Annesley Mount, Little Horton Lane, Bradford

A Memory of Bradford.

I recall other far more sinister events which took place at number 82 Annesley Mount. I first became aware of these events in 1953 when the Sunday night discussion took on a hushed and serious tone. My understanding increased as the story was re-told in later years. The Polish priest who lived at the end of our row had disappeared. Just before 7p.m. on July 13th, 1953, Father Henryk Borynski, aged 42, received a telephone call in his lodgings. His landlady, Mrs Beck, heard the phone ring and she saw Father Borynski talking quietly with one hand over the receiver.Immediately afterwards he left the house with only ten shillings in his pocket, leaving behind all his personal possessions and prayer books. He was never to return. At the time there was a strong community of Polish exiles living in Bradford and he was their priest. Poland was under the control of a Communist government which was extremely anti-Catholic. His fellow countrymen viewed him as a brilliant preacher and a truly inspirational leader, a person who would be seen as a considerable threat by the Polish government. It was rumoured that there was a pro-Communist cell operating in Bradford feeding information back to Warsaw. It was believed at the time that he may have been snatched by the Polish secret police. Despite investigations by MI5 and Scotland Yard no trace of him was found and he was declared dead in 1959. .

The story has never died. In 1962 it was reported that a professional Soviet assassin had admitted killing the priest using a cyanide spray, and burying his body on Ilkley Moor. The story was later denied. More troubling for the Church was an alternative explanation. Father Borynski had been sent to Bradford to replace a colleague, Captain Canon Boleslaw Martynellis, the first Polish priest in Bradford, who had, however, refused to leave. It was alleged that he lured Father Borynski into a trap. A month after his disappearance the Canon was found collapsed at home claiming to have received a visit from two mysterious men who apparently said to him, in Polish “Milz Klecho!” (“Keep quiet priest!”) The Bishop of Leeds, later Archbishop and Cardinal, John Heenan, had dismissed the idea of involvement by Canon Martynellis as “absurd” and advised the police to drop him as a suspect. He died two years later and the mystery remains unsolved.

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