Location: Raynham Hall, East Raynham, Norfolk.
Haunting Date: 1835 - 19th September, 1936.
Type of haunting: Apparitions, photographic evidence and folklore.
Sources of research: Published information, photographic evidence and witness reports.
My conclusion: Genuine.
Arguably one of Britain's most famous ghosts, the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall haunts the spectacular home of the Townsend family. The identity of the Brown Lady is commonly linked to that of Dorothy Walpole, Viscountess Townshend. She was the sister of Robert Walpole, who is generally regarded to be the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Lady Dorothy ''Dolly'' Walpole died on the 29th March 1726 either from small-pox, or, a number of accounts suggest she died in suspicious circumstances at Raynham Hall, with some claiming she was pushed down the staircase on which the above photograph depicts.
The first record of a sighting of an apparition was at Christmas in 1835, during a gathering at the Hall, by Lucia C Stone. The record says that as two of the guests, Colonel Loftus and another guest named 'Hawkins', were approaching their bedrooms reported that they had seen the ''Brown Lady'' the previous night, and commenting that she wore a brown dress. The following evening, Colonel Loftus claimed he saw the Brown lady again, nothing on this occasion he was struck by the figure's ''empty eye-sockets'' whilst the face was ''glowing''. Shortly after he reported the second sighting, a number of staff resigned employment at the hall.
The next sighting of the Brown Lady came the following year, in 1836. Captain Frederick Marryat, who was a friend of Charles Dickens, requested to spend the night in the host haunted room at Raynham Hall. Marryat was a sceptic, and wanted to evidence his theory that the sightings of the apparition was caused by local smugglers hoping to keep people away from the area.
Writing some 50 years later, Captain Marryat's daughter Florence said of her father's experience:-
…he took possession of the room in which the portrait of the apparition hung, and in which she had been often seen, and slept each night with a loaded revolver under his pillow. For two days, however, he saw nothing, and the third was to be the limit of his stay. On the third night, however, two young men (nephews of the baronet), knocked at his door as he was undressing to go to bed, and asked him to step over to their room (which was at the other end of the corridor), and give them his opinion on a new gun just arrived from London. My father was in his shirt and trousers, but as the hour was late, and everybody had retired to rest except themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he was. As they were leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” he said, laughing. When the inspection of the gun was over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would accompany my father back again, “in case you meet the Brown Lady,” they repeated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in company.
The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extinguished, but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of a lamp coming towards them from the other end. “One of the ladies going to visit the nurseries,” whispered the young Townshends to my father. Now the bedroom doors in that corridor faced each other, and each room had a double door with a space between, as is the case in many old-fashioned houses. My father, as I have said, was in shirt and trousers only, and his native modesty made him feel uncomfortable, so he slipped within one of the outer doors (his friends following his example), in order to conceal himself until the lady should have passed by.
I have heard him describe how he watched her approaching nearer and nearer, through the chink of the door, until, as she was close enough for him to distinguish the colors and style of her costume, he recognised the figure as the facsimile of the portrait of “The Brown Lady”. He had his finger on the trigger of his revolver, and was about to demand it to stop and give the reason for its presence there, when the figure halted of its own accord before the door behind which he stood, and holding the lighted lamp she carried to her features, grinned in a malicious and diabolical manner at him. This act so infuriated my father, who was anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang into the corridor with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in her face. The figure instantly disappeared - the figure at which for several minutes three men had been looking together – and the bullet passed through the outer door of the room on the opposite side of the corridor, and lodged in the panel of the inner one. My father never attempted again to interfere with "The Brown Lady of Raynham".
The third sighting of the Brown Lady was in 1926, when Lady Audrey Buller (formerly Howard, nee Townshend) reported that her son and his friend had seen the figure on the staircase of Raynham Hall, and managed to identify the figure to that of the portrait of Lady Dorothy Walpole, which at that time hung in the haunted room.
It was after the 1926 encounter with the Brown Lady that sightings have significantly reduced. That was until 10 year later, when it is claimed something remarkable happened. It should be noted that less than a year prior, the incumbant lady of the house , Gwladys, Dowager Marchioness Townshend, wrote a book of 'true' ghost stories. She wrote in her book:- ''I must confess I believe in ghosts and I have for many years lived in a definitely haunted house''. The book was published in 1936.
On the 19th September 1936, photographers from the Country Lift magazine captured a picture of the Brown Lady. Captain Hubert Provand was a week known photographer of the time, and was visiting Raynham Hall with his assistant, Indre Shira. They were tasked with capturing professional images of the Hall using up-to-date photographic equipment. One of the most striking features of Raynham Hall is the grand staircase. Provand was preparing to take his photograph of the staircase, and whilst he had his head under the black cloth at the back of the camera, his assistant saw ''A vapoury figure gradually assuming the appearance of a woman''. She quickly shouted to Provand to take a photo, and a few seconds later the shutter snapped and the photograph was taken. That is the infamous photograph we have today.
Since the 1936 Provand photograph, sightings of the Brown Lady have dwindled and there are now growing reports that she haunts nearby Houghton Hall, her family residence, and Sandringham House.
It is on the basis of the detailed and correlating reports from a number of witnesses, over more than 100 years and the known fact that Dorothy Walpole led a troubled life, which has been linked to spirits and apparitions, and the claims she died on the staircase at Raynham Hall (which at the time was officially recorded as a death resulting from small-pox) that I conclude the photographed appartition of the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, is genuine. It should be noted, for transparancy, that there is a chance the Provand photograph could have been created through double-exposure, similar to that of the Spectre of Newby Church, but unlike that case the Raynham apparition has over 100 years of correlating evidence and witnesses.