Rayham Hall is the source of a ghost story that's been doing the rounds for more then 150 years. But this spooky story has a twist. The chilling image of this ghost has been captured on film. Infact, one of the most famous twentieth century ghost hunters, Robert Thurnston Hopkins, on seeing the photograph and noting how authentic it was, had this to say: 'It may well be the most genuine ghost photograph we possess and no study of the Supernatural is complete without reference to it.' I have reproduced the photograph for readers to judge for themselves. What do you think? Does it make the little hairs on the back of your neck stand too? The photograph caused quite a stir when it was first published, mainly because the negative had no evidence of double exposure which can easily be spotted in most fake ghost photographs. Secondly, there were independent witnesses to back up the story on the actual snapshot and the development of the negative. So what's the story behind the ghost, I hear you ask. Well, here's the scoop: Raynham Hall is located in Fakenham, Norfolk, near the east coast of London. It was named a hall because in actual fact it's really a big, rambling ancient mansion. It is quite impressive looking and has been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years within a particular family related to Royalty, the Townshends. The ghostly female apparition that haunts the house was first spotted on the main oak staircase of the house.
Since then those unlucky souls who have crossed paths with the apparition almost always say they first spotted her ghostly form at or near the oak staircase. She moves quietly down the main staircase, along one of the corridors and in and out of one of the first floor bedrooms. They say she appears as a clear and distinct figure, dressed in a gown of brown satin and yellow trimmings, with a frill around her throat. He features are quite clearly defined, but her eyes are sometimes dark hollows and her cheeks are unnaturally white. She is usually silent and harmless, but every occasionally there seems to be an evil, menacing quality about her and sightings of her have been known to bring terror to those who have seen her. But who is this ghostly Brown Lady? Well, many are convinced they know who she is. You see, on the first floor of Raynham Hall is a room with a portrait of Dorothy Walpole, whose ghost the Brown Lady is thought to be. Dorothy was not your average Jane Doe. She was a direct blood relative of the Townshends and her brother was Sir Robert Walpole, England's Prime Minister in 1722. Dorothy lived at Raynham Hall but she had an unhappy marriage that finally fell apart. When she got divorced, her children were taken away by her husband. Dorothy became so distraught, she suffered from mental depression. In those Victorian times the only thing they could think of doing was to confine her to a particular room, away from the public eye. And that particular room must have been the first floor bedroom I mentioned before. Rumor has it she either fell or was pushed to her death down the staircase that she now haunts, still constantly searching for her children who were taken away from her.
One of the most well known sightings of the Brown Lady was made by a famous writer, Frederick Marryat, who happened to be a guest of Lord and Lady Charles Townshend. The story goes that Marryat was a non believer of the Spirit World. Despite all the stories he was told about the hauntings in the mansion, he refused to buy into any of it. Infact, he went so far as to say that if someone was playing tricks in the mansion, he welcomed the opportunity of crossing swords with them, and that's exactly what happened. You see, Marryat was sleeping in the large, first floor bedroom. The very room the Brown Lady was often seen making her way into. It was also the room in which hung the portrait of Dorothy Walpole. Marryat was not disturbed at all by this. But he did take one precaution, he slept with a loaded revolver under his pillow. But the first night passed peacefully. So did the second and he began to wonder if the revolver under his pillow was really necessary. By the third night he began to relax completely. But just before twelve that night, as Marryat was about to call it a day, there was a knock on the door. Two other guests of the Townshends, sharing a bedroom further down the corridor, invited Marryat to their room to check out a new gun they had bought. Marryat set off to see it, but he was cautious enough to take his revolver with him. In a huge house like that a room down the corridor was not a short distance away, and in the darkness of the night, anyone could spring up before him. Those were also the days where you did not have lights in the hallway to guide you in the dark. So Marryat took a candle in his one hand that was free, and made his way across the long, dark corridor to the other guests room.
After inspecting the gun, he prepared to make his way back to his bedroom. The two guests were kind enough to offer to walk him back to his room. The three men set off together in the gloomy darkness of the big, old mansion, only their footfalls breaking the silence of the night. They were half way down the long, narrow corridor when Marryat suddenly pulled back. 'Look...' he whispered in a shaky tone. A woman was coming from the direction of Marryat's room. She looked so real and life like and her dress even rustled as she walked. But all three men noticed something quite extraordinary that made them very nervous. The temperature dropped sharply as she approached them. The three men had by now stooped dead in their tracks. And she grew closer to them, Marryat noticed something that made him feel even colder. The woman looked exactly like the lady in the portrait, hanging on his bedroom wall. Her clothes too matched the description given by his hosts when they recounted to him the sightings of the ghost in their house. But Marryat was determined not to be taken in so easily. Thinking perhaps someone was playing at being the ghost, he quickly pointed his revolver at the woman. But she was unfazed. She continued to move closer to the three men. When she got within yards of them, the unexpected happened. Marryat was so flustered, he pressed the trigger of his revolver.
The noise of the explosion was deafening in the stillness of the night and in the confined space of the narrow corridor. The three men waited anxiously for the smoke to clear, expecting to see a body on the floor. But as the last bits of smoke cleared, what remained was an eerily deserted corridor. The only evidence left of the whole ghostly incident was a hole in the wall showing where Marryat's bullet had gone through the figure they had all seen. Marryat maintained he had seen the Brown Lady, and in that day and age he was often ridiculed for his honesty. But the people who knew him, believed him. Not least of all his daughter. Infact, she even wrote about his encounter in a book. She ended the account of his experience with these words: 'My father never attempted again to interfere with the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall and I have heard she haunts the premises to this day.' Well, she was not far off the mark because exactly 100 years later, proof of the Brown Lady very unexpectedly resurfaced again, this time in print, for all to see. The old mansion had by then passed into the hands of the Dowager Marchioness Townshend. She had agreed to some photographers visiting Raynham Hall to take photos of the grand, old mansion to be featured in an exclusive magazine, Country Life. Country Life sent two top professional photographers, Captain Provand, art director of a reputable firm of Court photographers and his assistant, Indre Shira, for the photo shoot at Raynham Hall. They arrived on the morning of 19 September 1936 and took snapshots of many different areas of the mansion and its surrounding gardens. It took hours, but the two men were professionals and their work was thorough and time consuming.
At roughly four o'clock in the afternoon, as the day grew darker, they concentrated their efforts more in the house. Both men were totally absorbed in their own thoughts about their work when they arrived at the oak staircase. In the Country Life magazine issue of 26 December 1936, Indre Shira described the events that followed: 'I was standing by Captain Provand's side just behind the camera with the flashlight pistol in my hand, looking directly up the staircase. All at once I detected something. An etheral, veiled form was coming slowly down the stairs. Rather excitedly I called out sharply, 'Quick! Quick! There's something! Are you ready?' 'Yes,' Captain Provand replied, and removed the cap from the lens. I pressed the trigger of the flashlight pistol. After the flash had gone and the shutter closed, Captain Provand removed the focusing cloth from his head. He turned to me and said, 'What's all the excitement about?' I explained I had distinctly seen a figure at the staircase, transparent so that the steps were visible through the ethereal form, but nevertheless very definite and to me perfectly real. He laughed and said I must have imagined I had seen a ghost, for there was nothing now to be seen. It may be of interest to note that flash from the bulb which was used was equivalent, I understand, to the speed of one fiftieth part of a second. After securing several other pictures, we decided to pack up and return to Town. Nearly all the way back we were arguing about the possibility of obtaining a genuine ghost photograph.
Captian Provand laid down the law most emphatically by assuring me that as a Court photographer of 30 years standing, it was quite impossible to obtain an authentic ghost photograph, except, possibly, in a seance room and in that connection he had had no experience. I have neither his technical nor long years of experience, neither am I interested in physic phenomena; but I maintained that the form of a very refined influence was so real to my eyes that it must have been caught at that psychological moment by the lens of the camera. When the negatives of Raynham Hall were developed, I stood beside Captain Provand in the dark room. One after the other they were placed in the developer. Suddenly Captain Provand exclaimed, 'Good Lord! There's something on the staircase negative after all!' I look one glance, called to him, 'Hold it' and dashed downstairs to the chemist, Mr. Benjamin Jones, manager of Blake, Sandford and Blake, whose premises in immediately underneath our studio. I invited Mr Jones to come upstairs to our darkroom. He came and saw the negative just as it had been taken from the developer and placed in the adjoining hypo bath. Afterwards, he said had he not seen for himself the negative being developed, he would not have believed in the genuineness of the picture. Incidentally, Mr. Jones has had considerable experience as an amateur photographer in developing his own plates and films. Mr. Jones, Captain Provand and I vouch for the fact that the negative has not been retouched in any way. It has been examined critically by a number of experts.
No one can account for the appearance of the ghostly figure; but it is there clear enough...'
After inspecting the gun, he prepared to make his way back to his bedroom. The two guests were kind enough to offer to walk him back to his room. The three men set off together in the gloomy darkness of the big, old mansion, only their footfalls breaking the silence of the night. They were half way down the long, narrow corridor when Marryat suddenly pulled back. 'Look...' he whispered in a shaky tone. A woman was coming from the direction of Marryat's room. She looked so real and life like and her dress even rustled as she walked. But all three men noticed something quite extraordinary that made them very nervous. The temperature dropped sharply as she approached them. The three men had by now stooped dead in their tracks. And she grew closer to them, Marryat noticed something that made him feel even colder. The woman looked exactly like the lady in the portrait, hanging on his bedroom wall. Her clothes too matched the description given by his hosts when they recounted to him the sightings of the ghost in their house. But Marryat was determined not to be taken in so easily. Thinking perhaps someone was playing at being the ghost, he quickly pointed his revolver at the woman. But she was unfazed. She continued to move closer to the three men. When she got within yards of them, the unexpected happened. Marryat was so flustered, he pressed the trigger of his revolver.
The noise of the explosion was deafening in the stillness of the night and in the confined space of the narrow corridor. The three men waited anxiously for the smoke to clear, expecting to see a body on the floor. But as the last bits of smoke cleared, what remained was an eerily deserted corridor. The only evidence left of the whole ghostly incident was a hole in the wall showing where Marryat's bullet had gone through the figure they had all seen. Marryat maintained he had seen the Brown Lady, and in that day and age he was often ridiculed for his honesty. But the people who knew him, believed him. Not least of all his daughter. Infact, she even wrote about his encounter in a book. She ended the account of his experience with these words: 'My father never attempted again to interfere with the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall and I have heard she haunts the premises to this day.' Well, she was not far off the mark because exactly 100 years later, proof of the Brown Lady very unexpectedly resurfaced again, this time in print, for all to see. The old mansion had by then passed into the hands of the Dowager Marchioness Townshend. She had agreed to some photographers visiting Raynham Hall to take photos of the grand, old mansion to be featured in an exclusive magazine, Country Life. Country Life sent two top professional photographers, Captain Provand, art director of a reputable firm of Court photographers and his assistant, Indre Shira, for the photo shoot at Raynham Hall. They arrived on the morning of 19 September 1936 and took snapshots of many different areas of the mansion and its surrounding gardens. It took hours, but the two men were professionals and their work was thorough and time consuming.
At roughly four o'clock in the afternoon, as the day grew darker, they concentrated their efforts more in the house. Both men were totally absorbed in their own thoughts about their work when they arrived at the oak staircase. In the Country Life magazine issue of 26 December 1936, Indre Shira described the events that followed: 'I was standing by Captain Provand's side just behind the camera with the flashlight pistol in my hand, looking directly up the staircase. All at once I detected something. An etheral, veiled form was coming slowly down the stairs. Rather excitedly I called out sharply, 'Quick! Quick! There's something! Are you ready?' 'Yes,' Captain Provand replied, and removed the cap from the lens. I pressed the trigger of the flashlight pistol. After the flash had gone and the shutter closed, Captain Provand removed the focusing cloth from his head. He turned to me and said, 'What's all the excitement about?' I explained I had distinctly seen a figure at the staircase, transparent so that the steps were visible through the ethereal form, but nevertheless very definite and to me perfectly real. He laughed and said I must have imagined I had seen a ghost, for there was nothing now to be seen. It may be of interest to note that flash from the bulb which was used was equivalent, I understand, to the speed of one fiftieth part of a second. After securing several other pictures, we decided to pack up and return to Town. Nearly all the way back we were arguing about the possibility of obtaining a genuine ghost photograph.
Captian Provand laid down the law most emphatically by assuring me that as a Court photographer of 30 years standing, it was quite impossible to obtain an authentic ghost photograph, except, possibly, in a seance room and in that connection he had had no experience. I have neither his technical nor long years of experience, neither am I interested in physic phenomena; but I maintained that the form of a very refined influence was so real to my eyes that it must have been caught at that psychological moment by the lens of the camera. When the negatives of Raynham Hall were developed, I stood beside Captain Provand in the dark room. One after the other they were placed in the developer. Suddenly Captain Provand exclaimed, 'Good Lord! There's something on the staircase negative after all!' I look one glance, called to him, 'Hold it' and dashed downstairs to the chemist, Mr. Benjamin Jones, manager of Blake, Sandford and Blake, whose premises in immediately underneath our studio. I invited Mr Jones to come upstairs to our darkroom. He came and saw the negative just as it had been taken from the developer and placed in the adjoining hypo bath. Afterwards, he said had he not seen for himself the negative being developed, he would not have believed in the genuineness of the picture. Incidentally, Mr. Jones has had considerable experience as an amateur photographer in developing his own plates and films. Mr. Jones, Captain Provand and I vouch for the fact that the negative has not been retouched in any way. It has been examined critically by a number of experts.
No one can account for the appearance of the ghostly figure; but it is there clear enough...'
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