Borley Rectory, Essex, Great Britain

A victorian-style mansion, built on the place where a monastery used to be. A strange conception that never brought luck to its several owners. The mansion was built in 1863 by the Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull. Once there used to be a monastery on that very place. The author of the project was Augustus Pugin (1812-1851, English architect, the constructor of Big Ben). The mansion was built for a family with 14 children. There were 35 rooms, huge attic, and roomy cellars. All this was constructed in a very refined manner, where every detail had its function: efficient and delicate.

After the first owner's death the house was inherited by his son. Afterwards it was passing from one owner to another until 1939 when retired captain V. burnt the house by dropping a kerosene lamp. By the end of 40s a new smaller house was built there. A new house with old secrets.

The name of Borley house is often associated with the name of psychic expert Harry Price. He visited the house several times and explored the atmosphere. He was the person who "discovered" proofs of ghosts' presence: rocks and vases flying all around the house, messages from spectrums on mirrors etc. However it may seem odd that whenever Price left the house all the proofs immediately disappeared. Based on these facts different professionals of the field started blaming Price of exaggeration and misrepresentation of facts.

There is a ghost that inhabited the house many years ago and isn't likely to leave it soon. It is the spectrum of a nun that used to live in the monastery once. According to one of the legends she fell in love with a monk who lived in the monastery not far away. They decided to leave together, but the night of escape their secret was disclosed, and the nun was bricked up in one of the walls. Another legend tells us that the spectrum belongs to a French lady, Marrie Laire who ran away to England with her lover. However, the "lover" stopped being such on English land and killed her on that very place where the monastery was later built. Thus, owing to trivial love affairs people weren't able to live in their own house for centuries.

The house has always been loved by different mediums and psychics: Price has been here; even the relatives of his assistants have been here. Every time, every new professional discovered new theories about ghosts. For instance, there was a theory that the nun fell in love not with a monk but with local landlord, or that it wasn't a nun, it was a noblewoman etc.

This entire story played a very important role: today the Borley Rectory is one of the most famous sights in England. Thousands of tourists come here to find the bricked up nun-lady. This is England - very aristocratic and extremely tangled.

By Sona Gasparian, www.building.am

Photos by: www.foxearth.org.uk