BORLEY RECTORY: most haunted house in England

[TomTomKent]

Midges are tiny biting insects that come in swarms - Wkipedia doesn't help much.

I've had one weird experience I can't explain,so accept others do...But that doesn't mean it automatically leads to accepting life after death as a given...to paraphrase "weird s**t happens".............

I have a lot of time for the speculations of the late Tom Lethbrige - he really rates his own thread on here. His experience led him to believe that one doesn't have to believe in life after death to explain "ghosts" and spectres or whatever. Tom reckoned on two types of phenomena:

a) ghosts and

b) ghouls.

For Lethbridge, a ghoul was a bad sensation that clung to an area. More on that if you want. But to TL, a ghost could be explained as a sort of physical recording akin to a tape recorder, which relies on magnetic fields.

He thought that ghostly phenomena are often related to running water - even if underground or hidden, such as aquifers, water pipes and underground streams. He concluded that if an event took place with enough emotional force, it could imprint itself on that spot and replay itself under certain circumstances. the reason so many "ghosts" are GREY is that the recording wears out over time.

Take it as you may, it is one explanation.

Phil H

This is the Stone Tape theory, created by Nigel Kneale for his shows The Stone Tape and developing themes first touched on in Quatermass and the Pit.

Interesting as it is, I do not think there is much foundation to the idea of psychic recordings, but fluctuating EM fields can have odd effects on our brains screwing our senes. Sound or vibrations of the right frequency can make us see things in the corner of our eyes and alter emotional states.

[Phil H]

The fascinating thing about Lethbridge, and I think he was writing before Kneale - I well recall the Stone tapes being on first time, and loved it - is that he lets you draw your own conclusions and merely states his own observations and how he believes they MIGHT be interpreted. He was maverick, but an intelligent and thoughtful man.

I have no idea whether he is right, I just cite him as an interesting and plausible explanation of widely reported phenomena.

Phil

[Graham]

T C Lethbridge's best-known achievement is the locating of the Gog-Magog and Wandil figures in the general area of Cherry Hinton and Wandlebury near Cambridge. I think the figures have been covered again since their re-discovery.

I know Lethbridge was heavily into underground waterways as a source of 'paranormal' behaviour, but I think this is a matter of faith in the individual rather than having any proven scientific basis. It's still very interesting, and I think Lethbridge has been overlooked somewhat in his particular field of research.

Graham

[Phil H]

I recommend reading TC Lethbridge's books, if you have not already done so.

I find his style highly accessible, and he places no pressure on you to accept his conclusions. the books build to.

Dowsing was his "thing" - with rod or pendulum - he discovered the Gog Magog chalk carvings in that way, which made him somewhat of a persona non-grata with the academic world. Too progressive in his methods perhaps.

He was certainly ahead of his time in his thinking - maybe he still is!!!

Phil

[Graham]

I'm sure that at one time there was a small car-park close by the Gog-Magog figures, but I also have a vague memory of reading that it and access to the figures were closed as the local Council decided to withdraw funding. True or not, I can't say for sure.

I once knew a bloke who was heavily into dowsing, and considered Lethbridge almost as a god in his own right!

I've never read his books, have to be honest.

A book I can recommend, not sure if it's still in print, is East Anglia by Shirley Toulson. A tour of leys, "puddingstones", occult sites, stones, tracks and hauntings. Whether you accept all that stuff or not, it's a good read. Lethbridge is well-represented in this book.

Graham

[Beowulf]

It is this kind of effect I was talking about, I remember the same heory being mentioned in the Borley audio casset in a series that we used to use in school that I recently rediscovered on itunes (search Borely in the audiobooks, its only a couple of quid).

Just for the record, I have no idea what a 'quid' is...

They taught you about Borley Rectory in school?

[Steve S]

Quid is pound(sterling,not weight).....I read Lethbridge's "Ghost and Ghoul" about the same time I read Price...I was a weird 12-year old.......

[TomTomKent]

Just for the record, I have no idea what a 'quid' is...

They taught you about Borley Rectory in school?

I could be remembering wrong but I think it was one of a few modules in the collection, that came with a small book, to encourage 11 year olds to listen and read. The idea was not to learn about Borely but to show you could report back about which ever tape you used.

[Phil H]

And you have been "haunted" by what you read ever since!

The Borley ghosts love tapes.

[TomTomKent]

And you have been "haunted" by what you read ever since!

The Borley ghosts love tapes.

I did discover that waiting for a late night shift to go ahead in a van parked on the edge of a lonely wood near Pluckley, the "Most haunted village in the world" may not have been the best time and place to reacquaint myself with it...

Though I got more amusement from Ed Bishop narrating the real truth of UFOs from the same series.

[TomTomKent]

Ah, it seems I am confusing the audiobooks by I&I Berge with different books in the same vain that were in the school library. My mistake please ignore my ramblings.

[Ayailla]

Sorry if this has already been said, but has anybody read the book published by Harry Price on the rectory?

I bought it before I realised the man was a complete fraud, and have not touched it because of that fact. Would anybody recommend I read it (and take it with a pinch of salt) anyway?

[Phil H]

There were two HP books on Borley:

Most Haunted House

and The End of Borley Rectory.

Both are classics and I read them years ago and got hooked.

See Stewart Evans' post earlier in this thread for his comments on HP. Stewart is much better placed than I to judge.

Phil

[Steve S]

Both are worth reading to see what Price actually wrote before reading the critical works...just for a complete picture....
Steve

[Archaic]

Having studied the Borley Rectory (in Essex, not Suffolk), and Harry Price, story for some 53 years I can assure all those interested that it was not haunted (that is if you believe in ghosts).

As a great Harry Price aficionado (don't you just love 'Gef the talking mongoose' story too?) I still have to admit that he engaged in trickery (he was a skilled conjuror). Needless to say I have a vast Price/Borley collection including holograph letters and signed books.

Hi Stewart, how are you?

I'm very glad to see you back on Casebook!

We'll all missed you and really hope you will stick around.

Best regards,
Bunny