GHOSTLY LADY SNAPPED IN FORMER VICTORIAN GUESTHOUSE

Ghostly lady in window?

Demolition workers were given a fright after photographing a ghostly figure peering through the window of a derelict Victorian guesthouse in Kendal, Cumbria. 

 The image is said to bear an eerie resemblance of Frances Grimshaw, who worked at the guesthouse and stood for hours at the same window taking bookings.

The late Mrs Frances Grimshaw

David Grimshaw, a former resident at the property, said he was convinced the figure is the ghost of his mother, who died nearly a year ago aged 87.

He believes her spirit may have appeared to protest at the demolition of Meadowbank House, which she adored.

"That is my mother. I'm totally convinced – no one else looks like that. She had glasses and big earrings and she used to wear a dress with a bow at the front," he said.

"She used to stand in that room for hours on the phone – it was the guesthouse reception and she took bookings from there.”

A close-up image

 Mr Grimshaw, 59, a managing director, who now lives in Bedford, said: "She would have been horrified if she had known the house was being demolished because it was beautiful, so maybe that is why she's turned up."

Demolition supervisor Robert Johnson, 38, of Heysham, took the photograph of the house shortly before it was knocked down, earlier this week but it was only later that he noticed the ghostly figure.
"It wasn't until I got home and showed my wife that we spotted the woman," he said.
"You can see the jewellery on her and everything. I've always been a sceptic but I'll have to believe in ghosts now."
Colleague Stuart Shan, 34, from Blackburn, Lancashire, said: "The day before we took the photo we were stripping the building inside and I noticed the chandelier swinging on its own.
"We said at the time the place felt strange. My hairs were standing on end when I saw the photo. I believe it is a ghost."
Dave Armstrong, of Kendal contractors Cox and Allen, said the five-gabled building, which was originally a dentist's in the early 1900s, has been taken down to be replaced with a new commercial property.
He said he could not explain the image of the woman. "There was only a black wall behind the window, we had taken everything out – there were no visible features or anything with a skin colour."

Source: Telegraph Newspapers