Do you believe in ghosts ?

Unexplained sounds recorded in an empty church

I am at heart a sceptic, I do not attribute strange sightings or odd events to the supernatural - instead I regard them simply as 'yet to be explained'.

Having originally trained as a computer systems engineer, and latterly as a specialist in organisational behaviour - I like to 'put things in boxes'; to understand where they fit, what they do - and why. I don't believe that ghosts are any more than ordinary events transformed by the human imagination into some perceived extraordinary manifestation.

However, I have experienced something that poses a challenge to that viewpoint. Something that continues to puzzle me in the cold light of day - some 35 years later.

It happened in September 1974, when I visited Borley Church in Essex, England, with my parents.

Borley Church

Borley is a little hamlet with a big reputation. The rectory, which burned down around the time of the Second World War was famous for strange events. Labeled the 'Most Haunted House in England', the building was subject to extensive investigation by many, including a famous 'ghost hunter' of the 1st half of the 20th Century - Harry Price.

Although Price's investigations have been subject to criticism, there remain some unsolved mysteries surrounding the Rectory and latterly Borley Church.

Wine turning to ink, keys shooting from locks or locking a room from the outside, ghostly floating nuns, - you name it; Borley is reputed to have had it. There are several books on the subject if you are interested, including two by Price, and several TV and radio programmes.

When the Rectory caught fire and burned down it was demolished, the bricks being reused in the War effort. At this point the strange phenomena appeared to transfer to the Church and the continuing unusual activity led to many investigations. One of the most memorable of these was when Michael Bentine and a BBC camera crew visited some years ago and recorded strange knocks, sighs and 'sparkling lights' whilst on an overnight stay.

In 1974 we took a family holiday in the area. Having read about the happenings at Borley, my father took a cassette recorder and determined to leave it in the Church to see if anything happened. Below you will find some files taken from those recordings.

Before you listen to the files, let me explain that the recorder was left in the Church for a series of separate recordings. The files below are extracted from one of the most active sessions. Only one door to the Church was unlocked and this opens with much noise - as illustrated in the first file. I can vouch that there was no-one present in the Church at the time of the recording, it being a weekday the area outside was quiet. We remained in constant view of the only door from the outside.

The Church is fully open inside with no hiding place (should anyone have decided to lie in wait for 'ghost-hunters'!). The floor of the Church is stone and so the sharp raps of the recordings would have required an impact of some force or else have been made against the wooden pews. After reviewing the tape my father sat inside the Church for some 20 minutes - no similar sound was heard by him during this period.

Originally the recordings on this page were WAV files. I have recently converted the recordings to MP3 format by transferring the cassette masters to CD audio then creating the separate files using Blaze Media Pro. In doing so I processed the recordings through low shelf filters set to 50hz (to remove mains hum) and then 2050hz (to remove other background noise).

In order that you may compare the cleaned files to their original condition, I have retained the first recording in both formats:

After listening to the recordings, read about Densham and Hollingsworth below.

The first file shows the door being closed. There is then a 20 second or so gap before the first light knocks are heard:

door2first.mp3 (883k) door2first.wav (1Mb)

This short sample starts some 60 seconds into the tape and a loud bang is heard mid sample:

1stbang.mp3 (274k)

Next are the two loud raps on this sample 2 minutes 50 seconds into the tape:

2ndbangs.mp3 (447k)

This file starts with a loud bang and contains several small raps against the background of a passing aeroplane towards the end of the sample; this was 4 minutes 20 seconds into the tape:

withplane.mp3 (513k)

Finally, to put into context the volume of these noises, this sample is of the door re-opening and my father returning to collect the recorder after around 5 minutes 20 seconds. Note the amplitude of his footsteps.

turnoff.mp3 (303K)

Notes: The background noise (akin to breathing) is an electricity meter under which the recorder was situated. The impact of this has been reduced in the cleaned versions. There was no evidence of animal occupancy of the Church and nothing else was discovered that may have been responsible for the noises. The quality of these recordings is fair although you must acknowledge the constraints of the type of equipment used at the time.

The Densham and Hollingsworth tape

In August 2000 I acquired a copy of an audio documentary by Geoffrey Croom-Hollingsworth and Denny Densham of some investigations in and around Borley Church and the site of the Rectory. I believe that this investigation was publicised on the television/radio around 1974; and it may have been this that prompted my father to visit later that same year.

Until July 2000 I had not learned of the existence of this tape - let alone listened to the recordings it contained. On playing it I was startled to find an uncanny resemblance between Densham and Hollingsworth's recordings from inside the Church and the recordings made by my father. In fact, the similarity has even prompted a flurry of emails suggesting that my father's recordings were no more than a copy of those of Densham and Hollingsworth.

They are, of course, not. I was present at the recording and was with my father when he set up and recovered the equipment. We listened to the output for the first time in our car whilst parked in front of Borley Church. However listening to D&H's recording we can well understand the scepticism of those who suggested as much - the similarity is uncanny.

On the first play of the D&H tape I was able to counter one of their claims. They recorded a noisy creaking door - which they claimed to be a 'phantom door' - explaining that they could not find one in the Church that sounded the same. This claim I find hard to believe; the main (and only accessible) entrance door to the Church is recorded in the file 'turnoff.mp3' (see above). This recording of the main door opening is identical to D&H's 'phantom door' - so I am not sure how they could have made that mistake.

In 'Hauntings' by Peter Underwood; the author reviews the Densham and Hollingsworth recordings and makes a few observations concerning their broader experiences. Whilst I agree to a large extent that some of D&H's claims lack plausibility, I can vouch for my recordings and the similarity being so apparent - I find it difficult to dismiss all their experiences out-of-hand.

Phantom fault or phantom?

Click on image for enlargement

The above pictures were taken at Borley on the same day the recordings were made. The photos were taken using a Kodak Instamatic Camera within about 1/2 an hour of each other. The second picture, of the Waldegrave Memorial, displays a peculiar fault. Whilst it is fairly obvious that there is a chemical failure at the corner of the photograph, an unusual occurrence is the presence of a circular orange glow which appears separate from the film fault.

A photographer friend suggests this is caused by the film being exposed in some way to water which has affected the chemical reaction taking place during the developing of the picture. I am happy to accept that this is a photographic failure; it is queer to note however that no similar problems occurred in the hundreds of pictures taken during the lifetime of this camera or on adjacent photographs.

It also seems a strange coincidence that the Camera should pick the Waldegrave Memorial (believed by some to be the centre of the phenomena at Borley) of all places to develop a fault.

Footnote: Since these recordings were made I have re-visited Borley to remind myself of the layout and to take some photographs. Nothing much has changed except that the local residents are understandably fed-up with ghost-hunters and keep the Church locked. To respect the privacy of the local community I wouldn't advise traveling to Borley to visit the Church - get a book on the subject from your local library instead.