Since I was a child I've been fascinated with the paranormal and the possible
existence of ghosts, or spirits from decades, or even centuries past. One of
the most chilling cases I read about back in the 1980s - mainly because of the
famous image that accompanied it - was that at the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall.
If you're a fan of the paranormal, you'll no doubt be familiar with the image that
I'm referring to. So this is a story of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. Let's go
right back to the beginning; to 17th century England. A British politician by
the name of Colonel Robert Walpole was held in high regard in the House of
Commons during a seventeenth-century whilst representing the borough of
Colonel because his ranking in the British Armed Forces.
However, Colonel Robert Walpole should not be confused with his son, Sir Robert
Walpole, whose political career transcended even that of his father's.
In 1671, before his heyday in the Houses of Parliament,
Colonel Walpole married Mary Burwell, the daughter of a local landowner. Together
they had 19 children, but sadly only 15 of them survived into adulthood.
Dorothy Walpole was the 13th of their children, and was born at Houghton Hall,
the family home in Norfolk. She married and became Dorothy Townsend.
Her husband, Charles Townsend, was the British Secretary of State and director
of British foreign policy. The day of their marriage is uncertain, but it's
thought to be sometime in 1713. Now, the story goes that Dorothy's husband,
Charles Townsend, was notorious for his bad temper, and when he discovered that
his wife had committed adultery, he locked her away in a confined area of
their family home, Raynham Hall, which had been home to the Townsend's for
generations. It's said that she remained there until her death in 1726. She is
most commonly believed to have died from smallpox, although some say she was
murdered, while others say she committed suicide. Ultimately though, her cause of
death was never confirmed. Now, the next chapter of our story begins
over a century later, when the sighting of a spectre at Raynham Hall was reported
by a guest during a Christmas party in 1835. Colonel Loftus was the guest in
question, and after explaining to other guests about his encounter, another guest
reported that he had seen the same apparition. Their horrific descriptions
of a woman with eyeless sockets, and a glowing face led some members of
staff to leave Raynham Hall, never to return. The next reported sighting came
the following year in 1836, when Captain Frederick Marriott, a novelist and
officer of the British Navy, stayed at Raynham Hall with the sole intention of
proving the Brown Lady's legend to be bogus, stating that he believed the
legend to be made up by local smugglers to keep people away from the area.
The captain stayed at Raynham Hall for three nights. The first two nights
yeilded nothing. On the third night, and now even more convinced of the falsehood of
the prior claims due to his uneventful stay, Marriott was awoken late at night
by two young men; both family members of the Townsends'.
They asked the captain for his professional opinion on a new revolver
they had recently purchased, requesting that he accompany them to their living
quarters to view the weapon. Marriott was flattered by this request and did so,
even though it was the dead of night. What occurred next would rattle the
captain, making sure he never stepped foot in Raynham Hall ever again.
All three men walked down the dimly lit hallway.
According to Marriott's retelling of the events, the men joked about meeting the
Brown Lady, and saying that they were fortunate to own guns just in case.
Moments later, a seemingly disembodied candle-lit torch hovered down the
hallway towards them. As it drew closer Marriott recalls making out the details
of the bearer of the torch; more specifically a woman's face and the
infamous brown dress that she wore. At this point Marriott panicked, and on
pulling out his gun, he ordered the figure to stop. According to Marriott, she
drifted closer with a demonic smile on her face. With this, he shot a single
bullet in her direction. She vanished at that moment and the bullet lodged itself
in a door at the other end of the corridor. Now, three men were witness to
this occurrence, and all upheld the exact same story. There have been other
sightings allegedly reported over the years. One of them on the same famous
staircase in 1926 by members of the Townsend family. They later identified
the apparition from a portrait of the late Dorothy Walpole.
Another sighting as relatively recent as the 1960s, was reported by the 7th
Marquess Townsend, George John Patrick Dominick Townsend, but none of these
seemed to have been taken seriously, and have apparently gone unnoted by the
media. Now, the most famous sighting, and one which has been subject to heated
debate over recent decades, is that of captaincy province in India Shira to
london-based photographers for Country Life magazine on the 19th of September
1936 a hundred years after Mary axle ill the two photographers were taking
pictures of Raynham Hall for an article in the magazine as they were setting up
a shot of the grand staircase Shira said that he saw a vapour reform gradually
assuming the appearance of a woman which slowly descended the staircase towards
them Shara urged province to remove the lens cap which he did immediately Shira
then triggered the camera's flash the result being the image that has become
famous ever since first being printed in the December issue of country life that
same year it was later printed in Life magazine in December 1936 along with an
article of how the image came to be soon after both photographers were
interviewed by the famous paranormal investigator Harry price now price on
conclusion of the interview stated that he believed the jurors accounts of the
events stating I could not shake their story and I had no right to disbelieve
them
naturally as with all cases of this kind the events that took place were brought
into question by its fair share of skeptics some claimed the apparition to
be an intentional smudge of grease on the lens some say it was a clever double
exposure of the statue of the Virgin Mary
due to its undeniable likeness whilst others think the apparition was nothing
more than a manipulated image of Shira descending the steps Joe Nickell a
skeptic paranormal investigator from the u.s. is one of those who believed the
image to be AK level double exposure whilst author's John Farrelly and
Salomon welfare pointed out that they were vague characteristics to the
photograph that suggested it to be manipulated American magician John booth
also believed the image to be a fraud a publicity stunt for the country Life
magazine and he quite successively constructed his own version of the
photograph in an attempt to expose how easy it was to fake such an image
reports of the brown lady haunting nearby Sandringham house have also been
made but this time she was said to have taken the guise of a younger happier
woman is if yearning for better times before her untimely death Houghton Hall
the former home of the late lady Townsend is another location said to be
haunted King George the fourth was set to scene the brown lady at the stately
home approximately eight miles from Raynham Hall were these apparitions in
fact the brown lady or did they belong to other Souls
either way the Kings encounter was set to have shaken him to the point of
wanting to end his stay at Houghton Hall now this case still fascinates me and
although I'm not convinced of the famous photograph authenticity I'd like to
think that earlier accounts are the brown lady sightings have some
credibility even though centuries have passed since their occurrence
you