My Diary of October 2025: Ghosts at Raynham Hall
5th October 2025 by | Uncategorized
As night draws in fast in these early autumn months, the wind gusts and the rain beats against the glass. We huddle up in our homes, perhaps with a glass of wine.
My log fire burns bright, and my dogs lie lazy and quiet by the hearth.
I cannot help but hark back to how it might have been in Tudor times on such a night.
The full moon hangs in a cloudy sky; our thoughts turn towards All Hallows’ Eve, the night when the dead walk and witches sweep across the skies in search of magic and mischief. As pumpkins glow in the vegetable patch, the bark of a fox in the fields sends goosebumps down my spine. On such nights, we recall old stories, as the wind bangs against the shed door, and we ask ourselves: do ghosts really have a place in the light of day?
Let me recount the tale of the Lady of Raynham Hall, which lies only thirty minutes from my home. In 1936, two photographers stood near the vast oak staircase. They had been told the tale of the Brown Lady who haunts this old stately home.
The flash bulbs pop, and when the men went to develop their images, they sensed a chill breeze and saw a pale shape that they could not discern with the naked eye. The two professionals worked for Country Life magazine. The image was published and later picked up by LIFE. An investigator declared the plate “innocent of faking,” while sceptics dismissed it as a double exposure.
The house, however, keeps its quieter tale: of a lady who lived, loved, and died; of a family home that outlasted its griefs; and of a photograph that outlives them both.
What do you make of the image—fake or fiction?
Legend not verified history.
Sources: Country Life account and context (Provand & Shira, 26 Dec 1936); general background summaries.
Thank you for reading my posts
Gemma
www.murderinthetower.london
The past is never silent