Ghosts: Famous Ghosts and Haunted Places - Part 2

Another famous haunted place is that of the Borley Rectory in Essex. A book called 'The Most Haunted House in England' by the famous Psychical Researcher, Harry Price.

The facts surrounding this particular house are that anyone who has lived in the house has never been able to stay living it. This is because of the paranormal phenonomen that has occurred in the house from 1900 to 1939. The house burnt down mysteriously in 1939, and from that time no one has lived on the site that is now a burnt out shell, so you could say that there has been no reported paranormal phenonomen since the house became ablaze.

Facts and history have been so deeply intertwined in this particular case that after so many years it is difficult to separate out the facts from the fiction or folklore. Therefore in order to give you what information I can, I shall give you everything I have read and researched on the rectory and perhaps if you are interested in the story then perhaps you can research it more on your own, and share any findings you make find.

In July of the year 1900, Ethel Bull the granddaughter of the Reverend Bull who built the rectory was out walking with the daughter of the then current Rector of Borley, when suddenly Ethel saw a figure of a female dressed in a nun's habit.

Throughout the years that the rectory was in use, many people saw the ghostly nun. It was said to float over the land and disappeared as soon as anyone got close. Many called the area in which the ghostly nun was often seen as the 'Nun's Walk'. Throughout the years there was and have been many theories and explanations of the ghostly nun were. Some people said that the rectory was built on a 13th century monastery. A monk was supposed to have fallen in love with a nun from a nearby convent. The monks and the other nuns discovered the lover's secret love and the nun was killed by the other nuns because of her broken vows, and some people say that is why she haunts the place that she died.

The second explanation for 'Nun's Walk' is that at some point during 1667, a nun was forced to abandon her calling to serve God in order to marry one of the sons of a family call the Waldengrave family who at that time lived in Borley Manor. It is said that she was murdered on the site of the rectory and so haunts there.

The third and last explanation for Borley Rectory is that there was once a French nun called Marie Larre, who ran from her convent in France to be with the man she loved. Unfortunately for Marie, not long after arriving in England and at Borley she had an argument with the man she loved. In a moment of violent rage her lover killed her and buried her body in the basement/cellar of the house that was on there before Borley Rectory was built. Many people believed this third theory more than any of the others. This may have been because a female jawbone and skull where found on the site as was a selection of religious artifacts.