The Spectre of Newby Church (the "Newby Monk")

North Yorkshire. Near Ripon, in the grounds of Newby Hall, stands the Church of Christ the Consoler. William Burges designed it, and it was built between 1871 and 1876. It is a memorial. In April 1870, Greek brigands took Frederick Vyner prisoner near Athens and murdered him. His family paid for the church with the ransom money that was never used. It was never a monastery. Before the photograph, it had no reputation for hauntings.

The vicar was Rev. Kenneth F. Lord. The plan was simple. Pictures of the interior, above all the altar. Photos for friends, postcards for church fundraising, perhaps Christmas cards. The camera was a Rolleicord IV twin-lens reflex.

Lord saw nothing unusual. Later retellings say the vicar was completely alone, although one account mentions an assistant. Then the film was developed. Beside the altar stood a figure that had not been there. Lord could find no records of any abbey or monastery nearby.

It stands on the first stair to the altar. A tall, dark robe with a cowl. Arms folded in a typical monastic pose. Long robes cover the feet and drape over the altar step. A long cloth mask hides the face, except for two eye holes. The whole figure is semi-transparent. It does not move. Retellings make it 8 to 9 feet tall. Believers saw a 16th-century monk, with a white shroud over his face, possibly to mask leprosy or another disfigurement.

13 August 1967. The Sunday People published "Did the vicar snap a GHOST?" by Patrick Kent. Lord said the picture had been taken "seven years ago". The paper's photographic department examined the negative and consulted the film's manufacturer. They found no signs of tampering or double exposure in the emulsion. An expert from Amateur Photographer was puzzled.

But the same article explained how to make such a picture. Stop the lens down to about f/16. Expose a cloaked figure for about 5 seconds. Cap the lens, remove the figure, and expose the empty scene for about another 15 seconds. Later claims that BBC experts found no double exposure remain unsubstantiated. Even the date is disputed. Most retellings give 1963. *Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers* gives 1954.

Sceptics favour a timed exposure. A person stands still for part of it, then leaves the frame. On Metabunk, Mick West put it plainly: "You don't even need to cover the lens. The 'ghost' can just run off." MonsterTalk host Blake Smith judged a timed exposure more likely than a double exposure. Others argue for a careful double exposure, which the Rolleicord IV allowed. Rick Burden of Ghost Hunters of Australia called the photo "probably fake".

The height may mislead too. The feet cannot be seen, so the figure could be standing on a box. Matt Baxter estimates it at a little more than six feet. MonsterTalk also flagged the assistant, the years before publication, the shifting details and a single known frame. In its favour stand a clergyman photographer, an awkward rather than polished figure, and a church with no ghostly past.

Janet Bord included the picture in Ghosts in 1974. It is usually ranked with the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall and the Tulip Staircase ghost among the most famous ghost photographs. No one knows where the original negative is now. The hooded figure by the altar remains a question on a single frame of film.