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Borley Rectory - "The Most Haunted House in England!"

SCREENSHOTS
600 Downloads 59 Thanks  Thanks 18 Favourited 8,675 Views
Created by Ferguson Avenue
Uploaded: 1st Sep 2014 at 8:39 PM
Updated: 25th Nov 2017 at 8:36 PM by Fergus' Mind

Built in 1862 for the Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull and his large family (a wife and 14 children) in the rural parish of Borley in Essex. The Gothic Revival style is very apparent, both in and outside of the house; which even had the rarity of an indoor bathroom and toilet. The home's many hauntings allowed it to rise to fame as "The Most Haunted House in England", it was even lived in and investigated by the legendary ghost hunter/investigator of the time; Harry Price, who dubbed it so. The house had everything; from ghostly apparitions, writing on the wall, sudden temperature changes, slamming doors and even a blazing finale when the house burnt down in 1939. Afterwards the cellars were excavated to reveal the skeleton of a young woman. The remains of the house were later demolished in 1944 after years of standing abandoned and unwanted. One of the ghosts was that of a nun who was rumoured to have been bricked up alive after having a love-affair with a monk from a local Benedictine monastery.

For a while now, I have been working on a recreation of the infamous Borley Rectory. It's taken quite a few attempts but I've finally made something that I feel is worth sharing. While the actual Borley Rectory is no longer standing, living a couple of villages over, I know of a house in my own village that is very similar, and so that has been useful. You can find some of the reference pictures and floor plans that I have been using here, here, here, here and the floor plans here. I've tried, to the best of my knowledge, to design and furnish this recreation to the way it would have been not many years after it was first built, when the Bull family was still living there.

In my game, I've had a lot of fun playing this lot. I had a sim living in the house while it was being built. Once the majority of the house was done internally I decided she should take on some tenants to tryout the 'Roommates' feature. I added the maximum number of roommates, which was seven, and let the fun begin. Admittedly I cheated a little because my sims already had a resident butler living with her. She received just over 20,000 Simoleons a week in rent which more than covered the bills. So the house can really begin to pay for itself almost straight away, which is a nice bonus.

A few things to note:
-There are some awkwardly warped ceiling tiles that I can do nothing about, they are located around one of the staircases.
-I've used some debug lights which will only show up when in buy/build mode.
-The moveobjects cheat was used with the fireplaces and chimneys, so it's best not to touch them.
-There is a compressed level between the ground and the first floor, I've left this open for some of the principal rooms to add the impression of high ceilings even though the ceiling tiles won't be visible when on the ground floor.
-The way I've furnished the majority of the house isn't entirely accurate to the way it was during the era of the Bulls, I had to elaborate using my own knowledge of other homes in our area.
-If you look at the real life floor plan you will see that I have replaced/repurposed a few rooms such as the laundry room, which has now become an art studio.
-For that extra something there is also a tomb concealed within the home, while it took me quite a while to actually build said tomb I doubt it would take even a novice explorer long to fully discover it and the secrets and treasures that it conceals.
-You will find a Bonehilda's coffin in one of the cellar rooms because you'll probably need help running the house and keeping it clean.

The house was built on a 50 by 50 lot costing 310,428 Simoleons furnished and 191,970 Simoleons unfurnished.

I'd also like to thank everyone who helped and advised me with making this lot over at CFF, especially the wonderful and ever-supportive; tsyokawe, lulume, Scoopy Loopy and cutsocks.

Lot Size: 50x50
Lot Price: 310,428 Simoleons
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