Another ghost story for your reading pleasure. Also, new photographs some of the inside of the church at night with some orbs, and a new sound. Suggestions on what this one sounds like?

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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

Norfolk's best-known ghost is the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, so called because she is always seen on the staircase and in the corridors of Raynham Hall wearing a brown brocade dress. The Brown Lady is Dorothy Walpole. She was the daughter of Robert Walpole, an MP for Houghton, in Norfolk, and sister of the more-famous Sir Robert Walpole, the 18th century Prime Minister. There have been many eyewitness accounts of this haunting as well as it being one of the most reliably photographed ghosts in history.

The 1936 photograph of the Brown Lady in the "Country Life" magazine.. Dorothy fell in love with the Second Viscount Townshend but her father, who was Lord Townshend's guardian, refused his consent to their marriage. Lord Townshend eventually married the daughter of Baron Pelham of Laughton, but became a widower in 1711. Shortly afterwards he finally married the love of his life, Dorothy Walpole.

However, in the meantime, Dorothy Walpole had become the mistress of Lord Wharton, who had to leave the country after building up a pile of debts. It was after his marriage to Dorothy Walpole that Lord Townshend learned of his wife's previous conduct with Lord Wharton and ordered that she be kept locked in her apartments at Raynham Hall.
She died at the age of 40, on 29th March, 1726, officially of smallpox but there were those who said that she had died of a broken heart, or even a broken neck after either falling, or being pushed down the Grand Staircase. It is believed that she returns to Raynham Hall in search of her children, from whom she had been parted by her husband, after he had learned about her affair with Lord Wharton.

In 1836, the author Captain Marryat was staying at Raynham Hall and asked his host, Lord Townshend, if he could sleep in the room from which the Brown Lady was said to appear. As he was about to retire to bed for the night, two young men, relations of Lord Townshend, called into his room and said that they wished to discuss a gun that they intended using the whilst out on a shooting party. Captain Marryat accompanied them both to their room.
A few minutes later, whilst all three were returning along the corridor to Captain Marryat's room, joking that the gun would protect them from the Brown Lady, they saw a female figure advancing towards them, carrying a lamp. As she drew nearer, Captain Marryat realised that he had seen the woman before, in a portrait that hung in his room.
All three realised that the figure that was passing them was the ghostly Brown Lady and Captain Marryat pulled the trigger of the gun. The bullet went straight through the figure, which disappeared just after the shot was fired, and was later found in a door behind where she had been.

In 1849, Major Loftus was spending a few days at Raynham Hall and was having a game of chess one evening with a friend called Hawkins. After finishing the final game they decided to retire to bed and proceeded upstairs. As they were wishing each other goodnight, Hawkins pointed to the figure of a woman standing by one of the doors in the corridor. As they stood staring at her, the figure slowly vanished. The following night the Major saw the apparition again and he was startled to see that her eye-sockets were empty.

In November, 1926, Lady Townshend was staying for the weekend at Raynham Hall when, with her son and a friend, she saw the Brown Lady on the staircase. None of them had heard of the Brown Lady prior to this meeting but all swore that the woman they had met was the same one that was portrayed in the portrait of Dorothy Walpole.
George IV visited Raynham Hall when he was Prince Regent, and the Brown Lady is said to have frightened him out of his wits. He woke up in the middle of the night to see the ghostly figure standing at the foot of his bed. He promptly left, saying "I will not spend another hour in this accursed house, for tonight I have seen that which I hope to God I never see again".

On 19th September, 1936, the world-famous picture of the Brown Lady was taken by Captain Provand, whilst he was on a assignment for the magazine "Country Life". He had taken one photograph of the old staircase when his assistant, Indre Shira, called out that he could see a form on the stairs and asked Captain Provand to take another shot. Although the figure did not appear in the viewfinder, it appeared on the photographic plate, and after the negative had been examined by experts it was confirmed that it had not been touched up or faked in any way. The picture was subsequently published in "Country Life" on 6th December, 1936.

The Duke of Monmouth, two ghostly children and a ghost of a cocker spaniel are also reported to haunt Raynham Hall.