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Who Ya Gonna Call? Ghost Hunters & Hunting

Sure, could be a man or a woman - my first thought on looking at it was a man.
I just looked at it more closely - could be a woman with a fluffly mohair type sweater (they were in style then) with the big fluffy matching white hat popped on top of her head, with light hair. And she was caught while looking to the left, with the sunshine blazing on her creating a blur of light on that sweater and hat.
JMO it's a person, good photo though!
I'm happier never knowing the truth tbh .. the question's more fun. I'd be sad if their son (who was also with them that day) answers this with "Shit! .. I've just remembered .. my mate Steve was with us that day and he was wearing all white!." .. then we move onto the next mystery.
 
I think it's a male because of the way he's sitting and the short sleeved shirt. It doesn't look like a T shirt or any kind of blouse. And if the weather was that hot I wouldn't think a woman would be wearing a pair of trousers if she didn't have to - a skirt or dress would be cooler. And I say that as a woman who wears trousers pretty much all year round.
 

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I would argue that there was space for someone to kneel behind her chair. Based on the size of the person in the red and white shirt, there is enough space for someone between the table (with the ewer on it) and the back of the chair (where the woman with the baby is sitting).
 
I would argue that there was space for someone to kneel behind her chair. Based on the size of the person in the red and white shirt, there is enough space for someone between the table (with the ewer on it) and the back of the chair (where the woman with the baby is sitting).

Agreed ... There's another issue here. The Wiseman website (linked above) includes an image submitted later which claims to show the four people present in the home where / when the mystery photo was snapped. Both women from the mystery photo - wearing the same garb - are among the four.

As often happens with such photos reviewed years after the fact (in this case 22 years later ... ) there's someone unaccounted for. Who was the fifth person who took this group photo?
 
Agreed ... There's another issue here. The Wiseman website (linked above) includes an image submitted later which claims to show the four people present in the home where / when the mystery photo was snapped. Both women from the mystery photo - wearing the same garb - are among the four.

As often happens with such photos reviewed years after the fact (in this case 22 years later ... ) there's someone unaccounted for. Who was the fifth person who took this group photo?
I think we forget, in this day of 'instant' photography, that, in the old days, you may not see the photos you had taken for some time. You had to finish the roll, take it to the processor, remember where you'd taken it, go back and pick it up - even the One Hour Processing was a fairly recent thing. When I worked on a farm in the middle of nowhere, I used to have to post my film away and wait for the pictures to be posted back. By the time I got them, I'd often forgotten what I'd taken pictures of. So I think that the necessary 'time lag' could well result in people forgetting just who had been around, who had maybe visited for a short while (it looks like a picture of a new baby, so people might not have stayed for longer than to say 'hello') and who had hold of the camera.

I've quoted on here before about someone showing me a picture they'd taken of my horse, and me being indignant about 'the old man' who was standing, in a proprietorial way, next to the horse.

It was me. I was all bundled up against the cold, had completely forgotten my friend taking the photograph, and didn't recognise myself. So, apart from The Travelling Underpant Syndrome (which is what I've decided to call it when you take a photo and only afterwards realise what was in the background) it's possible to misremember photographs after a period of time.

Also add in the 'Wow, spooky, Mom! You should send that in somewhere and make some money!' factor.
 
I agree with you guys, but on reading the Wiseman site and seeing the other photos, and then the 'Comments' section below, 'Cindi' (the mother of the baby, the young woman on the right in the photo) has commented several times that the furniture behind them is a sewing machine, you can see it clearly in the photo, and has a plant and pitcher standing on it. You can see that Cindi is sitting right up against this sewing machine, while her mother, the woman with the baby, is about 6" in front of it, according to Cindi.
The photo is odd because where is the room for a body to sit? Whenever I look at this photo, I'm looking for this strange head's left shoulder, but it's not there. And it seems the head is sitting on top of the sewing machine, LOL, just floating there. Looks to me like a male head also.
Just a really weird photo.
 
I think we forget, in this day of 'instant' photography, that, in the old days, you may not see the photos you had taken for some time. You had to finish the roll, take it to the processor, remember where you'd taken it, go back and pick it up - even the One Hour Processing was a fairly recent thing. When I worked on a farm in the middle of nowhere, I used to have to post my film away and wait for the pictures to be posted back. By the time I got them, I'd often forgotten what I'd taken pictures of.
And when after eventually getting them back, finding that half of them hadn't come out.
 
And when after eventually getting them back, finding that half of them hadn't come out.
Oh yes! And that one that really mattered, the only one you took of your best friend getting married, standing outside the church, looking lovely, the one that you only had one picture left on the film for - you had your thumb over the lens.
 
Oh yes! And that one that really mattered, the only one you took of your best friend getting married, standing outside the church, looking lovely, the one that you only had one picture left on the film for - you had your thumb over the lens.
That's it.
 
I agree with you guys, but on reading the Wiseman site and seeing the other photos, and then the 'Comments' section below, 'Cindi' (the mother of the baby, the young woman on the right in the photo) has commented several times that the furniture behind them is a sewing machine, you can see it clearly in the photo, and has a plant and pitcher standing on it. You can see that Cindi is sitting right up against this sewing machine, while her mother, the woman with the baby, is about 6" in front of it, according to Cindi.
The photo is odd because where is the room for a body to sit? Whenever I look at this photo, I'm looking for this strange head's left shoulder, but it's not there. And it seems the head is sitting on top of the sewing machine, LOL, just floating there. Looks to me like a male head also.
Just a really weird photo.
I thought it looks more like a male head as well.
 
This photo is one of the strangest, 2 young women taking a selfie in New Zealand, and someone appeared in the photo, between them, they said no one else was around and they don't recognize him:
 

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We went to Worstead's St. Mary's Church of the Blessed Virgin today. A couple of us checked beforehand to make sure it would be open an online info said it would be. We got there and it wasn't :( ... bollocks.

We managed to film loads of other stuff that we wouldn't otherwise have had the time to focus on surrounding the church and also underneath it (there's a crypt under the church containing some coffins from the 1700's, a grill allows you only just to be able to see them with a powerful torch so I got to film those) and got to relax in the White Lady Pub. I was also able to find the original print of the famous photo which wasn't framed anymore but instead 'stored' behind some other old pics without even glass over it so I got to handle, film and photograph that up close which was cool. I overheard some locals complaining about "those kids who'd got in the church" and the school and police involvement so that might be why the church is now closed at the weekends as a home printed A4 sign told us when we got there?.

An 85 year old gentleman who lives in the village and, conveniently, is both a paranormal investigator and the Dad of one of our team members gave me a quick outside tour of some of the stranger features on the outside of the church, all of which I've recorded. We were unsuccessful in finding Green Potter's gravestone sadly. We're planning on going back on a weekday so we can actually get inside the place to run our experiments.

This pic is me and a team member larking around outside the church, Norfolk County Services seem to have a sense of humour because the white lady has been awarded her own recycling bins parked outside the church ..

aworsteadspectral002.jpg


aworsteadspectral004.jpg


We did get a few clear pictures and some video through the windows.
 
That's a lovely picture, Swifty. How old is the church in question? It's not giving off 'really old' vibes (but then I live next door to a church with Saxon origins, which takes a bit of living up to).
 
That's a lovely picture, Swifty. How old is the church in question? It's not giving off 'really old' vibes (but then I live next door to a church with Saxon origins, which takes a bit of living up to).
It was built in the 14th century according to Wikipedia ..

Worstead[edit]​

At St. Mary's Church at Worstead, Norfolk, the village which gave its name to the cloth, the village church built by local weavers in the fourteenth-century towers over the small community, its tower jutting strikingly above the landscape. In other East Anglian communities, the wealth from wool poured in: Wymondham, Diss, North Walsham, East Harling, Attleborough, Aylsham. The churches basked in the refracted glory of wool wealth. Even in Norwich, which boasts more medieval churches than anywhere in Europe, it was wool money[8] that got the stone lifted, the glass stained and the panels carved. Norfolk wool was best suited to heavier cloth, and so Norwich and Norfolk eventually gained almost a complete monopoly on worstead. Those profits fueled an extraordinary ecclesiastical building boom.
 
It was built in the 14th century according to Wikipedia ..

Worstead[edit]​

At St. Mary's Church at Worstead, Norfolk, the village which gave its name to the cloth, the village church built by local weavers in the fourteenth-century towers over the small community, its tower jutting strikingly above the landscape. In other East Anglian communities, the wealth from wool poured in: Wymondham, Diss, North Walsham, East Harling, Attleborough, Aylsham. The churches basked in the refracted glory of wool wealth. Even in Norwich, which boasts more medieval churches than anywhere in Europe, it was wool money[8] that got the stone lifted, the glass stained and the panels carved. Norfolk wool was best suited to heavier cloth, and so Norwich and Norfolk eventually gained almost a complete monopoly on worstead. Those profits fueled an extraordinary ecclesiastical building boom.
Ah, modern then... :)
 
Ah, modern then... :)
They're still wet behind the ears by old English church standards, yep :). Features outside the church include a broken stone that looks to have the top half of a carved soldier's face from what looks to be the Norman conquest era just half buried in the ground (I couldn't lift it), carved signatures on the walls that look to be two to three hundred years old going by the style of writing, sundial like circles also hand carved by a door so locals knew when to go to church because hardly anyone could read or write there back then, the crypt containing the 18th century coffins and what looks like musket ball indents against another wall. None of these are mentioned in guides, it was the 85 year old chap who showed me all of this stuff.
 
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(a)…sundial like circles also hand carved by a door so locals knew when to go to church because hardly anyone could read or write there back then…(b)...what looks like musket ball indents against another wall.

(a) More likely to be apotropaic marks:

daisy-wheel-bradford-on-avon-1.jpg


(b) More likely to be more of the above, or the result of leaving a bored kid with a large coin next to a soft, scratchable wall!

maximus otter
 
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(a) More likely to be apotropaic marks:

daisy-wheel-bradford-on-avon-1.jpg


(b) More likely to be more of the above, or the result of leaving a bored kid with a large coin next to a soft, scratchable wall!

maximus otter
Thanks Max .. they look exactly like the circles with the line extending from the middle :cool: .. time to re think and re record those. Cheers.
 
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Found what may be a clearer version of that church ghost, maybe? Looks like a woman in this one, with a white sweater and white hat on:

View attachment 51248
Thanks Ronnie :), that looks like a direct scan of the original print that I got to hold and study. I was able to film the print in situ.

edit .. and because the original picture isn't being looked after as well as we'd hope, it isn't even in a picture frame with glass over the front to protect it, it's just glued onto a backing card that looks like it was once inside a picture frame and is slotted behind some junk at the end of the bar. If I was that way inclined, I could have quite easily nicked it. Also, there's now a small 'splat' of something on the bottom left hand side of the picture that could be dried on sauce or a splash of ale. The rest of the picture's in good condition.

The barmaid was super welcoming when we walked into The White Lady pub. I was half expecting the place to be as unfriendly as The Slaughtered Lamb pub from An American Werewolf In London but it was completely the opposite. The barmaid told me about hauntings at the pub and encouraged us to hang around until the owner returned (unfortunately we couldn't) because she said he'd be well into giving us an on camera interview and tour. She also confided to me where she lived, a building inbetween the pub and the church that she reckoned was also haunted because a local lad hung himself there 15 or so years ago and she'd had weird experiences there since moving in. Her husband had had to replace the piece of wood the lad had hung himself from because it had still had the rope burn marks on it.

She called the chef out to meet us who cheerfully said "To be honest, I think it's a load of bollocks but the boss will be back in a bit.". He wasn't trying to be rude, just honest lol. We're looking into filming an interview with one of the vicars of the church but a quick bit of research has revealed they get through vicars at about the same rate the some football clubs get through managers.
 
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Thanks Ronnie :), that looks like a direct scan of the original print that I got to hold and study. I was able to film the print in situ.

edit .. and because the original picture isn't being looked after as well as we'd hope, it isn't even in a picture frame with glass over the front to protect it, it's just glued onto a backing card that looks like it was once inside a picture frame and is slotted behind some junk at the end of the bar. If I was that way inclined, I could have quite easily nicked it. Also, there's now a small 'splat' of something on the bottom left hand side of the picture that could be dried on sauce or a splash of ale. The rest of the picture's in good condition.

The barmaid was super welcoming when we walked into The White Lady pub. I was half expecting the place to be as unfriendly as The Slaughtered Lamb pub from An American Werewolf In London but it was completely the opposite. The barmaid told me about hauntings at the pub and encouraged us to hang around until the owner returned (unfortunately we couldn't) because she said he'd be well into giving us an on camera interview and tour. She also confided to me where she lived, a building inbetween the pub and the church that she reckoned was also haunted because a local lad hung himself there 15 or so years ago and she'd had weird experiences there since moving in. Her husband had had to replace the piece of wood the lad had hung himself from because it had still had the rope burn marks on it.

She called the chef out to meet us who cheerfully said "To be honest, I think it's a load of bollocks but the boss will be back in a bit.". He wasn't trying to be rude, just honest lol. We're looking into filming an interview with one of the vicars of the church but a quick bit of research has revealed they get through vicars at about the same rate the some football clubs get through managers.
Surprising that they are not taking better care of a famous photo, thank goodness for the internet keeping permanent records.
Will you be posting that interview here?
 
Surprising that they are not taking better care of a famous photo, thank goodness for the internet keeping permanent records.
Will you be posting that interview here?
Hopefully .. if it happens :) .. and I was tempted to wet some tissue paper and rub the stain off but knowing my luck, I'd take the ink off somehow and destroy it. The original. I've actually done that with something else valuable before.
 
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Found what may be a clearer version of that church ghost, maybe? Looks like a woman in this one, with a white sweater and white hat on:

View attachment 51248
Excellent! What I now see is the Mrs, seated, looking down. Behind her is a white haired lady (or a blonde with the lens flare) in a what looks like a crocheted cardigan turned/looking to her right.
What I found confusing was the fuzziness about the head but this seems to be a vase of (dried) flowers between them.
A lack of ghostly legs could be simply down to her adopting a sitting position with her legs over the end of the bench.
It’s the Cumberland Spacemum all over again.
 
Excellent! What I now see is the Mrs, seated, looking down. Behind her is a white haired lady (or a blonde with the lens flare) in a what looks like a crocheted cardigan turned/looking to her right.
What I found confusing was the fuzziness about the head but this seems to be a vase of (dried) flowers between them.
A lack of ghostly legs could be simply down to her adopting a sitting position with her legs over the end of the bench.
It’s the Cumberland Spacemum all over again.
The structures pictured right at the back of the photograph are almost certainly vintage or recreation weaving looms. I think the fuzziness in that area could possibly be wool. Worstead (originally called Worsted) is famous for it's roots in wool production, a sheep is part of the sign welcoming you into the village, Worsted Wool is world famous:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fr...m570.l1311&_nkw=worsted+wool+vintage&_sacat=0

Although the church was locked on the day we visited, I was able to film through some of the windows and similar (if not the same) objects (looms) are still there in that same area .. and it can't have possibly been my Mrs or she would have told me :p
 
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(a) More likely to be apotropaic marks:

daisy-wheel-bradford-on-avon-1.jpg


(b) More likely to be more of the above, or the result of leaving a bored kid with a large coin next to a soft, scratchable wall!

maximus otter
Getting back to your information about apotropaic marks, I've just learned that the church also has a patron saint woman (St. Uncumber) who was against being pushed around by men. She's celebrated on one of the rood screens ..
aumcumber001.jpg
St Uncumber (right) on the Rood screen at St Mary's church, Worstead. Picture: Nick Butcher - Credit: Nick Butcher

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/weird-...Nyd1z5l1qwdJiic6REeJ4x1GFcW8Poc2GxMEf9hnkUg3k

The white lady photograph is starting to become one of the less interesting things about this church the more I dig:

'Legend has it that Saint Uncumber, a Christian living in medieval times, was one of nine daughters of a pagan king in Portugal who had taken a vow of chastity, meaning she was horrified to learn that her father had betrothed her to the King of Sicily in a bid to strengthen his own position.

The teenager fervently prayed to the God she had vowed to serve in order to be 'made repulsive' to her fiancé and her saviour answered: she awoke with a full beard, her fiancé accordingly called off the marriage and her virginity remained intact. It was, however, a hollow victory: her father, furious that she had disobeyed his will, ordered her to be crucified.'
 
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