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View of Borley Rectory from the church tower, taken by Sidney Glanville in June 1937 (Reproduced from The Most Haunted House in England by Harry Price [Longman, Green & Co. Ltd., 1940])

'The Most Haunted House in England'

Of all the cases that Harry Price was involved in during the course of his eventful career, no other investigation caused more interest and aroused more controversy than that of Borley.  For over seventy years since it first became public knowledge back in the late 1920s, the story of the haunting of Borley Rectory, a  rambling Victorian building situated in a rural Essex hamlet, has captured the imagination of so many people & has become the model of the classic ghost story - the 'old dark house' setting, dark deeds, murder, restless spirits, sex & intrepid investigations are all here.  Even a blazing Hammer Films-style inferno ending has not managed to keep the ghosts of Borley Rectory from haunting the headlines down through the years, despite concerted attempts to dispel what quickly became its legendary status as 'The Most Haunted House in England', the title that Harry Price gave to his first book on the case which was published in wartime in October 1940.  He went on to write a second book The End of Borley Rectory which was published six years later & when he died in March 1948 he was at work on a third volume which was intended to bring his involvement with Borley to a close.  The case had occupied him on & off for the last nineteen years of his life during which time he had rented the building for a year, carried out excavation work in its ruined cellars & made Borley and its ghosts world famous.

Harry Price & Borley Rectory

Borley Rectory and Harry Price's involvement is covered on this website in six main sections.  Click the titles to access the pages:-

The most famous view of the Rectory taken from the lawn (Reproduced from The Most Haunted House in England by Harry Price [Longman, Green & Co. Ltd., 1940])

The History of Borley Rectory looks at the whole history of Borley, from the time of the building of the Rectory in 1863 through to the disastrous fire of February 1939 & its subsequent demolition in the mid 1940s. 

Harry Price at Borley covers Price's complete involvement in the case, from his initial visit in June 1929 up until his final work on the case at the time of his death.  This section will also examine the events that came after Price including the publication of the critical report prepared by Eric Dingwall, Kathleen Goldney & Trevor Hall for the Society for Psychical Research in 1956 and its effect on Price's reputation in the years that followed.

The Price Tenancy is a section which looks in detail at the year that Harry Price rented the Rectory building from May 1937 to May 1938, what went on during that time, the people that were involved & what was achieved.

Modern Borley looks at the case from a contemporary viewpoint & picks up on what is being done today to increase our knowledge of the Borley haunting. 

With the Rectory now gone the focus of attention has switched across the road to Borley Church which has been the centre of several investigations over the years & apparently the site of continued phenomena.  Articles & contributions from website visitors are most welcome for inclusion in this section. 

The Borley Press Album forms another section on Harry Price's most famous investigation.  This is an on-going project which catalogues the Borley story through the medium of newspaper cuttings and magazine articles from around the world.  Again, contributions from visitors to the website are welcomed.

The Borley Rectory Companion

Sixty years after Harry Price ’s death, a major new book on the Borley Rectory case has published. Written by Paul Adams and Eddie Brazil, the creators of this website, together with Peter Underwood, the UK's leading ghost hunter and author of over forty books on the occult and the paranormal, the Borley Rectory Companion is the most comprehensive reference work ever compiled on Price's most famous case, the 'most haunted house in England'.  Interwoven between the reports of earthbound spirits, apparitions, poltergeist phenomena, ghost hunting vigils and séances is a human drama almost as remarkable as the paranormal happenings alleged to have occurred at the lonely Essex rectory.

Click here to buy the book on Amazon UK.

More information on the book can be found by visiting the Borley Rectory Companion website.
   

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All original text, photographs & graphics used throughout this website are © copyright 2004-2010 by Paul Adams & Eddie Brazil.  All other material reproduced here is the copyright of the respective authors.