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Short Stuff: Most Haunted House in England · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff, the very special
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Halloween edition of Short Stuff. Chuck, what about the Borily Rectory?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: And I have to say this one's good, but I
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: think it still doesn't hold the candle to the one
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you put together that kicked off our Halloween content. But
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: which is the most sterile way of putting it? Um,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the two parter of jack O Lanard's and Sleepy Haller.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: It was like we even got a message from Dave
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: the producer saying like this is the greatest thing I've
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: ever heard in my life. I'm paraphrasing, but that was
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: basically it. Well, thank you, Dave. Yeah, so this is
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I like this one too though, because this is about um,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the most haunted house in England. Yeah, which, uh, A
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: lot of people automatically know what we're talking about just
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: hearing that phrase Boriley Rectory, which a rectory, by the way,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: is a place where a pastor lives. Leave for the
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Anglican Church, maybe for just Protestantism in general, but you know,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: pastors are allowed to marry and they have a family,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: so you gotta put them somewhere. You can't just make
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: them sleep under the pews in the church. So they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: get their own house, and that's called the rectory. And
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: it just so happened that the one in Boordly, which
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: is this little village an hour and a half northeast
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: of London that no one would have ever heard about
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: had it not been for the rectory, there was a
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: very very haunted place, that's right. And by the way,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: do you know what we call those in the Baptist
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: church at my church? What the preacher's house the sinbox? No,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: we called it that crappy little house next to the church. No,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: that's what they get dedicating themselves. So the rectory was
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: built in the eighteen eighties. Uh. It burned down in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties. But that property itself has a long
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: history of haunting, supposedly going way way back to the
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: thirteen sixties when there was a monastery there and allegedly
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a headless monk would roam the fields and a nun
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: i would haunt the place who had been walled up
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: alive inside the monastery walls. Yeah, there was another nune
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: too that would have come later. Who was I guess
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: who ran away from the nunnery and tried to join
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: the Waldgrave family who owned this property and instead was
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: like strangled and buried in a cellar there. So you've
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: got at least three good ghosts wandering around the site
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: that the Reverend Bull, the first Reverend Bull and his
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: family come along in the eighteen sixties and say this
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: will be a fine place to build our rectory. And
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of course the townspeople were like, this is a really
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: bad idea, but we're just gonna sit back and not
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: say a word, because you know, we really could use
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: them the addition to our tax base here at the town.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: And then they thought it through a little further and like, darn,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: it is that true in England too. I don't know.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: It's a great American joke though. Uh. They would hear
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: certain things in the night, like servants, bells, ringing, keys
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: flying out of the locks. Uh, always a little tinkling
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of the keyboard with no hands nearby. Yeah, phantoms. There
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: was a phantom stage coach that supposedly used to arrive.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: And the townspeople were like, of course this is a
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: really haunted site. It makes sense that this house would
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: be haunted too. Um. And so the rectory itself is
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: built in eighteen sixty two, and within a year there
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: were reported sightings. Um, but it wasn't until the nineteen
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: thirties and over time like between it. It wasn't like
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: this just started in eighteen sixty two and then stopped
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties. Like every family that lived there
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: reported something, some more than others. In some cases the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: family there was just clearly afflicted by a terrible poultry
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: geist or horrible ghost activity, just constant stuff. Others were
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: not quite as bad. But um, it was every family
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that lived there reported something, and so the house itself
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: got a reputation even before it was known as the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: most haunted house in England. That's right, And you know
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: why all this stuff is happening. The old German phrase
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: geist is kind of geist pretty great, you know. So
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Poulter means loud. Isn't that what Poulter guist means loud?
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Is that what it was. I'm pretty
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: sure I should know that with my vast German knowledge base,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: but I don't remember. But I think another another translation
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: is Toby Hooper didn't actually direct this, it's the other translation.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Do you think it was Spielberg gut pulling the strings? Yeah?
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Uh yeah, yeah, don't get me started. Uh so, yeah,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: the nineteen thirties, I believe. In nineteen nine, the Daily
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Mail sent Harry price who was sort of the foremost
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: paranormal investigator of the day. He worked with a Society
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for Um Psychical Research, and he was like Houdini and
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: that he was a debunker of mediums of fraudulent meat ums.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: But he was also sort of a probably a bit
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: of a self promoter and below hard. And the people
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: at the spr were like, I don't like you so much,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: and he went, well, I don't like you either. I'm
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: gonna go find my own jam and he founded the
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: National Laboratory of I said physical before Josh corrected me,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: psychical research. Yeah, it'll trip you up for sure. I
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: was raised on this stuff, Like I used to want
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: to go to Duke and study parapsychology when I was
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a kid. Do that in retirement one day, my friend,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: maybe I will one day. I don't think they have
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: that that research anymore. But anyway, um, like Mr Clark,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: we discontinued that program, Well could you just start it
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: up again? So Harry pricey was because he was such
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: a good self promoter. He wrote a lot of books
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and he wrote his books to be easily consumed by
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the public, like they were very readable. I saw um.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: And so he became a very very well known debunker
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: of mediums and and well known skeptic. So when he
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: went to inspect Borley Rectory himself at the behest of
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: the Daily Mail, and he came out of there and said, yeah,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: this actually checks out. This place is a haunted house.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: People definitely took notice, like he lent his credibility to it,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: and not because he was a fraud or sham necessarily,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Like he seemed to have really been convinced, at least
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: at first maybe always all right, I think it's a
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: good spot for a break, and uh, we'll talk a
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: little bit more about this rectory right after this. So
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: one entry thing thing that happened at the Boorly Rectory
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: was it burned down. Uh this is a nineteen thirty
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: nine and you know, if you believe the story, then
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: it seems very suspicious. But the owner at the time,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Mr William Gregson, said that he saw with his own
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: eyeballs a stack of books that were sitting there on
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a shelf flew off on their own and ended up
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: knocking over a lamp a paraffin wick lamp and that
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: ended up burning the house down. Yes, and fortunately that
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: happened after Harry Price had spent the previous year there,
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: so he leased the place in nine Yeah, he went
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and lived there for a year with forty eight assistants
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: that he hired, um, so that they could all work
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: basically around the clock studying and recording all the ghostly
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: phenomenon that was there. And he made his career like
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: even further. This cemented Harry Price and the Annals of
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: paras Psychology where his studies on Borly Rectory, and he
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: published two books, um, the most Haunted House in England,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: which coined that phrase I believe, I don't think he
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: used it before then um, and cemented in everyone's mind like, yeah,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Borily Rectory is proof positive there haunted houses. And then
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: after the fire I believe he wrote a second book
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: of follow up book called The End of Borrey Rectory.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: And so for years until Price's death in a few
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: years beyond, Uh, anybody who believed in the world basically
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: in ghosts had probably heard of Borily Rectory and considered
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: it as like I was saying, proof that haunted houses
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: can exist because of the work of Harry Price, but
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: then his work was kind of undone later on, right, Yeah,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: so his old I don't know about enemies, but it's
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: at least his rivals. Yeah. Friend of me is at
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: the Society for uh Psychical Research, said, you know what,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: this guy is dead. Uh he was a bit of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: a jerk to us, and so let's go undo the
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: work that he did. Let's debunk the debunker. Yeah. So
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: they like they explained, they gave alternative explanations rather than
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: ghosts for some of this stuff. But the thing that
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: really kind of like pull the pull the wool down
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: or the curtain down on the whole thing was apparently
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: these guys found in Harry Price's unpublished notes UM he
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: implicated a woman named Mary Ann Foyster who was the
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Reverend Foyster's wife who lived there for several years, and
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: she apparently was at the center of carrying out a
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: lot of these ghost hoaxes. And Harry Price knew it too,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: So that was a really he definitely buried it. And
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: also the SPR researchers suggested, I don't know where they
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: found this out, but they suggested that Harry Price was
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: also not um not shy to do things like throw
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: pebbles in a dark and seance room to just scare
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: people and make noise and just kind of add to
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. So the book really kind of cut
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: the legs out from under the idea that Harry Price
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: had discovered a real haunted house. Not entirely. There's plenty
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of people who still believed, but it definitely put a
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: dent in the whole thing. Then there was another book.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: This one came out in two thousand and this was
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: a memoir by a man named I don't know if
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: it's Louis or Louis Marling, who said, you know what,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I lived at that home a couple of times. I
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: lived with the family of Reverend Henry Bull in the
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: nineteen tens and nineteen twenties, and then uh and with
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Bull in the tens and twenties, then the Foisters that
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Foister Mrs Foister in the nineteen thirties. And he said,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: I worked with both of these families, and we did
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a bunch of these hoaxes. We would tickle the piano
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: strings behind a hole in the wall and stuff like that,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and it was kind of really all us. But here's
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: a twist of that story, A twist he said he
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: could explain everything save one that in Easter Nive, he
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: and the aforementioned Marianne Foister and some other folks attended
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: a seance there and it went to an underground seller
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: about midnight. Sat there in the dark, in the quiet,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: and someone gave a little nervous cough, as if they
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: were about to speak, and all of a sudden, all
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: those kitchen bells start clinging together at once, which is
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: supposedly impossible to ring all those things at once, and
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: supposedly no one else was there. Yeah, so Mrs Foyster
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: was there at the time too, And um, Louis Maryland
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: suggests like they looked at each other, like, what's really
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: going on? These hoaxters were suddenly or overcome with ghostly phenomenon. Right,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: But then, chuck, there's another twist. That's right. It turns
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: out that the Louis Maryland, who wrote this book in
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: two thousand um was researched themselves and found that there
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: was nobody by the name of Lewis Maryland who has
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: ever recorded living at Borley Rectory, let alone twice. Wow. Yeah,
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: which I mean technically could just mean that that book
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: is a work of fiction or whatever. But still it's
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: a great extra twist, don't you think. Sure you thought
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the ghost twist was it? And then bam, bam bam,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: there's like the anonymous book twist. And then m night
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Chamelain delivers flowers to the front doors, and that's very nice.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: You got anything else? I got nothing else? Well, everyone,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: thank you for joining us on the scariest short stuff
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: of the year, the short Stuff on Borderley Rectory, which
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: is now out. Stuff you Should Know is a production
• 12:38
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• 12:41
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• 12:44
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