1863
|
Rectory built by Rev. H.D.E. Bull, who
lived in it with his family of 14 children. Legend (later disproved)
that Rectory had been built on the site of an old monastery, with
nunnery nearby at Bures. |
c.1885
|
P. Shaw Jeffery stayed at the Rectory as
an undergraduate during vacations. Reported (much later) that
stone-throwing and other poltergeist phenomena had occurred during his
visits. |
1892
|
Death of the Rev. H.D.E. Bull.
Succeeded as Rector by son, Harry F. Bull |
1900
|
Four sisters - the Misses Bull - claim
to have seen apparition of a nun on the Rectory lawn. Other
phenomena reported by them. |
1920
|
Harry Price joins the S.P.R. and remains
a member until his death. |
1926
|
Price founds his own
organisation for psychical investigation. |
1927
|
Death of Harry F. Bull. Difficulty
in finding a successor. Rectory stands empty for several months. |
October 1928
|
Rev. G. Eric Smith
appointed to the living. |
June 1929
|
Mr Smith writes to
the Daily Mirror alleging paranormal occurrences at Rectory.
Daily Mirror sends down reporter, V.C. Wall, and contacts
Price. |
10 June 1929
|
Borley phenomena first reported in the
Press. |
12 June 1929
|
Price visits Borley
accompanied by secretary, Miss Kaye. Takes statements from
various people including the Misses Bull. |
27 June 1929
|
Price and party visit
the Rectory. Various phenomena reported. |
5 July 1929
|
Lord Charles Hope
visits Rectory with Price |
p.68
|
|
and Miss Kaye.
Various phenomena reported. |
14 July 1929
|
The Smiths move out of the Rectory and
reside at Long Melford. |
25 October 1930
|
Probable date of
visit to Rectory by Charles Sutton of the Daily Mail. |
28/29 July 1929
|
Lord Charles Hope and
party visit Rectory. Miss Kaye present. Price absent
through illness. |
November 1929 -
January 1930
|
Price busy with Rudi
Schneider experiments. Three sittings a week. Price writes
book on Rudi Schneider which is in print by the end of 1930. |
April 1930
|
The Smiths leave Borley and move to
Norfolk.
|
c.June
1930
|
Price in Borley district collecting
information. Interviews Fred Cartwright at Sudbury.
|
16 October 1930
|
Rev. L.A. Foyster (cousin to Rev. Harry
F. Bull) having been appointed to the living takes up residence at the
Rectory with his very much younger wife, Marianne, and an adopted
daughter, Adelaide, aged 2½ years. |
1930-1
|
Foyster makes a
written record of a variety of phenomena at the Rectory commencing
soon after arrival. |
c.August
1931
|
Neighbours at Borley become interested
in the phenomena viz: (1) Sir George and Lady Whitehouse with their
nephew Edwin, later Dom Richard Whitehouse; (2) Sir John and Lady
Braithwaite. Sir John expresses the view that Mrs Foyster is
'psychic and hysterical'. Foyster argues against the view that
it is all hysteria, quoting cases of stone-throwing for which Mrs
Foyster could not have been responsible. |
29 September 1931
|
The Misses Bull call
on Price in London and urge him to visit Borley again. |
1 October 1931
|
Foyster invites
Price, who accepts. |
9 October 1931
|
Mr W.H. Salter,
having heard of Price's impending visit, goes to Borley himself and
advises Foyster, if Price's visit cannot be averted, to get him to
sign a statement against any form of publicity. Offers the
services of the S.P.R. if they should be needed. |
p.69
|
13 October 1931
|
Price visits the
Rectory with a party which includes Mrs Goldney. They see 'wine
turned into ink' which Price thinks is a trick and tells Foyster so.
They part on bad terms. |
December 1931
|
Edwin Whitehouse
(later to become Dom Richard Whitehouse) visits the Smiths at their
new address in Norfolk. |
8 January 1932
|
In a letter to Mr
Smith, Price says that he would like to go to Borley again but that
the Foysters will not permit it. |
April-November
1932
|
Price believed to have visited the
Rectory. Reason for visit unknown.
|
1933-4
(for about 18 months)
|
Mrs
Foyster goes to work in London as part proprietor of a flower shop,
but returns to Borley at week ends. |
19 August 1935
|
In a letter to Everard Feilding, Price
repeats his view that on the last occasion he visited Borley the
Rector's wife was 'just fooling us', but adds 'I certainly want to go
down again and am waiting for Mr Foyster to move out of the place.
Five years ago the place was literally alive with - something.
It drove the Rectory (a Mr Smith) out of the place. |
October 1935
|
The Foysters leave Borley. Rectory
again unoccupied. |
February 1936
|
Price's book,
Confessions of a Ghost Hunter, is published. Contains veiled
references to Borley which show that Price thought the events he had
observed there in 1931 were not paranormal, but he re-affirms that he
thinks the events that had occurred on his earlier visits were
paranormal. |
March 1936
|
Rev. A.C. Henning becomes Rector, but
does not reside in the Rectory.
|
May 1937
|
Price rents the Rectory for one year.
Advertises in The Times for volunteers to join a rota of
investigators. 48 names accepted. Compiles a book of
instructions for the observers known as 'The Blue Book'.
Among those to enrol was S.H. Glanville,
a consulting engineer who had little knowledge of psychical research.
Glanville assumed the role of Price's right hand man at |
|
p.70 |
|
Borley. Made
enquiries on his own initiative. Interviewed neighbours,
including the Whitehouses. Visited the Smiths, then living in
Kent. Contacted the Foysters then living in Ipswich. Also
collected local gossip. Records preserved in a locked book. |
1937-8
|
Glanville's daughter
experiments with planchette. Receives messages which seen to
confirm the Borley legend. |
27 March 1938
|
At a planchette
séance with Miss Glanville, a comminicator threatens to burn down the
Rectory. |
19 May 1938
|
Price tenancy ends.
|
December 1938
|
Rectory purchased by
Capt. Gregson, presumably with the intention of commercializing it. |
27 February
1939
|
Borley Rectory is destroyed by fire. |
c.April
1939
|
Glanville arranges
meetings between Price and the Whitehouses. On hearing their
testimony, Price's views of Mrs Foyster undergo a change.
Through the good offices Glanville, good relations are restored
between Price and the Foysters. Foyster gives permission for his
records to be quoted in MHH. |
1939-44
|
A Cambridge
Commission under Dr A.J.B. Robertson pays numerous visits to the
burnt-out Rectory and submits a report to Price which is later
published in EBR. |
3 August 1940
|
Death of Rev. G.E. Smith.
Price's first book on Borley, The
Most Haunted House in England, is published.
Among other appreciative letters, Price
receives two from Mrs G.E. Smith who congratulates him on
having written a 'wonderful book'. |
January 1941
|
W.J. Phythian Adams,
Canon of Carlisle, sends Price an ingenious analysis of the
occurrences in relation to the legend and planchette writing. |
9 August 1941
|
MHH discussed
in a leading article in the Law Times by Sir Ernest Jelf,
Senior Master of the Supreme Court and King's Remembrancer.
After making allowances for |
|
p.71 |
|
witnesses not coming up to their proofs,
Jelf writes that 'a very strong case has undoubtedly been put forward,
and we are at a loss to know what cross-examination could possibly
shake it'. |
28
June 1943
28
July 1943
|
Visits of Polish Officers to Borley. |
17 August 1943
|
Price excavates the wells and cellars at
the Rectory. Human bones and other objects found. |
1944
|
Ruins of the Rectory finally demolished. |
5 April 1944
|
Price, accompanied by reporter and
photographer from the American Magazine Time-Life, visits the
Rectory whilst demolition work is in progress. Controversial
photograph taken of 'flying brick'. |
October 1945
|
Mrs G.E. Smith writes
to the Church Times saying that neither she nor her late
husband had believed the Rectory to be haunted. Price confers
with Glanville and Henning and decides to ignore her letter. |
1945
|
Price publishes
Poltergeist Over England - an anthology of cases, ancient and
modern, in which the principle of selection is rather that of
excluding fraudulent cases than that of including only such cases as
might, more or less, be guaranteed genuine. This method of
selection resulted in a wider variety of cases than had ever been
gathered together in one volume before, and enabled the presence of
similar features to be seen and compared in many different cases.
Poltergeist Over
England contains a chapter on Borley. |
1946
|
Price's second Borley
book, The End of Borley Rectory, is published. |
29 March 1948
|
Death of Harry Price.
At the time of his death Price had begun
a third book on Borley. |
26 May 1948
|
Mrs G.E. Smith writes
to the Daily Mail and again asserts her disbelief in the Borley
haunting. |
December 1948
|
Charles Sutton of the
Daily Mail writing in the Inky Way Annual accuses Price
of having manufactured the 'phenomena' himself on |
|
p.72
|
|
the occasion of a
joint visit to Borley in 1929. |
1954
(actually 10 December 1953)
|
Death of S.H.
Glanville. Projected symposium on Borley abandoned. |
January 1956
|
The Haunting of
Borley Rectory - A Critical Survey of the Evidence by E.J.
Dingwall, K.M. Goldney, and T.H. Hall, is published simultaneously by
Duckworth and Co. and in Proceedings, S.P.R. |
1965
|
The Research
Advirsory Committee of the S.P.R. authorize re-examination of the
Borley files and make a grant in aid of expenses. |
|
p.73 |
