The tiny village of Borley lies on the Essex and Suffolk county boundary, roughly two and a half miles from Sudbury, one-time home of the famous painter, Thomas Gainsborough. A little nearer to Borley lies Long Melford, with its splendid church, its maltings and the impressive timbered Bull Hotel.
Until a few years ago, the railway between Sudbury and Long Melford ran past the foot of the long shallow hill leading to Borley, passing Borley Hall, which until the end of the last century was the home of successive generations of the Waldegrave family, including the unfortunate Sir Edward Waldegrave, of whom more later.
From about 1890 onwards, Borley Hall belonged to the Payne family, and until May of 1983 it was occupied by Patrick Payne, a man much liked in the village, but who has, unfortunately, since died.
The easiest way of approaching the village is by way of Rodbridge, once known as Rad Bridge, and where once stood Borley's gallows, a sobering thought!
The River Stour, having meandered its way across pleasant meadows, passes to one side of Borley Hall and its mill, last used as such in 1947, when the terrible winter of that year caused the wheel shaft to split.
On top of the rather windswept ridge which rises from the river valley is the belt of trees within which, from 1863 to 1944 (according to numerous sources) stood Borley Rectory.
On the opposite side of the road, and set well back from the corner, stands the Parish Church, which is of unknown dedication and partly of 12th-century origin, with 15th-century additions. Among various interesting features, it possesses a rather unusual brick porch and perhaps best known, at least locally, an avenue of clipped and rather decorative yew trees, which are most unusual in their visual effect.
However, by far the most extraordinary feature within this quite unique and delightful little church, which has become almost as famous as some of our great cathedrals though for the oddest reasons, is the Waldegrave tomb, with its hefty columns, family crest and the effigies of Sir Edward and Lady Frances Waldegrave laid upon the main plinth.
Alongside the church stands Borley Place, used by at least two rectors prior to the building of the new Rectory in 1863.
Across the road again, almost on the Rectory corner, stands the only substantial surviving appendage of Borley Rectory, namely the stable cottage.
Behind this cottage stands the farm, also long associated with the Bull family and subsequently the Payne family. The former garden of Borley Rectory is now occupied by modern bungalows and is, as a consequence, somewhat fragmented.
The name of the village itself can be traced back into Anglo Saxon times and indeed its name is a relatively modern development of the word Barlea, which variously translates as Boar pasture, or Place of the Pig.
At various times throughout its history it has also been known as Borlee, Burley, and even Boreghley.
Part of Borley once belonged to Barking Monastery, an order of Benedictine nuns, whilst the Manor of Borley as such was the property of the Prior and Convent of Christchurch, Canterbury, from 1301 until it was requisitioned under the auspices of Henry VIII and, according to most records, handed over to Sir Edward Waldegrave of Bures.
In front of Borley Place is Borley Place cottage. A large pond is further west. There's a couple of big modern bungalows and then about half a mile of open fields, a turn-off to Ballingdon and a farm road to Brook Hill.
Not far off lies Borley Green with its ancient thatched cottages intermixed with some more modern houses.
Borley Rectory itself has now gone. The fire of February 1939 caused so much structural damage that the shell of the building became unsafe and in the end, there was little option but to pull down the remains, themselves in an advanced state of collapse.
Had the fire occurred some years earlier, or even after the war, then it is possible that the building might have been salvaged, but in wartime with no materials or spare labour available there really wasn't a hope.
Visitors to Borley should therefore realise that the Rectory no longer exists.
There are still several items associated with the story of the Rectory which the visitor can look at but it should be borne in mind that all remaining properties associated with the story, with the one exception of the church, are private; to which the public do not have right of access and on which they must not go without the express permission of the owners.
Probably the main building of direct interest is the former stable cottage or coach house. It was built in 1863, of the same bricks as those used for the former rectory, although there appears to have been an earlier property on the site, which appears on an old tithe map of 1841 in the Essex County Records Office at Chelmsford.
This cottage is the easiest relic to view as it stands right on the roadside. It is privately owned and remains occupied.
Next to the church, there is Borley Place, which was used both by the late Rev Herringham and by the Bull family for many years.
Down the hill towards Rodbridge, on what was once part of the Rectory garden, there are remnants of an old stone gateway.
At the foot of the hill, down by the River Stour, stands Borley Hall, for long the residence of various members of the Waldegrave family, whom many think were at the root of some of the Rectory's mysteries.
Away from Borley, two places of interest linked to the Borley story still exist. About two miles away, near Long Melford, stands the parish church of Liston, in the grounds of which lay buried remains, long believed to be those of Marie Lairre, the ghost nun of Borley Rectory, of whom the reader will learn much in the pages that follow.
About four miles distant, and deep in rural surroundings, there still stands Pentlow Rectory, a massive and extraordinary-looking place, in which Borley's then Rector-to-be, Henry Dawson Bull, was born in 1833.
Now called Pentlow Tower, it cannot be seen readily from the road, being well hidden by trees down a long, curving driveway.
In the garden stands a tall and rather weird brick folly, from which the place takes its present name, and which was erected by Edward Bull, Rector of Pentlow, and from which it is said that some 40 churches could be seen on a clear day.