Enigma of Borley Rectory

by Harry Ludlum

  Another faction presents a different story, of a man who totally believed in the work he was doing, who believed that, without publicity, psychical research would not get the attention it should have. He could also be seen as a lone wolf, whose way of approaching the story of Borley Rectory was controversial, and in some ways inadequate and incomplete but not a deliberate or even unconscious fraud. After he was dead, and couldn't defend himself, the mud-slinging started in earnest.

  Harry Price, Borley Rectory's famous and controversial pioneer investigator

  One of the main attempts to discredit Harry Price was contained in The Haunting of Borley Rectory, by Dr E. J. Dingwall, Mrs K. M. Goldney and Trevor Hall, which also appeared as part of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research in 1956.

  In this work, the writers sought to prove, from Price's own records and from various witnesses, that Price had invented, misled, misquoted and exaggerated incidents in Borley Rectory; and, more seriously, that he was guilty of duplicity in his dealings with the Rev. Foyster and his wife Marianne. In relation to his attitude towards his chief colleague and assistant Sidney Glanville, he was also supposedly guilty of treachery regarding the excavations in the Rectory cellars in 1943. The allegations appeared to have succeeded until the appearance of the late Robert J. Hastings' report, on behalf of the SPR in 1969. The relevant proceedings are contained in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research - Volume 55, March 1969, Part 201.

  In this lengthy examination of the assertions made, R. J. Hastings demonstrated how the case fell down on so many counts because they had taken much of the documentary evidence out of context. In essence, by so often telling only half the story, the authors of the book had themselves presented an inaccurate and unconvincing assessment of the case. R. J. Hastings showed that, section by section, their allegations became at best weak and at worst unfounded.

  About this time attention became focused on another publication in which Harry Price, and more particularly the story of Borley in general, was viewed in a 'middle ground' light, which left one with the feeling that Borley Rectory was even more of an enigma. In their joint book, The Ghosts of Borley, published in 1973, Peter Underwood and the late Dr Paul Tabori, looked at the story of Borley Rectory from a different standpoint, whilst making it clear that they considered the episode to be broadly acceptable as a genuine case of haunting.

  Peter Underwood, in common with others, has more than once expressed his doubts that Harry Price would seriously have risked his reputation by setting out to construct aspects of the Borley story for publicity or effect. Having noted both sides of the argument and examined Price's material in the University of London, I am of the opinion that such a fraud would have been pointless and would have achieved only the briefest and most adverse publicity, no credibility and a total loss of public approval. Admittedly, Price was not always an easy man for academics to understand, which is probably the root cause of much of the criticism against him, and he was often bad tempered, rather infuriating and inclined to be tactless, all of which is very far from evidence of duplicity, treachery or any other reprehensible activity.

  Psychical research was, and to some extent still is, the Cinderella of science and it is all too easy for the establishment to criticise lone specialists. There is another point that needs refuting and that is the idea that Price made large sums of money out of his presentation of the story of Borley Rectory. In common with most of the later inhabitants of the Rectory he spent quite a sum on the place and received, in return for some 18 years' work on the case, only a tiny financial return.

  To clarify my views at this stage, I consider that on the basis of existing information, the way in which Price administered the investigation of Borley Rectory was in certain aspects, 'wanting of completeness'. In my opinion, the scientific value of Price's work at Borley was limited, chiefly because it was not extended enough. In addition, he didn't keep enough personal control over the various stages of investigation, while in other ways he laid himself open to adverse criticism later, over the details of his methods, by complicating many of the arrangements for those enlisted to keep watch.

  The background to the little Blue Book produced by Harry Price as a sort of code of conduct for his investigators has led to considerable criticism because of the view that its contents could lead to 'self-fufilling prophecies'. On could suggest that it might not be all that straightforward to decide how far an investigator should go in preparing or advising his assistants for their task.

  Today, critics of Price's work at Borley might ask: 'Did he make errors of judgement in his management of the 1937/38 investigations team at Borley?', but one could suggest that, after so many years, we really cannot prove that one way or the other. I do feel that the supposed case against Borley Rectory and Harry Price is not capable of being proved and that Borley Rectory's reputation as a haunted house is broadly plausible, but that it warrants further investigation of the historical background, the ultimate purpose of this present work.

  It is now time to turn to the man himself and his tenure at the Rectory. Before examining his investigations it's worth learning something of the sort of person he was, what made him tick, although such a study can only be a thumbnail sketch.

  Harry Price, the son of Edward Ditcher Price from a family with a long association with Shropshire, was born in London on January 17, 1881. For a time, during the early years of his childhood, the family resided in Crudgington, near Shrewsbury. They then settled in Brockley, in a house in St Donyatt's Road, near the boundary with New Cross. In 1892, at the age of 11, Price entered Haberdasher's Aske's School, not far from his Brockley home, where he remained until he was 16. His great overriding interests then, and forever after, were psychic phenomena and the tricks of magicians.

  The knowledge he gained certainly played a part in his later, and often controversial, debunking of some of the many phoney spiritualist mediums, to whom, as Sir William Crocker was later to relate, Price was like 'a knife through the heart'. The episode of Helen Duncan will be remembered by older readers in this context.

  She was a long-standing medium in the spiritualist world, but was in the end, the subject of an exposure, and finished up in court charged under the Witchcraft Act. Price was the author of a much argued about exposure of this notorious Scottish lady, whom he viewed as a monumental fraud. A few brief comments about this episode may be of general interest.

  There are those who feel that Price's management of the Duncan story was invalidated by an overriding desire for publicity in debunking Helen before the spiritualist circles could get their teeth into the case. Whilst writers such as Dr Paul Tabori and Robert J. Hastings have pointed out that what Price was trying to achieve was publicity for psychic research as a credible discipline, it would be fair to say that the way in which he went about his work did tend to leave him open to criticism.

  He was not an easy man to get on with, though this was not quite such a negative factor as some would have us believe, and his professional awkwardness was tempered by considerable generosity to others less fortunate than himself. One problem was that Price delved into so many different things that gaps and inadequacies were bound to occur. Really, he should have employed more assistants or limited the scope of his work. He did at times exaggerate, a fact confirmed by Mr A. H. Wesencraft of the Harry Price Library, but the degree to which he might have done so over Borley Rectory is not so easily proved, in spite of Price's critics.

  Throughout his life as a psychical researcher, Price was often, if not constantly, at loggerheads both with the committed spiritualists and the obstinate non-believers who seemed to be immune to any idea that paranormal phenomena had any serious scientific basis. Chief among the spiritualists whom Price fell foul of was the famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of England's most revered fictional detective. Arguments between the two men are extensively described in Paul Tabori's biography of Price, but it is perhaps ironic that for many years a spiritualist grou
p was Price's London landlord.

  Among other interests, Price was an avid collector of ancient coins. After he married and moved to 'Arun Bank', Pulborough, in Sussex, he began compiling a history of Sussex coins, on which he spent some 20 years, only to be forced to abandon the project after his collection of rare coins, stored at Pulborough Church, was stolen. As it was, Harry Price did write at some length about English coins in various published works.

  It is sometimes suggested that it was because of his involvement in coins that Harry Price was able to plant the curious medallions that were found at Borley Rectory, but he had little or no interest in foreign coins or tokens. The point about the medals was also dealt with in the Hastings report, wherein the accusations concerning the medals were pretty soundly discarded.

  Price was also greatly interested in mechanical equipment and engineering, having been in charge of an engineering workshop during the First World War, after being rejected for military service owing to a weak heart. He designed, made and used a large number of gadgets in his laboratory, a pioneer of its kind, which he founded, taking for himself the title of Hon. Director of the National Laboratory for Psychical Research.

  The personality of Harry Price was an intriguing one. He was a stocky, rather oval-faced man, best remembered in his later years with his bald head and rather dour expression. Early on in his life, he strained his heart and as a consequence suffered from angina for most of his life. At various times, including the period when he was visiting Borley, he suffered from its symptoms and it is suggested that at the time of the Sutton incident at Borley Rectory he was very probably in the grip of just such an attack. Had he not have been, then Charles Sutton might have found himself sporting a few broken front teeth, because another of Price's characteristics was his short temper. Those who knew the man have told how he could, and did, explode in response to any criticism that he considered to be unjustified.

  One cannot help but wonder what exactly passed between Price and Lionel Foyster during the row about Marianne and the phenomena, more particularly because Price made no mention of the split in his books, and only wrote to Guy Smith that the Foysters would not permit him to visit again, without saying why. There does not seem to be any recorded evidence of what was said at the time, but there is a clue to the strain that was put on relations between Price and Foyster in a letter that survives in the Harry Price Library. The background to this was that having previously undertaken not to publicise the case locally, Price proceeded to organise a lecture on the subject, which annoyed Foyster. But as we now know, this rift between the two men was eventually healed through the efforts of Sidney Glanville.

  Among other features of his life, Harry Price was very fond of Germany, in particular the Rhineland and Bavaria, both of which he visited many times. It was in Germany that Price got involved in a performance that he might, on reflection, have done better to have left alone, namely the Brocken incident. This episode, which concerned the supposed transformation of a goat into a handsome prince, turned out, not surprisingly, to be a rather stupid hoax. Though Harry Price realised this, the popular press had seized on it before he could debunk it and he was left looking rather silly over the incident.

  Another episode, which was never fully cleared up was that of the spirit child 'Rosalie'. Over this, Price was accused of fraud. His defence was that he had not concluded his work on this subject, and if such was the case, then accusations of fraud were somewhat premature to say the least.

  At various times prior to the Second World War, Harry Price's files and his library, which he wanted to hand over to one of the big universities, very nearly went to Germany; Breslau and Bonn among other places being considered as possible locations. Adolf Hitler was known to have a fascination for the occult and the paranormal, and there were various discussions between Price and those close to the Reich Chancellery, but thankfully all moves to transfer Price's collection and laboratory to Nazi Germany eventually fell through. Price was known to have been upset by the approach of what he must have realised was the inevitable conflict between the two countries, and in a letter to a colleague just before the war he expressed the hope that even at that late stage the rift between Britain and Germany could be avoided.

  The coming of the war did not stop Harry Price from carrying on his work though the library at the London University, which by now included his vast files and collection of books, was closed at the outbreak of hostilities. During the Blitz, the Middlesex Library, to which the HPL is attached, received a direct hit but the contents of the Harry Price collection escaped with but a few torn pages. Price even managed to visit Borley during the conflict, which produced danger even in that remote spot, the Rev. Henning being nearly blown out of his car on one occasion when a retreating German bomber dumped a stick of bombs near Liston.

  Harry Price's health had deteriorated and as a consequence any strenuous activity was quite beyond him. This is one reason why he was unlikely to have been able to perpetrate fraud regarding the bone remains found when the remnants of the Rectory cellars were dug out, under his supervision, in the presence of Captain Gregson and others, partly as a result of the suggestions of the Rev. Canon Pythian Adams.

  At the end of the war, Price attended the burial of the bones (and the two corroded medals found at the same time) in the churchyard at Liston conducted by the Rev. Alfred Clifford Henning, in the presence of Mrs Henning, their son Stephen and himself. Later in 1946, Price set out his sequel to The Most Haunted House in England, but his heart trouble had become more of a strain and a danger. Though he had been advised more than once to take a complete rest, he was one of those who could not stop working, and regrettably in the spring of 1948 he suffered another heart attack and this time it killed him.

  He was survived by his wife, formerly Miss Knight, whom he married in 1908, and who died in the 1970s. He was devoted to her throughout their married life, but she took no part in his work.

  This is a much condensed account of the life of Harry Price, but those seriously interested should consult Dr Paul Tabori's biography, Harry Price - The Biography of a Ghost Hunter, for a fuller account.

  We must now turn to Harry Price's tenure and work at Borley Rectory. Before turning to the period during which Harry Price held the tenancy of the Rectory, from 1937 to 1938, a look at his work on the case prior to this is needed.

  Although there is some evidence to suggest that the Borley hauntings had already come to the notice of some London people, the SPR included, it was as a result of appeals by the Rev. Guy Smith, culminating in an article in the Daily Mirror by a journalist, V. C. Wall, that Price was first introduced to Borley.

  Following this, the editor telephoned Price and suggested that he should investigate the occurrences at the Rectory, to which Price agreed. On June 12, 1929, he packed some equipment, his secretary Miss Lucy Kaye, Mr Wall and himself into a car and headed for Borley, arriving in time to take lunch with the Smiths, during which the happenings were related by the Rector and his wife.

  The truth of what happened during that night became a blur in the mind of Mrs Smith many years later, when she became very reticent about it, even going so far as to state that she thought Price was to blame for all sorts of misdemeanours, in stark contrast to the esteem in which both she and her husband had held Price for very many years.

  During that first visit, Price took statements from the Bull sisters, who had come over from Cornard, and from Mary Pearson, Smith's maid, who in a magazine article was described as being a proven liar. Price's next visit was on June 27, 1929, when various phenomena were reported.

  On July 5, 1929, Price returned to the Rectory with Miss Kaye and Lord Charles Hope, who later described Price as a rascal, but only after he was dead. During this visit, more phenomena were experienced.

  It is now thought to have been on July 25, 1929 that the reporter Charles Sutton, of the Daily Mail, went to Borley with Harry Price and Miss Kaye, and there is evidence to suggest that Sutton himself
asked to be taken. Nobody at the time could have had any idea of the row that was to erupt over this visit in the years after Price's death.

  At the root of the Sutton episode was what was probably an incident that nobody except Charles Sutton thought much about at the time. Having arrived at the Rectory, which had been vacated by the Smiths about ten days before, the party proceeded round the darkened house with the aid of a hurricane lamp. During their perambulations, indistinct voices were heard, which Sutton described as sounding like an attempt at ventriloquism on Harry Price's part, a description based, it seems, on a biased assumption.

  The one incident that later led to all the trouble came after the noise of various objects falling about in the darkness was heard - most probably a brick or large stone crashing down the stairs. With the benefit of hindsight, and with reference to the report by Robert J. Hastings, it now seems that what happened was that when the Smiths moved out and furniture men moved some things into one of the rooms, they propped open a door with a brick or a stone. When all had departed, this door prop was forgotten and remained where it had been placed. Then came the Sutton party with only one lamp between them in a very dark house and in the shadows, one of them, failing to notice the brick, very likely tripped over it or kicked it down the stairs.

  The main staircase, scene of various cases of poltergeist activity

  But the light in which Charles Sutton viewed this, and the follow-up, was rather different. Some 20 years afterwards, writing an article in the Inky Way Annual, he said:

  'Many things happened the night I spent in the famous Borley Rectory with Harry Price and one of his colleagues, including one uncomfortable moment when a large pebble hit me on the head.

  'After much noisy phenomena I seized Harry and found his pockets full of bricks and pebbles. This was one "phenomenon" he could not explain, so I rushed to the nearest village to phone the Daily Mail with my story, but after a conference with the lawyer my story was killed. The News Editor said: "Bad luck, old man, but there were two of them and only one of you."'