Borley Rectory's future - what happens if the new owner allows investigation access?

Random thought here, but there's been some speculation that the new private owner of the Borley Rectory site might be open to paranormal investigation teams getting access. I don't know how true that is, but if it happened, what would be the dream investigation strategy? Most historical teams couldn't do what they wanted because the site was private or heavily restricted.

The rectory itself is gone, obviously, but the land is supposedly where most of the phenomena occurred. Imagine being able to do a proper multi-night investigation with decent equipment and full site access. What would you actually want to investigate? Ground-penetrating radar? Overnight vigils at specific locations? Archaeological work to look for any physical evidence of the paranormal claims?

I'm probably getting ahead of myself and the owner will just turn it into a holiday let or something equally mundane. But it's fun to think about what could be possible.

Borley's had enough investigation over the decades that we probably already know as much as we're going to find out. The phenomena seemed genuine to most investigators, but without the rectory standing, you're just looking at empty land. Still, if access became available, you'd want to check for any underground structures or burial sites that might explain the activity.

if access became available, you'd want to check for any underground structures or burial sites that might explain the activity.

This is the key. Borley's history is complicated - there's mention of murders, unusual deaths, and hidden structures. Ground-penetrating radar could reveal things beneath the surface that might correlate with reported phenomena. Would be properly interesting work.

The problem with Borley is so much nonsense has been written about it that sorting signal from noise is nearly impossible. Harry Price exaggerated stuff, other researchers disagreed, and now we've got folklore piled on top of folklore. If someone could do a clean investigation without all the historical baggage, that'd be valuable. But honestly, I'd be surprised if the owner allows it.

I'd love access to Borley, but the paranormal activity seems to have significantly decreased over the years. Maybe that's because the rectory's gone, or maybe whatever was happening has moved on. A modern investigation might not find much. That said, Borley's important historically, so any investigation would have value even if findings are limited.

If they did allow access, I'd want to focus on the stories about buried remains and the history of violence on the site. Less about capturing spooky evidence and more about understanding what actually happened there. Oral history interviews with locals, archival research, then targeted investigation of specific areas. Proper archaeology-meets-paranormal approach.