The Brown Lady Of Raynham Hall

[Swifty]

It boggles the mind why developers like to build bungalows in a county with terrible transport links and only one proper hospital... and yet people still buy them, and I'm astonished by how few people drive (often the wives, I've noticed). Good for you for living the by-the-sea dream while you're still a mere stripling.

I thought Cromer was vehemently opposed to that kind of joint. Didn't they fight off Costa and Tesco? Or am I thinking of another similarly Northern Norfolk town?

We've now got a Costa in the centre of town .. it's more the wealthy people who own second holiday homes here who are frightened of the place being modernised .. I suppose they've got a good point because we're at risk of becoming a mini Yarmouth and losing our 'quaintness' but at the end of the day, locals need to earn money somehow .. on the plus side, kids here are practically born into the hospitality tourist serving industry, the head chefs here are mostly in their early twenties so it's a good place to learn the trade before venturing out to the rest of the world, I was given the keys to a Victorian hotel after living here after just three months!?, something that would be extremely unlikely to happen in more accessible parts of the country.

 

[Mythopoeika]

I've never planned to grow old here, I noticed years ago that people have this romantic idea about retiring to the middle of nowhere which is a shit idea unless you're rich. I've decided to live by the sea while I'm still young enough to be able to walk on a beach and then relocate in my grazing years to somewhere that the ambulance can get to me quicker.

Find somewhere with a decent hospital and buy a house right next door.

 

[escargot]

Find somewhere with a decent hospital and buy a house right next door.

Here's another tip: if you're gettin' on a bit and are looking at care homes, go for ones in a more urban setting. Care staff are mainly female and badly paid, so they might not own cars or have first use of the family one. Bus services are unlikely to be helpful.

So a more rural home will have a smaller pool of potential staff to choose from and will have to put up with a lower quality of workers.

A care home in a town will have better bus services and more potential staff living close by so you'll see a higher quality of workers.

I have a lot of experience and have seen this borne out.

 

[Swifty]

Find somewhere with a decent hospital and buy a house right next door.

We already have .. well a few doors down anyway ..

 

[ShadyCavalier]

We've now got a Costa in the centre of town .. it's more the wealthy people who own second holiday homes here who are frightened of the place being modernised .. I suppose they've got a good point because we're at risk of becoming a mini Yarmouth and losing our 'quaintness' but at the end of the day, locals need to earn money somehow .. on the plus side, kids here are practically born into the hospitality tourist serving industry, the head chefs here are mostly in their early twenties so it's a good place to learn the trade before venturing out to the rest of the world, I was given the keys to a Victorian hotel after living here after just three months!?, something that would be extremely unlikely to happen in more accessible parts of the country.

Well, the Guardian described Cromer as a "1902 sort of place" recently, so I can see why people flock there for old-fashioned seaside amusement rather than Costa/McDonald's. I'm sure the second-homers would prefer an artisan bakery and a branch of Franco Manca's.

 

[Swifty]

Well, the Guardian described Cromer as a "1902 sort of place" recently, so I can see why people flock there for old-fashioned seaside amusement rather than Costa/McDonald's. I'm sure the second-homers would prefer an artisan bakery and a branch of Franco Manca's.

That's pretty much how it is, yes. The problem is, those people are only here 3 months a year so the locals have to work out how to make a living until then.

 

[ShadyCavalier]

That's pretty much how it is, yes. The problem is, those people are only here 3 months a year so the locals have to work out how to make a living until then.

Take haunting photos at Raynham Hall, get rich, disappear into obscurity?

 

[catseye]

Well, the Guardian described Cromer as a "1902 sort of place" .

That's just after seven o clock. Maybe they meant that everything was closed?

 

[Swifty]

That's just after seven o clock. Maybe they meant that everything was closed?

I've seen 4 after hours clubs being closed down here in the last 13 years, the reasons been exactly the same every time: local girls in their late teens screeching their heads off at 2am at kicking out time .. apart from one which was flooded and local girls in their late teens screeching their heads off at 2am.

The only way to get a late bar in Cromer (after 11pm) is to be a hotel resident ('resies'), the night porter has to keep serving you until you say so so we serve you doubles without you knowing it so you will eventually piss off to bed.

(some locals will be crafty, befriend some resies in a hotel bar, buying the first couple of rounds and then insist they are guests of the resies with the resies agreeing so they now are allowed to remain with them for an all night drinking session .. they get away with it once then are barred the next time they come in for taking the piss. The only non resies I'd do a late bar for against the rules was for our lifeboat crew because they're heroes).

 

[ShadyCavalier]

I've seen 4 after hours clubs being closed down here in the last 13 years, the reasons been exactly the same every time: local girls in their late teens screeching their heads off at 2am at kicking out time .. apart from one which was flooded and local girls in their late teens screeching their heads off at 2am.

The only way to get a late bar in Cromer (after 11pm) is to be a hotel resident ('resies'), the night porter has to keep serving you until you say so so we serve you doubles without you knowing it so you will eventually piss off to bed.

(some locals will be crafty, befriend some resies in a hotel bar, buying the first couple of rounds and then insist they are guests of the resies with the resies agreeing so they now are allowed to remain with them for an all night drinking session .. they get away with it once then are barred the next time they come in for taking the piss. The only non resies I'd do a late bar for against the rules was for our lifeboat crew because they're heroes).

There's something so deliciously 70s-ish about being a hanger-on at a genteel coastal hotel bar.

 

[DrPaulLee]

After much searching, I finally found my copy of FT with the article by Alan Murdie on the famous 1936 photograph. Alan makes reference to the book "The Undiscovered Country" by Stephen Jenkins in 1975 in which it is mentioned a hooded female phantom was seen near the Hall. Forlorn hope maybe, but does anyone have a copy of this book?

 

[Ronnie Jersey]

After much searching, I finally found my copy of FT with the article by Alan Murdie on the famous 1936 photograph. Alan makes reference to the book "The Undiscovered Country" by Stephen Jenkins in 1975 in which it is mentioned a hooded female phantom was seen near the Hall. Forlorn hope maybe, but does anyone have a copy of this book?

You can get a copy on ebay, varying prices and it's a bit expensive -
but there are quite a few more available on abebooks.com!

 

[DrPaulLee]

I don't really want to buy a copy just for one small section!

 

[SimonBurchell]

I don't really want to buy a copy just for one small section!

Ask your local library to get it in.

 

[DrPaulLee]

I've tried that but no joy. They can't source a copy.

 

[Sabresonic]

That's pretty much how it is, yes. The problem is, those people are only here 3 months a year so the locals have to work out how to make a living until then.

Well, the Guardian described Cromer as a "1902 sort of place" recently, so I can see why people flock there for old-fashioned seaside amusement rather than Costa/McDonald's. I'm sure the second-homers would prefer an artisan bakery and a branch of Franco Manca's.

It's like that in my home town of Tynemouth with a invasion of 2nd home owners and Southern Immigrants ( meaning well to do people from the South of England selling their houses and buying house up north out right and pushing out the locals sadly hence killing the community ).
the last invasion was the Vikings but now with have over priced Yuppie/Hipstair Pubs/Bar as all the real old fashioned pubs have been changed and loads of bleeding Coffee places and yet I can not get a bacon and black pudding sandwich.

 

[Frideswide]

those steps are extremely wide.

so... she isn't so short because she is small, it's that she is a long way off?

 

[Tunn11]

I've tried that but no joy. They can't source a copy.

That's the pathetic state of English public libraries now. They got rid of subject collections on the basis (flawed) that copies were available to buy used. Now they won't buy used if it costs too much.
They should at least told you how to access the British Library copy even if you didn't want to make the trip.

 

[staticgirl]

Why would Dorothy Walpole be decked out in medieval garb anyway? She was a Georgian. Unless it's supposed to be a shroud?

That photo scared me silly when I was a kid.

More recently, I always thought the photo was older than it is and have assumed a chemical mistake on the plate glass negative. Was it film or glass? Most of the 'features' seem to me to be features of the staircase behind her. Especially the facial ones which I think are the bannisters at the back. It might just be a splodge and a dose of pareidolia.

 

[Swifty]

Why would Dorothy Walpole be decked out in medieval garb anyway? She was a Georgian. Unless it's supposed to be a shroud?

That photo scared me silly when I was a kid.

More recently, I always thought the photo was older than it is and have assumed a chemical mistake on the plate glass negative. Was it film or glass? Most of the 'features' seem to me to be features of the staircase behind her. Especially the facial ones which I think are the bannisters at the back. It might just be a splodge and a dose of pareidolia.

After watching a home 'video' about 3 years ago that was quickly taken down by youtube, I'm fairly convinced the brown lady photo was, and remains, a trick of the light caused by reflection off the staircase itself. The two tourists were even laughing about and posing for live selfies in the clip although admittedly their captures didn't have a 'head' at the top of the otherwise identical body shape.

 

[DrPaulLee]

I asked Alan Murdie about Dennis Bardens copy of the photo and he didnt have the negative. He had a 1st generation copy taken from the negative. The SPR had a copy from the negative but in recent years it's gone missing from their archives at Cambridge University library.

I'm pretty sure that archive.org have a scan of the original issue of "Country Life" in which the photo appears. Failing that, the architecture dept at Cambridge have a copy as does Brockett Hall in Hertfordshire.

 

[EnolaGaia]

After much searching, I finally found my copy of FT with the article by Alan Murdie on the famous 1936 photograph. ...

I can't find any proof that we've noted the location of Murdie's feature article from the September(?) 2006 Fortean Times. Here's a link to the archived version at the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/2010072...ticles/86/the_brown_lady_of_raynham_hall.html

 

[DrPaulLee]

It's issue 215, October 2006, with Kirk and Spock on the cover. I have it on my desk right now.