1 00:00:04,280 --> 00:00:07,520 Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff, the very special 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:15,200 Speaker 1: Halloween edition of Short Stuff. Chuck, what about the Borily Rectory? 3 00:00:15,960 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: And I have to say this one's good, but I 4 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:20,319 Speaker 1: think it still doesn't hold the candle to the one 5 00:00:20,440 --> 00:00:24,120 Speaker 1: you put together that kicked off our Halloween content. But 6 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:27,120 Speaker 1: which is the most sterile way of putting it? Um, 7 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:31,319 Speaker 1: the two parter of jack O Lanard's and Sleepy Haller. 8 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,240 Speaker 1: It was like we even got a message from Dave 9 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:36,839 Speaker 1: the producer saying like this is the greatest thing I've 10 00:00:36,840 --> 00:00:38,920 Speaker 1: ever heard in my life. I'm paraphrasing, but that was 11 00:00:38,960 --> 00:00:43,320 Speaker 1: basically it. Well, thank you, Dave. Yeah, so this is 12 00:00:43,400 --> 00:00:45,960 Speaker 1: I like this one too though, because this is about um, 13 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:50,800 Speaker 1: the most haunted house in England. Yeah, which, uh, A 14 00:00:50,840 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: lot of people automatically know what we're talking about just 15 00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: hearing that phrase Boriley Rectory, which a rectory, by the way, 16 00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,160 Speaker 1: is a place where a pastor lives. Leave for the 17 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:05,039 Speaker 1: Anglican Church, maybe for just Protestantism in general, but you know, 18 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: pastors are allowed to marry and they have a family, 19 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:09,679 Speaker 1: so you gotta put them somewhere. You can't just make 20 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,160 Speaker 1: them sleep under the pews in the church. So they 21 00:01:12,200 --> 00:01:14,200 Speaker 1: get their own house, and that's called the rectory. And 22 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:17,240 Speaker 1: it just so happened that the one in Boordly, which 23 00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:19,240 Speaker 1: is this little village an hour and a half northeast 24 00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:21,920 Speaker 1: of London that no one would have ever heard about 25 00:01:21,959 --> 00:01:24,640 Speaker 1: had it not been for the rectory, there was a 26 00:01:24,959 --> 00:01:28,720 Speaker 1: very very haunted place, that's right. And by the way, 27 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 1: do you know what we call those in the Baptist 28 00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: church at my church? What the preacher's house the sinbox? No, 29 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,959 Speaker 1: we called it that crappy little house next to the church. No, 30 00:01:39,880 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: that's what they get dedicating themselves. So the rectory was 31 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:48,200 Speaker 1: built in the eighteen eighties. Uh. It burned down in 32 00:01:48,240 --> 00:01:52,280 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties. But that property itself has a long 33 00:01:52,360 --> 00:01:56,040 Speaker 1: history of haunting, supposedly going way way back to the 34 00:01:56,280 --> 00:02:01,200 Speaker 1: thirteen sixties when there was a monastery there and allegedly 35 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: a headless monk would roam the fields and a nun 36 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:06,800 Speaker 1: i would haunt the place who had been walled up 37 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:10,760 Speaker 1: alive inside the monastery walls. Yeah, there was another nune 38 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,280 Speaker 1: too that would have come later. Who was I guess 39 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:17,880 Speaker 1: who ran away from the nunnery and tried to join 40 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:21,560 Speaker 1: the Waldgrave family who owned this property and instead was 41 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:23,960 Speaker 1: like strangled and buried in a cellar there. So you've 42 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:27,000 Speaker 1: got at least three good ghosts wandering around the site 43 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:30,240 Speaker 1: that the Reverend Bull, the first Reverend Bull and his 44 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:32,400 Speaker 1: family come along in the eighteen sixties and say this 45 00:02:32,440 --> 00:02:34,920 Speaker 1: will be a fine place to build our rectory. And 46 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,040 Speaker 1: of course the townspeople were like, this is a really 47 00:02:37,040 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: bad idea, but we're just gonna sit back and not 48 00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:42,359 Speaker 1: say a word, because you know, we really could use 49 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: them the addition to our tax base here at the town. 50 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: And then they thought it through a little further and like, darn, 51 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: it is that true in England too. I don't know. 52 00:02:54,480 --> 00:02:58,240 Speaker 1: It's a great American joke though. Uh. They would hear 53 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:02,240 Speaker 1: certain things in the night, like servants, bells, ringing, keys 54 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:05,880 Speaker 1: flying out of the locks. Uh, always a little tinkling 55 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: of the keyboard with no hands nearby. Yeah, phantoms. There 56 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,959 Speaker 1: was a phantom stage coach that supposedly used to arrive. 57 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:15,960 Speaker 1: And the townspeople were like, of course this is a 58 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,520 Speaker 1: really haunted site. It makes sense that this house would 59 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:23,079 Speaker 1: be haunted too. Um. And so the rectory itself is 60 00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,760 Speaker 1: built in eighteen sixty two, and within a year there 61 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: were reported sightings. Um, but it wasn't until the nineteen 62 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,480 Speaker 1: thirties and over time like between it. It wasn't like 63 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:34,640 Speaker 1: this just started in eighteen sixty two and then stopped 64 00:03:34,639 --> 00:03:37,520 Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties. Like every family that lived there 65 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,760 Speaker 1: reported something, some more than others. In some cases the 66 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:45,840 Speaker 1: family there was just clearly afflicted by a terrible poultry 67 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 1: geist or horrible ghost activity, just constant stuff. Others were 68 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:53,240 Speaker 1: not quite as bad. But um, it was every family 69 00:03:53,320 --> 00:03:56,560 Speaker 1: that lived there reported something, and so the house itself 70 00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:58,840 Speaker 1: got a reputation even before it was known as the 71 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: most haunted house in England. That's right, And you know 72 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:04,600 Speaker 1: why all this stuff is happening. The old German phrase 73 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:11,560 Speaker 1: geist is kind of geist pretty great, you know. So 74 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: Poulter means loud. Isn't that what Poulter guist means loud? 75 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:17,480 Speaker 1: I don't know. Is that what it was. I'm pretty 76 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: sure I should know that with my vast German knowledge base, 77 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 1: but I don't remember. But I think another another translation 78 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:32,039 Speaker 1: is Toby Hooper didn't actually direct this, it's the other translation. 79 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,000 Speaker 1: Do you think it was Spielberg gut pulling the strings? Yeah? 80 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: Uh yeah, yeah, don't get me started. Uh so, yeah, 81 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:44,360 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, I believe. In nineteen nine, the Daily 82 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:48,200 Speaker 1: Mail sent Harry price who was sort of the foremost 83 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:52,200 Speaker 1: paranormal investigator of the day. He worked with a Society 84 00:04:52,279 --> 00:04:56,039 Speaker 1: for Um Psychical Research, and he was like Houdini and 85 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:00,400 Speaker 1: that he was a debunker of mediums of fraudulent meat ums. 86 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,160 Speaker 1: But he was also sort of a probably a bit 87 00:05:04,200 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: of a self promoter and below hard. And the people 88 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:09,320 Speaker 1: at the spr were like, I don't like you so much, 89 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:11,400 Speaker 1: and he went, well, I don't like you either. I'm 90 00:05:11,440 --> 00:05:14,640 Speaker 1: gonna go find my own jam and he founded the 91 00:05:14,720 --> 00:05:19,279 Speaker 1: National Laboratory of I said physical before Josh corrected me, 92 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: psychical research. Yeah, it'll trip you up for sure. I 93 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:25,040 Speaker 1: was raised on this stuff, Like I used to want 94 00:05:25,040 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: to go to Duke and study parapsychology when I was 95 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:30,400 Speaker 1: a kid. Do that in retirement one day, my friend, 96 00:05:30,480 --> 00:05:32,400 Speaker 1: maybe I will one day. I don't think they have 97 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:36,400 Speaker 1: that that research anymore. But anyway, um, like Mr Clark, 98 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:40,040 Speaker 1: we discontinued that program, Well could you just start it 99 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:43,280 Speaker 1: up again? So Harry pricey was because he was such 100 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:45,000 Speaker 1: a good self promoter. He wrote a lot of books 101 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:48,840 Speaker 1: and he wrote his books to be easily consumed by 102 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,200 Speaker 1: the public, like they were very readable. I saw um. 103 00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:55,680 Speaker 1: And so he became a very very well known debunker 104 00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 1: of mediums and and well known skeptic. So when he 105 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:03,320 Speaker 1: went to inspect Borley Rectory himself at the behest of 106 00:06:03,320 --> 00:06:06,080 Speaker 1: the Daily Mail, and he came out of there and said, yeah, 107 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:09,239 Speaker 1: this actually checks out. This place is a haunted house. 108 00:06:09,720 --> 00:06:13,040 Speaker 1: People definitely took notice, like he lent his credibility to it, 109 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:16,280 Speaker 1: and not because he was a fraud or sham necessarily, 110 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: Like he seemed to have really been convinced, at least 111 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:22,240 Speaker 1: at first maybe always all right, I think it's a 112 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:24,800 Speaker 1: good spot for a break, and uh, we'll talk a 113 00:06:24,839 --> 00:06:59,400 Speaker 1: little bit more about this rectory right after this. So 114 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:01,880 Speaker 1: one entry thing thing that happened at the Boorly Rectory 115 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,120 Speaker 1: was it burned down. Uh this is a nineteen thirty 116 00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:10,600 Speaker 1: nine and you know, if you believe the story, then 117 00:07:10,640 --> 00:07:13,000 Speaker 1: it seems very suspicious. But the owner at the time, 118 00:07:13,120 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: Mr William Gregson, said that he saw with his own 119 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:19,040 Speaker 1: eyeballs a stack of books that were sitting there on 120 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: a shelf flew off on their own and ended up 121 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:26,440 Speaker 1: knocking over a lamp a paraffin wick lamp and that 122 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:30,080 Speaker 1: ended up burning the house down. Yes, and fortunately that 123 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:33,880 Speaker 1: happened after Harry Price had spent the previous year there, 124 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: so he leased the place in nine Yeah, he went 125 00:07:40,120 --> 00:07:42,640 Speaker 1: and lived there for a year with forty eight assistants 126 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: that he hired, um, so that they could all work 127 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: basically around the clock studying and recording all the ghostly 128 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:51,840 Speaker 1: phenomenon that was there. And he made his career like 129 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: even further. This cemented Harry Price and the Annals of 130 00:07:55,240 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 1: paras Psychology where his studies on Borly Rectory, and he 131 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:02,880 Speaker 1: published two books, um, the most Haunted House in England, 132 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: which coined that phrase I believe, I don't think he 133 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:10,240 Speaker 1: used it before then um, and cemented in everyone's mind like, yeah, 134 00:08:10,280 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 1: Borily Rectory is proof positive there haunted houses. And then 135 00:08:13,800 --> 00:08:16,080 Speaker 1: after the fire I believe he wrote a second book 136 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,800 Speaker 1: of follow up book called The End of Borrey Rectory. 137 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:22,440 Speaker 1: And so for years until Price's death in a few 138 00:08:22,520 --> 00:08:27,160 Speaker 1: years beyond, Uh, anybody who believed in the world basically 139 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: in ghosts had probably heard of Borily Rectory and considered 140 00:08:31,480 --> 00:08:34,320 Speaker 1: it as like I was saying, proof that haunted houses 141 00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:37,800 Speaker 1: can exist because of the work of Harry Price, but 142 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:41,600 Speaker 1: then his work was kind of undone later on, right, Yeah, 143 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:44,520 Speaker 1: so his old I don't know about enemies, but it's 144 00:08:44,559 --> 00:08:47,440 Speaker 1: at least his rivals. Yeah. Friend of me is at 145 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:51,600 Speaker 1: the Society for uh Psychical Research, said, you know what, 146 00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:54,199 Speaker 1: this guy is dead. Uh he was a bit of 147 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:56,960 Speaker 1: a jerk to us, and so let's go undo the 148 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:02,320 Speaker 1: work that he did. Let's debunk the debunker. Yeah. So 149 00:09:02,360 --> 00:09:05,959 Speaker 1: they like they explained, they gave alternative explanations rather than 150 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:07,680 Speaker 1: ghosts for some of this stuff. But the thing that 151 00:09:07,800 --> 00:09:10,920 Speaker 1: really kind of like pull the pull the wool down 152 00:09:10,960 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 1: or the curtain down on the whole thing was apparently 153 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: these guys found in Harry Price's unpublished notes UM he 154 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:21,560 Speaker 1: implicated a woman named Mary Ann Foyster who was the 155 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:25,199 Speaker 1: Reverend Foyster's wife who lived there for several years, and 156 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,240 Speaker 1: she apparently was at the center of carrying out a 157 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:31,240 Speaker 1: lot of these ghost hoaxes. And Harry Price knew it too, 158 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:35,360 Speaker 1: So that was a really he definitely buried it. And 159 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: also the SPR researchers suggested, I don't know where they 160 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:41,280 Speaker 1: found this out, but they suggested that Harry Price was 161 00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:45,600 Speaker 1: also not um not shy to do things like throw 162 00:09:45,679 --> 00:09:48,560 Speaker 1: pebbles in a dark and seance room to just scare 163 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:50,480 Speaker 1: people and make noise and just kind of add to 164 00:09:50,520 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 1: the whole thing. So the book really kind of cut 165 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:56,199 Speaker 1: the legs out from under the idea that Harry Price 166 00:09:56,200 --> 00:09:59,640 Speaker 1: had discovered a real haunted house. Not entirely. There's plenty 167 00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:02,280 Speaker 1: of people who still believed, but it definitely put a 168 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,920 Speaker 1: dent in the whole thing. Then there was another book. 169 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:06,600 Speaker 1: This one came out in two thousand and this was 170 00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:09,560 Speaker 1: a memoir by a man named I don't know if 171 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,920 Speaker 1: it's Louis or Louis Marling, who said, you know what, 172 00:10:13,000 --> 00:10:15,160 Speaker 1: I lived at that home a couple of times. I 173 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: lived with the family of Reverend Henry Bull in the 174 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:21,679 Speaker 1: nineteen tens and nineteen twenties, and then uh and with 175 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:24,280 Speaker 1: Bull in the tens and twenties, then the Foisters that 176 00:10:24,480 --> 00:10:28,040 Speaker 1: Foister Mrs Foister in the nineteen thirties. And he said, 177 00:10:28,559 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: I worked with both of these families, and we did 178 00:10:31,200 --> 00:10:33,120 Speaker 1: a bunch of these hoaxes. We would tickle the piano 179 00:10:33,240 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: strings behind a hole in the wall and stuff like that, 180 00:10:36,880 --> 00:10:41,040 Speaker 1: and it was kind of really all us. But here's 181 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:48,000 Speaker 1: a twist of that story, A twist he said he 182 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:52,920 Speaker 1: could explain everything save one that in Easter Nive, he 183 00:10:53,280 --> 00:10:57,480 Speaker 1: and the aforementioned Marianne Foister and some other folks attended 184 00:10:57,520 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: a seance there and it went to an underground seller 185 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:03,320 Speaker 1: about midnight. Sat there in the dark, in the quiet, 186 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,280 Speaker 1: and someone gave a little nervous cough, as if they 187 00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:08,760 Speaker 1: were about to speak, and all of a sudden, all 188 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:12,200 Speaker 1: those kitchen bells start clinging together at once, which is 189 00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:15,760 Speaker 1: supposedly impossible to ring all those things at once, and 190 00:11:15,920 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 1: supposedly no one else was there. Yeah, so Mrs Foyster 191 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:22,560 Speaker 1: was there at the time too, And um, Louis Maryland 192 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:25,440 Speaker 1: suggests like they looked at each other, like, what's really 193 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:32,719 Speaker 1: going on? These hoaxters were suddenly or overcome with ghostly phenomenon. Right, 194 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: But then, chuck, there's another twist. That's right. It turns 195 00:11:41,559 --> 00:11:44,520 Speaker 1: out that the Louis Maryland, who wrote this book in 196 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:49,439 Speaker 1: two thousand um was researched themselves and found that there 197 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:51,800 Speaker 1: was nobody by the name of Lewis Maryland who has 198 00:11:51,920 --> 00:12:01,720 Speaker 1: ever recorded living at Borley Rectory, let alone twice. Wow. Yeah, 199 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:05,200 Speaker 1: which I mean technically could just mean that that book 200 00:12:05,240 --> 00:12:07,240 Speaker 1: is a work of fiction or whatever. But still it's 201 00:12:07,280 --> 00:12:11,040 Speaker 1: a great extra twist, don't you think. Sure you thought 202 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:13,679 Speaker 1: the ghost twist was it? And then bam, bam bam, 203 00:12:13,679 --> 00:12:17,520 Speaker 1: there's like the anonymous book twist. And then m night 204 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,920 Speaker 1: Chamelain delivers flowers to the front doors, and that's very nice. 205 00:12:21,679 --> 00:12:24,240 Speaker 1: You got anything else? I got nothing else? Well, everyone, 206 00:12:24,280 --> 00:12:27,480 Speaker 1: thank you for joining us on the scariest short stuff 207 00:12:27,559 --> 00:12:30,960 Speaker 1: of the year, the short Stuff on Borderley Rectory, which 208 00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:38,280 Speaker 1: is now out. Stuff you Should Know is a production 209 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:41,199 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, 210 00:12:41,440 --> 00:12:44,440 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 211 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:45,880 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.