TAKE A close look at this picture … Can you see the figure of a lady kneeling at a graveside?
Respected landscape photographer Alan Bishop got the shock when he downloaded a series of pictures he had taken in St Anne’s Church grounds at Lydgate. 
Because, through a puzzling haze on just one frame, the outline of a woman could be seen kneeling on a grassy knoll. And when he returned to the scene, he discovered a moss-covered gravestone laying flat with the ground at the spot.
Alan, 55, a support worker who lives just a short walk from the graveyard, said: “I am completely baffled. The picture is as clear as a bell – it has not been touched in anyway.
“The woman was kneeling by a grave on an 11-year-old girl who died in 1800. I am willing to put the picture under any scrutiny by experts but in 20 years taking pictures of landscapes and wildlife I have never seen anything like this before.”
Mr Bishop said he had originally visited the church grounds to specifically capture pictures of a striking red sunset. “I was taking photos of the trees with the red sky in the foreground,” he explained. 
“But when I came to examine them, there seemed to be what looks like smoke on one of the frames. I had been on my own and do not smoke. And, to be honest, I was more interested in photographing the trees and had not noticed the gravestones.”
His wife Deborah and daughter Stacey spotted the figure of a lady through the mist on the picture.
“I simply did not see it at all at first,” he said. “When when I put the photo into black and white there seems to be what looks like a woman kneeling at the graveside.
“There is a gravestone laying flat to the ground with an inscription in memory to a young girl who had died in 1800. I am completely baffled by it all. I would be delighted to hear from anyone who can shed any light on the mystery.”
Next month, the Independent’s ghost expert, Christine Whitehead will give her take on the picture. But what are your views in this strange happening? Email: ken@saddind.co.uk
Mr Bishop can be contacted at: 07724 321609. To visit his website, click on: www.alanbishopphotography.co.uk
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