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Essex Hauntings Church of the Holy Cross, Basildon The church of the Holy Cross is haunted by the ghosts of a man dressed in a reddish-brown robe who has been seen walking through solid material.  It is thought that he is one of two rectors who were expelled and possibly murdered at the time of the Reformation.  Footsteps and voices have been heard coming from the inside of the church when it is empty at night.  The last reported witnessing was in February 1972. Borley Rectory Borley Rectory remains the world famous as the site of the most intense poltergeist and spiritual phenomena ever reported. The Rectory was built in 1863 by the Rev. Henry Dowson Ellis Bull.  Almost immediately after he and his family moved in strange things began to happen.  Whispers were heard around the house accompanied by footsteps and tappings and one of the Rev. Bull's daughters was woken up one night by a slap on her face.  Several people reported seeing the figure of a nun being seen walking along the path which was named 'Nun's Walk' and others reported seeing the figure of a tall dark man in the grounds.  A black coach was seen being driven into the grounds and then disappearing....... In 1892, the Rev. Henry Bull died and the house passed to his son, the Rev. Harry Bull.  Within weeks of this passing, Henry Bull's ghost was seen at the Rectory.  Other unidentified ghosts were seen at Borley including that of a young girl dressed in blue. Harry Bull remained at Borley until 1927 and during this time it was noticed on many ocassions that a locked kitchen door was found opened early in the morning.  The phantom coach was seen on several ocassions and the figure of the nun was seeing walking in the grounds, along 'Nun's Walk', many times. Harry Bull died on 9th June 1927 and the next incumbent was the Rev. Eric Smith, who took up residence with his wife, Mabel, in October 1928.  Mrs Smith was very worried by the curious phenomena and it became to much for them, they left Borley in April 1930.  On 16th October 1930, the Rev. Lionel Foyster, a cousin of the late Rev. Harry Bull, moved in with his wife Marianne and they lived there for five years. It was during this later period that the psychic phenomena became really powerful and messages began to appear, written on walls, addressed to Marianne, pleading for 'Mass, Light and Prayers'.  Marianne also saw the ghost of Henry Bull. The house was mysteriously gutted by fire in February 1939 but even then the manifestations continued.  At one point during the Second World War, wardens were frequently called to the gutted house to investigate lights which appeared at windows.  It would seem that the ghosts held little regard for wartime blackout regulations. Wickford In the middle of the 1960's a young girl was riding on the back of her sweetheart's motor bike on the main road from London to Southend.  As they were approaching the Wickford roundabout there was an accident in which the girl was thrown from the bike and killed. The following year, a young lad was having a spin on his motor bike.  Approaching the lay-by on the approach to the Wickford roundabout he saw a girl, dressed in motor cycle leathers, hitching a lift.  He picked her up and as they were travelling towards Southend she gave him her name and address. When the lad stopped at the first set of traffic lights in Southend he realised that the girl was no longer on the back of his bike.  He travelled back as far as the Wickford roundabout but there was no trace of the girl.  He informed the police.  A policeman was sent to the address given by the girl and was amazed to learn that she could not have been on the Southend Road that night because she had been killed at the Wickford roundabout a year previously.

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