High Strangeness

Is this a ghost of 'the Grey Lady' of Dudley Castle, caught on camera for first time?

Mike Lockley
Birmingham Mail
Mon, 06 Oct 2014 21:00 UTC

© Birmingham Mail
The shot of the Sharington Range Tudor palace, taken from the top of Dudley Castle tower, which showed a red glow to the upper rooms and a ghostly figure in the archway beneath (inset).

She's the ghost who has supposedly haunted Dudley Castle for centuries.

Now Birmingham couple Dean and Amy Harper believe they have captured a chilling image of the fabled Grey Lady - after taking photos in the tourist attraction's courtyard.

A simple snap of the Sharington Range - buildings erected within the castle in the mid-1500s - oozed paranormal activity, but was hidden at the time it was taken.

Upper rooms glowed red and there, in the archway below, was a blurred figure in trademark grey.

Dean said: "We went up to the castle ruins and while we were up there we thought we'd get some pictures of the grounds.

"On looking through the images that night, Amy saw a glow, as though a light was on, on the top window level. On zooming in we noticed on the bottom, inside an arch, there was a lady and what appears to be a little girl, too.

"Neither of us are ghost hunters but we do wonder if this could be the Grey Lady ghost - the picture is quite clear."

Built in 1071, Dudley is believed to be the most haunted castle in England, with the Grey Lady the most famous spook. She is reputed to be the spirit of Dorothy Beaumont, who died, along with her baby, shortly after childbirth.

On her deathbed, Dorothy asked for two things. She wanted to be buried next to her daughter and for her husband to attend the funeral.

Neither happened, so she is condemned to wander the castle and its grounds. Her favourite haunts are the castle keep and Grey Lady Tavern, a pub named after her.

The picture, taken on August 30, has certainly excited Jill Hitchman, head of media and communications at Dudley Zoo, which is in the castle grounds.

She said: "There have been many stories about ghostly figures and happenings associated with the castle, mostly centred within the courtyard.

"This image is incredible because it was taken from the top of the castle on a mobile phone camera and still manages to pick out the outline of what seems to be a female figure in the doorway."

Nick Duffy, leading light in West Midlands Ghost Club, said: "It is a nice photograph. It is a credible photograph in comparison to a lot you do see. Time and again, we have been sent blatantly faked photographs."

Reader Comments

carefix · 2014-10-08T12:24:29Z

Mmnnn...

Something isn't quite right with the two pictures. The aspect ratio for the two arches are quite different. To put it another way the big view picture has an arch width about twice that of the ghost picture. If the ghost picture has been shrunk sideways for an unexplained reason then our rather trim ghost lady would in reality i.e. compared to the wide arch have been grossly obese. She fills up half the small arch so in the event the picture has been shrunk sideways her width has been halved. OK there seems from the horizontals to be a slight increase in angles but nowhere enough to explain the shrinkage of the arch so with the usual lack of data (thanks SoTT) we cannot quantify the effect which would have been caused by taking the pictures at differing angles.

It is interesting to note that the arch verticals and mullions do remain in proportion. If the lady stood in the middle of the small arch I bet she could reach both verticals at the same time. I doubt she could do this on the arch of the main photo.

The simple solution: If the ghost is real then the small arch is also a ghost arch!

Problem solved. Congrats to SoTT on presenting the first ghost arch on the internet.

carefix · 2014-10-08T12:49:57Z

Compare the two large photos. Look at the building that contains the arch in both i.e. the one with the cars and the one without. It is now apparent that the one without the cars is indeed of a different aspect ratio. Somebody has streched the photo sideways by a factor of 2 for an unexplained reason. Thankfully our ghost lady was not a big podgy lump but a wraith. All ghosts should be slim, it stands to reason.

Niall · 2014-10-08T13:49:27Z

Problem solved, eh?

It didn't cross your mind that the inset isn't taken from top photo, which is clearly 'squashed' when compared with the photo of Dudley Castle with cars in the courtyard...?

Goodness me, does someone have a chip on his shoulder.

renewal · 2014-10-08T12:37:13Z

Interesting, but

Why "thanks to Sott"? The source is the Burmingham Mail, a newspaper.

carefix · 2014-10-08T13:02:57Z

SoTT are very uncritical about what they post which is a great shame. There is usually a lack of useful data. I do not blame SoTT for the original lack of clarity, I just like to have a moan about the lack of data in the hope they might turn their critical faculties on from time to time. Some of the critical political analysis is pretty good or at least as good as this kind of thing can be. Anything much to do with subjects of my interest is largely secondhand propaganda or shear idiocy like their continuing stream of photographs of aircraft contrails they (or the original source) tells us are meteors or comets. The propaganda is dangerous and they act pretty much like the MSM in this regard just parotting the lies of Big Pharma for example to the great detrement of readers. Worse still is their utter blindness to the real danger of asteroid impact and thier mindless belief in the stupids that man the system. The world is such that the lunatics are always in charge of every system and the lunatics always engineer the system to do the opposite of what it was intended to do. The reason? The best way to stay in a job is never to do the job. This is the whole basis of the professions.

carefix · 2014-10-08T20:28:54Z

To Niall

Problem solved, eh?

It didn't cross your mind that the inset isn't taken from top photo, which is clearly 'squashed' when compared with the photo of Dudley Castle with cars in the courtyard...?

Goodness me, does someone have a chip on his shoulder.

Reply to Nial...

Actually, the opposite. It never seemed to me that the inset might be taken from the top photo as there doesn't seem to be a ghost there! In fact the first thing I said was:

"Something isn't quite right with the two pictures. The aspect ratio for the two arches are quite different."

Also the top photo is not clearly "squashed" when compared with the photo of Dudley Castle with the cars in the courtyard, it is expanded!

So, Just to repeat myself:

SoTT are very uncritical about what they post which is a great shame.

Stick to the political stuff Nial. You are very good.

Niall · 2014-10-08T21:24:37Z

Yes, the aspect ratio of the two doorways is different.

What does that have to do with SOTT.net being too uncritical for your tastes?

Too uncritical of what?

Is this your rather oblique way of saying that you don't think the Harpers took a photo of a ghost?

carefix · 2014-10-08T22:53:49Z

Nial

Too uncritical? That is a general comment in reply to "renewal". It applies in several areas but not others which is why I visit SoTT. It is a great site if it has a few faults.

The Harpers? No! There is a huge problem with ghost photos in general. As soon as they are good enough to be sufficiently clear everybody says: "Nah! That's a person". In fact it could be that thousands, even millions of good ghost photos have been taken over the years but they just look like people even to the photographer. The Harper's photo could be a ghost or it could be a young woman wearing a long dress. It has to be fuzzy to be considered a ghost.

Over the years I have seen quite a few strange things including a ghost walking along the top of the wall to a Norman keep. I heard a shouting for help coming from the keep so I ran up there after I observed the ghost fall headfirst from the wall. I climbed to the top of a dangerous spiral staircase to the wall from which the ghost fell. I felt so scared I dare not put my head over the top of the wall which I could have done. I noticed the the air was deathly still up there whereas it was blowing hard when I had been at the bottom. Suddenly, a large boulder, about a foot long, fell from the wall top, about six inches above the top of my head and fell down the centre of the staircase where the central pillar was missing. I gave up my attempt at rescue and my then crouched position and walked gingerly down the staircase with my back to the wall and made my way home.

The next day a boy went the top of the keep up that same staircase and walked along the wall. He fell headfirst to his death.

I can tell better ghost stories, all true. I do not necessarily believe in ghosts (and ghosts may mean different things to different people) but usually when you experience them first hand there is something weird in the atmosphere, something odd and out of the normal.

renewal · 2014-10-09T00:40:19Z

Perhaps you need a site of your own.

hanbuj · 2014-10-12T18:39:19Z

Be open minded.

It could be a ghost. It could also be the wall in conjunction with the picture artifacts resulting from a high camera zoom playing tricks with our eyes; aka Pareidolia. Who's to say without any hard evidence? It's interesting nonetheless isn't it?

You can't fix stupid, he was probably suffering from vaxxitis.

Psstoffgoy

I’ll only be interested when I see court dates for all involved. Doubtful. And that’s optimistic.

Christian83

I’m surprised the guy wasn’t sucked out.

Christian83

I’m waiting for the “safer euthanasia” kit LOL

Christian83

I think he's lying or very incorrect - how was releasing Covid going to make people accept vaccines? The reason for the US to release Covid was to...

foxmulder

High Strangeness

Is this a ghost of 'the Grey Lady' of Dudley Castle, caught on camera for first time?

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