by Natalie Main

Created on: August 13, 2009   Last Updated: August 16, 2009

Life has its fair share of scary stories some more believable than others, some terrifying and some just plain silly. My childhood was plagued by stories of Ghost ships disappearing into the night never to be seen again, phantom hitchhikers, and ghostly sightings. Don't get me wrong I loved these stories to no end and they fascinate me even to this day, a shiver still runs up my back whenever I think about them but no ghost story scared me such as the story of Borley Rectory titled the most haunted house in Britain.

Borley Rectory was constructed in 1863 by a man named Rev. Henry Bull near the River Stour in Borley, Essex, it was to house his wife and their 14 children. The Rectory was destined to become a haunted site even before it was built due to events that had taken place centuries before hand. The foundation of the house was an age old priory that was built on top of a 12th century Church, a Caretakers house and various other buildings. It was discovered that A.C Henning found out that the Doomsday Book contained information of a Borley Manor before 1066 so it was concluded that a wooden Church was most likely built on that spot. The foundations of the Rectory contained underground tunnels, and a series of vault rooms.

A popular theory to the background of the site tells of a Benedictine Monastery that was built in 1362 by monks. The legend goes that a nun from a nearby Bures convent had fallen in love with one of the monks, they had decided to consummate their relationship to be together, but unbeknown to them the elders had found out, another monk was tasked with driving a carriage to take them to relative safety but their plans were thwarted and on that night the monk who drove the carriage was beheaded, the monk hanged, and the nun bricked up in the vault walls alive, this barbaric act has led them to be the supposed ghosts that haunted the grounds of Borley Rectory.

The first paranormal activity was recorded by P. Shaw Jeffrey who actually witnessed stone throwing and other such poltergeist traits while staying at the Rectory in 1885, in the same year a headmaster reported seeing a ghostly nun several times throughout the year. Everybody who has lived in that house has reported unexplained activity that they've witnessed first hand, it was also reported that during dinner parties guests told of a "pale faced nun" who stared at them through a window, it got so bad they eventually bricked up the window in question.

In 1892 Henry Bull the original

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