Borley Church

Borley Church stands in the quiet village of Borley, Essex, in eastern England. It is a small stone building whose nave may date back to the 11th century. Later changes gave it the perpendicular style seen today in the chancel and western tower. The church has a south porch reached by a topiary walk once shaped like Indian chess pieces. Inside hangs a set of three bells, two cast in 1926 and one from 1574, still in their original oak frame. The church is recognised for its Grade I listing and the grand monument to Sir Edward Waldegrave and his wife. Waldegrave was knighted at Queen Mary I’s coronation and served as Master of the Wardrobe. Their monument measures 14 feet high, 9 feet long and 5 feet wide, with full-length marble figures beneath a Corinthian cornice. There are also tombs of other Waldegrave family members and a statue of their daughter Magdala Southcote. Two 19th-century rectors, John Philip and William Herringham, are remembered here. Visitors find the chancel and nave filled with memorials and a devotional statue on the north wall. The topiary walk leads to the porch, now with a wheelchair-friendly brick path. The churchyard holds stories of phantom organ music and a ghostly nun said to move among the graves. In the 1970s, paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren recorded unexplained bell rings and sightings of a headless monk inside the building.