The ethereal, veiled form they captured gliding down the hall’s main staircase is widely believed to be the fabled ‘Brown Lady’ of Raynham - the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole, an 18th-century mistress of the manor.
On September 19, 1936, Country Life photographers on assignment at Raynham Hall in Norfolk took what is probably history’s most famous example of ‘spirit photography’. Was it really the ghost of Lady Dorothy Walpole, an 18th-century mistress of the manor? Caitlin Blackwell Baines takes a look, and tells tales of how many struggling country house owners have found that ghosts help them to stay connected to a more illustrious past. Some 85 years ago, a picture of the fabled ‘Brown Lady’ of Raynham was taken by Country Life photographers. Country Life's Top 100 architects, builders, designers and gardeners.
