening to their happy voices, but that afternoon, instead of giggles and games, for the second time in his life, he heard terrified screams from the courtyard. No longer able to run, the rector shuffled his way to the window in time to see children fleeing in all directions. They beelined for the main gate and only a couple of stragglers remained by the time the rector made it to the front door. What is it? What's wrong?

He limped out to meet two young girls who seemed to be spooked, to say the least. We saw an old nun, but she was floating, so I think it was a ghost. Johnny ran after her, and then she disappeared in front of us. We got scared and decided to run home. The memories came flooding back. He knew what would calm the children down. A good old-fashioned Bible verse. My dears, know ye not the scriptures? You are of God, little children, and have overcometh the spirits of earth, because the Lord is greater than he who is in the world. James 4, 7 to 8. Be not afraid. Nice. It did f*** all. The children were still very afraid. But this horror movie didn't play out like you might have been expecting. The rector wasn't

murdered by a ghost one day from retirement. He was disturbed by what happened, but managed to retire in peace. And like any good movie about a haunted house, the story didn't end when one owner left and the new owners arrived. Right, of course. Seems like whatever this spirit is this nun, it's not finished and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. I think she physically can't leave on account of being buried alive.

Yeah. The next residents of the rectory were Reverend Guy Smith and his wife Mabel. Maybe stop reading scripture. Maybe stop reading scripture every time she turns up because it was religious people who killed her. What did I say about Red Bull? You're basically powering her up with every chant. Like an anime villain, every Bible verse he reads out, she's just in the corner.

Ha, ha, ha. You fool. It's especially rude because she was a nun who was killed by other religious people, and she doesn't seem to have gone to heaven. The Lord hasn't seemed to have taken care of her very well so if you're telling these kids oh you know don't be afraid the bible says that you know when we die if you're good you go to heaven no one will be left here on earth um he loves you he loves us all he'd never let anything bad happen to anyone and this nun's like i'm

standing right here i am right here and i've had a shit life all i did was kiss a monk and they buried me i held the door open for a monk and they broke my legs and locked me in a cupboard how's that fair you've held your last door sista, you'll never know how much we don't miss ya as they throw the key away. As they say, the new residents, Reverend Guy Smith and his wife Mabel,

this ownership is when the first instances of a modern haunting started. Shortly after moving in, Mabel was doing a spot of cleaning while Reverend Guy was working in his office. She'd already cleaned most of the ground floor until it was sparkling,

so she quickly set to work. She decided to start in the back of the room. Maybe she'd go through the old closet, see if there was anything interesting inside. Be careful. Mabel's eyes widened in shock as she noticed a skull tucked at the back of one of the wardrobe shelves. What? She screamed for her husband, who in turn called the authorities to remove the human remains from the house.

There are literally skeletons in the closet. Bad start. There is no way that the old rector didn't find that one day and was like, holy! Yeah, yeah. Gonna forget that ever happened locked it up yeah don't worry children there's nothing got in the closet close that up lock it and i'm going to eat the key yum yum yum there is no way he lived there for 37 years and didn't see that skull. Bad start to moving in somewhere. A skull.

Finding skulls, yeah. It's not great, is it? They were able to deduce that the skull belonged to a young woman who'd passed away perhaps a hundred years ago or more. All Mabel gave a shit about was getting it out of her sight. But while the skull was gone, the evil remained. That's when all hell broke loose.

A whole host of paranormal events started kicking off. Strange lights appeared. Unexplained footsteps moved about within the house, and the ghostly apparition of a horse-drawn carriage was seen trotting around the grounds. Whoa! It started kicking off.

Bring the skull back. Bring the skull back and put it back in the closet. I'm sorry, I can't move past it. Call the old rector and get him to answer to some f***ing questions, because this is not okay. The couple got so desperate with fear that they contacted the Daily Mirror to get the word out about what was happening. Their goal was to catch the attention of the paranormal community, specifically the Society for Psychical Research. And so, the newspaper sent out a journalist to interview the Reverend

and his wife, and he was joined by a paranormal researcher called none other than Harry Price. Hmm, okay, this is good. Getting some experts involved in the case. Because once you've opened up the Pandora's box like this, it can be very hard to kind of get things back in place. So getting an investigator to figure out maybe the history of this building or the reasons behind the haunting is really the first step.

It really is. You know, normally when you go to buy a house, people get in like surveyors to check that the building is structurally sound, safe and efficient and all these kinds of things. This is what we need to see more of is paranormal researchers being brought in before you buy a house to make sure the place isn't littered with demons. I don't even think you need an expert to find a skull. I think a normal person could have done that.

Just let one of the children loose a leg. Now, Harry was actually pretty famous for the previous cases he'd investigated in the UK. He was a bit of a hot shot. He'd investigated psychics, spirit mediums, and seances in his time, and was a trustworthy name in the industry. Wait, he'd investigated psychics? Uh, yeah, I mean, I guess if a psychic is, like, making not-so-claims, I guess a paranormal investigator could come in and try and see what's happening.

Oh, I see, okay. He's kind of doing quality control. Now, when the piece was published, it was titled, and stay with me here, Weird Night in Haunted House, Shape That Mo on the lawn of Borley Rectory. Strange wrappings. Articles flying through air seen by watchers. That is a terrible headline. Rory, I'm going to let you read for the first time what this article said about investigating the rectory. Let's do this.

The first remarkable happening was the dark figure I saw in the garden. We were standing in the summer house, at dusk watching the lawn, when I saw the apparition which so many claimed to have seen. Something certainly moved along the path on the other side of the lawn, and although I immediately ran across to investigate it, it had vanished when I reached the spot. Then, as we strolled towards the rectory, there came a terrific crash. A pane of glass from the roof hurtled to the ground. We ran inside and upstairs to inspect the rooms immediately over the spot, but found nobody there. A few seconds later we were descending the stairs when something flew past my head.

It hit an iron stove in the hall and shattered. past my head. It hit an iron stove in the hall and shattered. Mr. Price was the only person behind me and he could not have thrown the vase at such an angle to pass my head and hit the stove below. That does strike me as pretty mad that they found so much paranormal phenomena happening just on that one investigation. They say a window fell out of the pane and smashed on the floor. Yeah, a pane of glass fell off the roof. Holy shit. There's quite a lot going on there. He said that they saw some kind of shadowy apparitions, stuff was falling off the roof, and then stuff even flying around inside. This is such a mix of things, sort of poltergeist-like, but kind of dialed up to 11. Yeah, I mean, the plane of glass

is really strange. But even though I have no proof, I want to go on record now and say, Mr. Price threw the vase. He for sure did. There's no way he didn't. The writer shouldn't even have mentioned it. It's like a vase flew over my head. There was no explanation, except for Mr. Price who was behind me and I couldn't see what he was doing beforehand. But honestly,

he seems like a chill guy and I don't think he would have done it. He did though. It definitely was him. So Rory, this investigation is ramping up hard.

We've had multiple sets of people who live there experiencing several different types of paranormal phenomena. We've had skulls discovered, who live there experiencing several different types of paranormal phenomena. We've had skulls discovered, paranormal investigators turning up, and now the word is starting to get out. But this is far from the end of the story, which we are going to get into right after these words from today's sponsor. Now, at this point, things were so bad that Reverend Guy and Mabel decided to call it quits,

and they moved out of the rectory after less than three years. Oh my gosh. A smart decision, I'm sure you agree. Unfortunately, the rectory's next residents weren't so smart. Well, I guess this is the thing, because he was, you say he was a reverend? So presumably he was living in this place out of the pocket of of the church you know that's what this building is for a lot of the times when people are living in a haunted house they can't move they are financially tied to this building they can't sell at a loss and that's why families end up suffering for many years under the wrath of a

poltergeist so hey at least these guys have the luxury of being like, we want out of here now. We're going to go bring in the next reverend. Yeah. If the church is your landlord or if God is your landlord, that's the only landlord that will accept haunted as a reason to cut your lease short. Yeah. I've tried that one a few times in London. It does not work. I've tried that one a few times in London. It does not work. And so in October 1930, it became home to Reverend Lionel Algernon Foister and his wife, Marianne. You're going to have to run that one by me one more time.

Reverend Lionel Algernon Foister. Are you saying a word? Lionel Algernon Foister. Okay. I'm not going to get it. I feel like I'm having a stroke every time I say it. Lionel Algernon Foister. Okay. I'm not going to get it. I feel like I'm having a stroke every time I say it. Lionel Algernon Foister. It's a great name.

I wonder what the origin is. I mean, I agree. It sounds like a Lord of the Rings character, Lionel of Algernon. But his wife is called Marianne and his daughter is called Adelaide. I'm going to call him Lionel from now on. I think that's a good idea. The ghostly happenings only continued, but they seemed to plague Marianne much more than the rest of the family. They stayed put for five years, all the while facing a paranormal onslaught.

Lionel actually started keeping track of each incident in a book, and Marianne started adding her own. This book holds a ton of worrying paranormal claims. The Reverend was writing about bottles and stones being flung around the place, windows being broken, strange and unexplained writing appearing on the walls, and on one occasion, their daughter being locked in a room that had no key. What? And the door just wouldn't open? That's terrifying! Which kind of makes sense that the nun might be trying to get her own back on someone else.

Yeah, that's what I was just thinking. You know, I'm going to lock someone else away till they die. Terrifying. And Marianne's stories were even worse. She'd made notes of several physical attacks. On one occasion, she was thrown violently from her bed. I mean, this is pretty brilliant documentation, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's smart to start that diary as soon as the first haunting happens. And this book made its way into the hands of, you guessed it, hotshot investigator Harry Price. He couldn't wait for another trip back to the Borley Rectory. And when he set foot over the threshold for a second time, he felt the paranormal presence was even stronger. How many years have passed now? You said this new family had been here for five years?

Yeah, the last people were there for three years, and that was when he came, and then these guys stayed here for five years. So anywhere in between that time frame. Wow. He got to work.

They immediately performed two exorcisms. Both failed catastrophically. The activity was only getting worse. And by now, the media around it had created a firestorm of interest from paranormal enthusiasts who came from all over to try and get a look. We warn people on every podcast, doing an exorcism is a lot like sneaking up on a sleeping grizzly bear with a baseball bat. You better hope that first hit kills him,

because if not, you're in a world of trouble. If you're going to do an exorcism, bring all your guns, bring all your priests, make sure you do it and knock it out of the park the first time. Otherwise, you've hit the bear and now it's awake and it's pissed. And hungry and you look like a snack. Yeah. You are a chicken sneaking into a wolf's den with a baseball bat. Pardon the pun. Don't cock it up.

Now, I mentioned that Marianne's experiences were crazier than her husband's. I also mentioned there was writing over the walls, but I didn't tell you what the writing said. That's true. I thought that was suspicious. Well, they were all about Marianne. Marianne, light mass prayers. Marianne, please get help. Marianne, I cannot understand. Tell me more. Others were written so chaotically that we can't work out what they say. Rory, I actually have photos of

these messages written on the walls for you to take a look at. Yes, please. I want to see this handwriting. This must be an awful situation for Marianne because why is she getting picked on? I don't know. Is it because, again, this was, you know, the spirit of a nun. She only lived amongst other women her entire life. Oh, that's a good point. Ooh, okay. This is written very strangely. Written all in cursive. The pen never leaves the wall.

It's actually a mix. The top images there are cursive and some of the bottom ones are, but there's actually block capitals too. And I said that some of it was so joined up, you can't make it out. Those ones really creep me out. This is kind of insane scrawlings, completely unintelligible. Some of them. Yeah, I do not like them. Like even the lines aren't properly spaced. Like the top of the letters are spilling into the bottom of other letters. I don't like it. I wish I hadn't seen it.

It's pretty unsettling, isn't it? Yeah, I really do not like this. Time to move. We tried our best. The grizzly bear is awake. Get out of there. Flap those little chicken wings. I think it's important to,

granted I appreciate quite late in this case, present you some physical evidence because we have a lot of paranormal goings-ons here and there was some physical evidence for it, which makes it all the more disturbing. Are these messages written with a pen? Do they know? Because even that's a little weird, especially if it's done by a spirit. Funny you mention, it is written with something, something like that, because Harry Price actually started leaving scraps of paper around the house with notes on it, and he would find messages when he came back to the paper.

For example, in one, he wrote, What do you want? When he came back hours later, a new word had been written. Rest. Oh, that's at least quite a nice one. Pretty creepy. It wasn't just murder. It's like, ah, shit. Die, bitch.

We shouldn't have given it a voice. Leaving bits of paper in your haunted house so the spirit can communicate is like inviting a horrible far-right guest onto your show. It's like, let's just hear what they have to say. You shouldn't.

You shouldn't because it's bad. Now, it's at this point in the story that things take a left turn that no one was expecting. Marianne admitted to having an affair with the family's lodger. What? There was someone else living in the house, like maybe more than one person also living in the house, I guess it was pretty big, and she was having an affair. I guess affairs happen all the time, but also replicating the drama of what unfolded hundreds of years ago. Damn. She claimed that she'd been using the drama of what unfolded hundreds of years ago.

Damn. She claimed that she'd been using the idea of a ghost to cover up her affair. What? As researcher Amy points out, those bumps in the night took on a whole new meaning. Yeah. Oh, poor Lionel's like, I heard moaning and moaning and wailing at 4 a.m. She's like, that's f***ing nuts.

Whoa. I heard a voice crying, oh, Marianne. Oh, Marianne. It's like, oh. This thing's obsessed with Marianne, bro. This note just says, Marianne, you so fine, you so fine, you blow my mind. Hey, Marianne. And then it raided your underwear drawer.

Whoa. This thing is crazy. Who is this lodger? Who is this lodger that was staying with them? So whilst previous people living there had left out of choice, these guys had to leave out of shame. And once again, the rectory was empty. Now, maybe this building just oozes sin.

So that even like a reverend and his sweet little wife, as soon as they get in there, it's just like, oh, cravings and sin, you know? This building just promotes an evil presence. It must be some kind of bizarre paranormal dog whistle. It just makes you want to bang. Yeah. It's also the 1930s and there's nothing else to do.

I assume everyone was having sex with each other back then. That's what they call it. 1931, the summer of love. Now, it might sound crazy given that one of his key witnesses has basically said it's bullshit, but Harry didn't give up hope of his paranormal investigations. Because after all,

the paranormal history of the building started long before Marianne moved in. It was hard to say what was her and what was real. You're like, that being said, Harry was hooking up with Lionel. There's no way. There's no way.

Harry became the next lodger. He spent the next year living on the property and documented every unexplained event that happened to him. He hired 48 staff members to investigate the paranormal. At whose expense? I think he wasn't paying most of them a lot. Okay. They were recording paranormal experiments day and night. This is like a paranormal investigator content house.

I can't believe this. Yeah, how have we never covered this story before? Bro. I've been burying the lead, but the Borley Rectory is commonly known as the most haunted house in the UK. Jeez, well they must have found some pretty convincing paranormal evidence if there's 48 of them doing the rounds. They found more writing on the wall. On one occasion, it mentioned the word well. occasion, it mentioned the word well. So, and this is where 48 team members come in handy,

Harry had the team dig down to the bottom of the historic well on the rectory grounds, where they found bones, part of a human skull and jaw. Harry claimed these were the bones of the dead nun. Whoa. This is pretty cool stuff. Yeah. It's like the nun is trying to communicate with them to get them to dig up her remains. Yeah. After all, she said she wanted rest. That's pretty spooky. He brought in several mediums and had them conduct a long series of seances. In 1938, a medium named Helen Glanville made successful contact with a nun and an unidentified male spirit. I can feel his presence. He's trying to speak. The rectory will burn this very year.

On the 27th day of March, the rectory will be destroyed. Whoa! That's a pretty dramatic seance. Needless to say, they watched the calendar like a hawk. But the 27th of March 1938 came and went, and nothing happened. However, on the 27th of February the next year, the new owner, Captain W.H. Gregson, kicked over an oil lamp

and the rectory was completely destroyed by a fire, fulfilling the prophecy. Holy shit. So just a year late? Just under a year late. Oh my gosh. Now, sadly, the rectory is, as I say, gone to this day. The church is there, but the rectory is as i say gone to this day uh the church is there but the rectory is gone um but the hauntings did continue even the people who demolished what little was left claimed to see paranormal activity there's quite a famous photo of what is allegedly a brick floating in midair on the site. What?

Okay, come on now. This is not what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a pretty clean and clear picture of a levitating brick. Are you talking about this square? This tiny, white, blurry square? Mm-hmm. I don't even know if it is a brick. It's a brick.

Trust me, bro. It's basically a picture, not even of a construction site. It just looks like a dark hallway in a building. It's the ruins of the building. Yeah. And in a dark hallway, there is... You can't even say it's a brick. It's like a completely...

Well, it's the rough size and shape of a brick, to be clear. It's a completely black hallway. Yes. And then... So standing out against the blackness is quite clearly...

Is a white square. Right. So what is it? I don't know. It could be light. It could be a smudge. Something's floating. I couldn't even say

that that is definitely a brick. I'm a little skeptical of this evidence. I like the handwritten notes on the wall, but this... I don't know. It's not that convincing. When was this picture taken? I guess early 19... The 40s or something? Yeah.

The end of the 30s? We're going back a long time. You should be grateful we have a photo. Actually, no, I think about it. Rory, that is the history of the Borley Rectory. I appreciate that this case was honestly bigger than I expected, even going into it. I appreciate it is something of a journey we took you on. But you can see why it takes some time, because there has been, I don't know how many owners we counted of this place, but just how many different people lived in there and all experienced pretty much the same ghostly activities. Then you throw in one of the most reputable paranormal investigators of the day, putting 48 investigators on the case.

We have writing on the wall that we saw, incredibly creepy. We have multiple, apparently, human remains found on the site, which seem to match with the ancient story of the nun uh and then granted you might not uh fully believe this image but allegedly even after the thing was demolished the activity continued i think the less we talk about the brick the better okay we can park the brick if you want to focus on the other bits. Yeah, let's do that. I love the idea of this paranormal investigator being so convinced that this was genuinely paranormal that he hired 48 different investigators to go into this site. He's like, it's worth every penny just to prove to everyone.

I can't afford not to. Yeah. Little disappointed that they didn't come up with more physical evidence. You said there was a bit more writing and they found, I mean, bones in the well, that's pretty cool. Granted, old timey wells, you'd probably struggle to find one that doesn't have bones at the bottom of it. Human bones? I don't know. If it's that old a well. How many people do you think are falling down wells?

How old is the well? Probably a lot, right? But you're right. It's a cool story of a paranormal and haunted location that makes sense. It's got a bit of a backstory to it. It's got some lore that is consistent throughout the years. And I will concede, I think everyone involved, including me now, the years. And I will concede, I think everyone involved, including me now, was disappointed by the fact that Marianne claims to have potentially exaggerated or hoaxed elements of the ghost story.

It's not helpful, but I do on some level believe that it doesn't ruin the story because it starts long before her and ends long after her. Yeah. It annoyingly puts a bit of a sour taste in your mouth because you're like, you're like, you know, there was a bunch of witnesses who lived here and all said that they saw something strange. One of them was a liar, confirmed liar who said they lied. It's like, but the others, they said they're telling the truth. It's a bad sign if you've got one out of six is a confirmed liar. It's true. But I think if we look at the stuff that even happened while they were there, even Marianne couldn't explain some of the floating

shit and weird stuff that was happening. Granted, some of the writing, who knows? Sure. Some of the writing was like, Lionel, leave the house tonight. Go see a movie. Take the kids. Oh dear. Per Lionel, per son of a bitch. Rory, at the end of every episode of This Paranormal Life, we do have to decide whether our case today is truly paranormal with a yes or a no. What are you thinking today in the case of the Borley Rectory? I wish this case had happened in the 70s. I wish it had happened in the 80s. I want all of these same events to happen in a more contemporary time period because we have all the ingredients here for a 10 out of 10 paranormal case. But because of the circumstances and the, the basically just the period of time

this took place, evidence is smudgy. It is, it is few and far between. Uh, you know, if you have 48 paranormal investigators in a haunted house that is claiming to be oozing with paranormal slime, we should be able to have a bit more physical evidence to back up a case. What do you want? What do you want? A picture? Any sightings? Is there any other?

Well, hey, there's a lot of sightings. There's a lot of sightings. Don't let anyone say there wasn't any sightings. I don't see any. I seem to remember the journalist who went to go check it out. It was like, yeah, within 10 minutes, I saw a shadowy figure prowling the grounds. Did he? I thought the window. Oh, yeah, within 10 minutes, I saw a shadowy figure prowling the grounds. Did he? I thought the window.

Oh, no, he did see. Yeah, he ran over to investigate it. And then some shit fell off the roof. I don't know. I just feel like I feel like when I'm coming down on a yes, I'm basically filling up a bar of paranormal. And this one was flying at certain parts of the story. And then it kind of dried up. So even though I ended up with, you know, 80, 90% paranormal fuel, I don't know if I can give it the yes this week. It's close.

It's genuinely close. But I think this week for me, it's going to be a no, unfortunately. You look really hurt. You look really upset about that. that so just a reminder it's not a personal thing I'm not you know it was a great case shout out to Amy Grisdale for researching that one knocked it out of the park Kit you hosting it 10 out of 10 buddy I like that voice you did the one where the thing will burn

down kind of like a Richard Nixon demons type thing that was cool you ever think people are right You ever think people are right? You ever think people are right? I'm sorry. I just needed to stew for a minute. You ever think people are right?

What question is that? That doesn't even make sense. You ever think people are right? That all you care about is UFOs. All right. I bring to you a 10 out of 10, the most haunted house in all of the UK in history, a ghost case. A ghost could come up and slap you on the behind and you wouldn't even give it a yes.

For the record, every haunted house says it's the most haunted house. Well, not this one. Harry Price called it that, All right. And his name means a lot, actually. I just found out who he was. So did I. But he's pretty important, allegedly. Mad old Harry says it's right. So that said, it's a yes over here, brother. Oh, a very rare split.

This really happens on the podcast where it's a yes and a no. Usually, you know, we share that hive mind, that alien brain that we're pretty much usually on the same page. So, yikes. I'm erectory pilled. I'm erectory. I'm erect after this. After pills.

Yeah, it is a rare disagreement, but I can't say I didn't see it coming. This is definitely on the line. And I think our listeners themselves will find themselves on either side of that. Yeah. Maybe we'll throw up a poll or something on our socials to see which way people are falling, either yes or no, to whether or not they believe this is truly paranormal. I'm not going to show them the brick photo. Thank you so much for listening. Of course, thank you to Amy Grisdale for researching and Louis Blatherwick for editing. Guys, whether you think it's really paranormal or not, I hope you enjoyed the investigation into the Borley Rectory. Of course, if you can't wait until next week to get your fix of This Paranormal Life, you know where to go to find more ghost cases, ghoul cases, UFO cases, cases of all description.

I'll be honest, some of them aren't even about the paranormal. We just go off on one talking about Rory's family affairs. It's true. The place to get all that is, of course, the This Paranormal Life Erectory. There's so much bonus content over there you're gonna get aroused let me tell you who it is spicy stuff ladies and gentlemen okay why don't you tell the good listeners of this show some of the spicy content that they can get over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life we have monthly bonus episodes we've been doing those for five

years so there is a treasure trove ready for listening. We have a weekly bonus podcast called The After Party, which goes on on Fridays. That is a behind the scenes of this paranormal life. Not to mention we have monthly raffles. We have a limited edition Knight of the Commune coin, a gold coin to prove your membership of this paranormal life. It's an amazing collectible. And not to mention mention maybe best of all on the 20 bucks tier and higher

you can get a shout out right here on the show. Yeah, and higher than that we of course have lewds. We have nudes. We have pictures of our cocks. That's a very high tier.

I actually chickened out of that one so you'll just get two pictures of kits which is two pictures more than you want I'll be honest my wife said that it's all there folks over on patreon.com

you're gonna wanna go just to see the coin honestly just to see the coin what was that Batman movie who's that mother two face yeah who like he uh i don't know my batman lore very well but doesn't he flick a coin and makes decisions based on the outcome of the coin yeah i think you're right this is the perfect kind of decision making coin it is huge thick made of real gold and silver, and has two sides. One, the triangle with the classic TPL icons, Bigfoot, UFO, and a ghost, aka the paranormal side. And the other

side, the shield of the commune, not paranormal. So if you need to make a decision on whether or not you think something's paranormal, flip your coin, flip your commune coin. And that's honestly as good as using any high-tech paranormal hunting equipment. We should have done it for the end of this episode, actually. Like I say, you can get a shout out at the end of an episode. So let's jump into them right now. Thanks to Glenn Shields. Glenn, sometimes you got to lower your shields and let people in. That's the only way that you'll ever form a connection with a you got to lower your shields and let people in. That's the only way that you'll ever form a connection with a human. So lower the shields.

Lower them down. Are they gone? Give me your wallet. Whoa. Give me your wallet, bud. Now your shield's gone. How are you going to stop me? That's not fair. Thanks to Kieran Kevlar Brooks.

Wow. Kieran is made of Kevlar. Man, you can lower your defenses too, man. You don't got to be bulletproof all the time. Take off the bulletproof vest. Yeah. Take it off. Is it gone?

Just for a second. Is it off? Give me your keys. Whoa. Give me your keys. I'm taking your car and I'm getting out of here. This is a lot. Thanks to our friendly local cryptid.

You know, it really makes sense. It is good to know that all cryptids aren't trying to either murder villagers in the Middle Ages or, you know, trying to elude human attention for all of eternity. Some cryptids just want to give back to their community, just live side by side with humans. And we got to respect that. Spider-Man style, maybe solve a few crimes. And sure, if a sheep gets killed in the process, that's fine. You're a cryptid. It's what happens. Comes with the territory. Thank you to Lee Clark.

Lee Clark's bark is worse than his fight. Because this guy, he yells like a f***ing Viking warrior before running into a fight. But once he gets there, he really doesn't even know how to throw a punch. So you're fine. Right, right, right. That's a skill in its own. You know, being loud and ferocious. a fight but once he gets there he really doesn't even know how to throw a punch so right right uh

that's a skill in its own you know being loud and ferocious sometimes you hear that loud you don't need to learn how to fight because no one's ever going to do it thanks to zan acker for 6.99 you can get zan acker's dad tracker is your dad missing did he go out for a pack of smokes 15 years ago and not come back? Well, now you can find him thanks to the dad tracker. That's weirdly kind of amazing if that works. It's not a piece of technology. It's just a man you pay to hunt your dad down. Okay, so a private investigator?

More or less, yeah. Thanks to Lisa DeLuigi. Lisa DeLuigi is nice with a squeegee. What's a squeegee? You know the thing you clean a window with? It's crazy. She can clean a window with no streaks, no marks. It's looking absolutely spotless.

It's quite a skill in itself. Oh, okay. Unfortunately, it sucks to say, but one of her last jobs was actually at the Borley Rectory. And mid-squeegee. Oh, no. Oh, a 10 foot pane of glass fell out with her still hanging onto it. Oh shit.

Yeah. Uh oh. Another ghost has joined the hauntings. Thanks to Asher Holland. Asher Holland will give you cash for pollen. It's a bee. Just so that we're clear. Asher is not quite for pollen. It's a bee. Just so that we're clear. Asher is not quite a human.

It's a bee. Where did they get cash from? I don't know. Well, it's got enough honey. It's got enough honey in the hive. I guess if you work backwards, you could get cash for that. But go on then.

Thank you for the support. Thanks to Violet. If it isn't Violent Violet. Someone who always has at least seven knives and five shields on her. And Violet,

it's time to drop the knives. It's time to lower the shields. Relax, unwind. Yeah, and while you're at it, give me your phone. Give me your phone and your keys. No. You can't take from our patrons like this. And I'll actually take it.

Oh! Oh, she still had one. She still had a knife. She is violent. Thanks to Hayley Jackson. Well, if it isn't Hayley Jack, the running back. Much like our friend earlier, her bark really is worse than her football skills. Oh, right. I don't know how they became a football player.

Big talk in the locker room, hyping up the whole team, and then first play fumbles the ball and is broken like glass at the first tackle. It's just like, be a coach. If you know the game that intricately and can talk a big game, be a commentator. Yeah.

Don't tank the team. Don't say in the locker rooms give me the ball i'll take it from here if you know you're made of glass you know what the play is y'all get out of my f***ing way fumble it because the problem is the opposing team didn't hear the speech so they're unfazed and they they're going to get you. Thanks to Ian Hunter. Ian Hunter. One of the many, many employees at DadTracker.com. That's right. Mr. Hunter will find your pop.

Okay, well, don't harm him. Dead or alive. No. As in, he'll find him whether your dad's dead or alive jesus christ he's not gonna kill him thanks to andreas madsen andreas is one mad son uh they i've been looking for their dad for a long time so they are really in need of this service i can't i can't stress how much in handy this is gonna come i'm this is a lucrative business right here you know we've we've known many fathers who have gotten lost over the years just in the process of working for the dad squad

uh so this could be a booming industry right here and lastly but not leastly today thank you to kevin gaddy kevin gaddy where's your daddy do you know do you know where he is? Are you sure? Or you think he's at home? But you never know. But you don't know. This is the point. And for the small price of $159,099, we can find him. Okay. Dead or alive.

I didn't know the price point. At that price, we have to change the slogan. All right. But for the record, if you want alive, it's going to cost you. It costs extra. It shouldn't. So thank you to everyone who supported us on Patreon.

We will, of course, be back with shoutouts next week. And on Tuesday, we'll be back with a brand new paranormal case. Make sure to tune in then. And in the meantime, remember to live fast,

investigate, and die young, baby!