Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is a ghost said to haunt Raynham Hall in Norfolk. The house stands in parkland a few kilometres south of the coast. It is a red-brick country mansion built in the early 17th century. The ghost takes its name from the brown brocade dress it wears. The figure is linked by legend to Dorothy Walpole, sister of Britain’s first Prime Minister. The story says Dorothy Walpole was locked in her rooms after an affair was discovered. She died of smallpox in 1726 while still confined. Colonel Loftus and another guest claimed to have seen her in 1835 wearing the same brown dress. Captain Frederick Marryat, a friend of Charles Dickens, spent a night in the haunted room in 1836. He fired a revolver at the figure before it vanished. Visitors walk through the grand entrance and along the main staircase. The photograph taken in 1936 shows the figure descending the stairs. The portrait of Dorothy Walpole once hung in the room where sightings occurred. The house remains a private home but parts are open to the public. The legend draws those who hope to glimpse the Brown Lady on the staircase.