Supposedly the most haunted house in England, Borley Rectory was home to the ghost of Marie Laire, a nun who was put to death in the 17th century for having an affair with a local monk.

The Rev HD Bull didn't realise when he built the rectory in 1863 that it was directly over the site of her violent death, but it wasn't long before Marie made her ghostly presence felt. Mr Bull often saw her staring at him through his study window, until eventually he decided to brick it up.

In the 1920s the famous psychic investigator Harry Price was summoned and there he witnessed invisible hands which tapped out messages on a mirror, sent vases flying against walls or made keys fly from keyholes.

Later, when the Rev Lionel Foster took on the Rectory scribbled messages appeared on the walls to his wife Marianne, asking her to 'please get help.' Then, in February 1939 the house was destroyed by a mysterious fire. Locals claimed to have seen a cowled nun at an upper window.

Harry Price later reported unearthing the skeleton of a young woman in the cellar.

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