hi nicholas good to see you back...the photo the woman took does not look like a damp patch to me
Hi Lyn - thank you very much for the welcome back!! I must admit that I sporadically visit, from time to time, but, not actually being a 'Brummie' myself, I generally don't have anything to contribute to the forum as such, from a nitty-gritty, historical point of view..... Well - that is - except for some ghost-related waffle, of course!! Laugh!! I've 'known' different aspects of the Birmingham area - mainly the City itself - from an early age and I've always loved the place...... as well as the HUGE amount of ghostlore reported from the surrounding suburbs, etc.....
With regards to the matter of the 'Back-To-Back Museum', I had the luxury of speaking directly with the visitor who took the photograph concerned - Ella Reeves, from Wolverhampton - and I was told that she decided to visit the museum in early October. The purpose for her visit was the simple fact that her grandfather - who passed away in his 90's, a couple of years ago - was raised in similar properties as a boy.... and she had basically wanted to see how he may have lived.
I've never actually seen the place myself, but she told me that visitors are conducted around the properties in guided tours and, on the day in question, she was a member of a party of 8. The bulk of the tour itself went without issue, eventually visiting the bedroom where the photograph in question was taken. After hearing a description of the area concerned, the party began to move on, but Ella says that she had suddenly felt 'weird'.... tingly and cold!?
She admits she was only alone for a very brief time, but had her phone out and so snapped a photograph. She hadn't seen anything with the naked eye at the time, but, later that day, on looking through the shots taken, she spied a strange 'shadow' on the wall in front of her!?
As far as Ella is concerned, there was no one else in the room to be casting such a shadow in that particular position, as all other members of her party had vacated the area concerned by that time. It is also very unlikely - if not impossible - for the shadow to be hers.... as it is clearly cast from a different direction entirely to where she was standing and Ella has long, straight hair, which was falling down over her shoulders that day. (While the shadow clearly shows the shape of a head / neck / shoulders, etc).
When the photograph concerned shortly came to the attention of the media, something of a 'meal' was made of the situation, it seems..! Sadly - and inevitably - some of the media sources concerned misrepresented / misreported data mentioned by Ella.... the main point in question being the emphasis 'put on' her deceased grandfather, when it came to the image in question. I was assured that at no point did she suggest that she 'hoped' the 'shadow' was the 'ghost of her grandfather', etc. (This was pure 'spin' by the papers concerned.....)
With regards to the picture itself, it does just look like the shadow of someone - standing out of shot - simply being cast onto the wall by some light source or other!? The only real, potential 'mystery' to the matter arises when Ella says she was 'alone in the room at the time' (and, of course, the shadow concerned isn't her own, etc). Ella is convinced there was no one else there at the time, but we do know how fallible human observation can generally be (at times) don't we?
I've been told that she is going back to the site shortly - in the presence of a medium, unfortunately (which I think it a truly terrible idea!!) - so I have asked her to make a note of the layout of the area concerned... lights, windows, position of furniture, etc.... to generally get a better notion of the scene involved(?)
my posts 143 to 149 gives details of what 3 of us saw and leaves me in no doubt that this did happen...just a bit of an update as my posts were a few years back now...i visit villa st and the old end quite a lot and have noticed that the house built on the ground of my old house has been up for sale at least 3 times during the past 8 years and has just been sold again this now has me wondering why?? i am sorely tempted that the next time it goes under the hammer to arrange a viewing just to see if i get any feelings while walking around
as i am totally convinced that what we all saw has not left the street..two adults and a 13 year old who did not speak of it until many years later can not be wrong..
I do recall speaking to you about your experiences around the time you posted them Lyn..... Someone I know has recently asked me about a property local to me (here in Willenhall) that hit the press in the mid-70's with its ghostly reputation... and the question they were posing (foremost) was 'whether the place was possibly STILL haunted'!?!
As with your old house, I know of quite a few, 'new-ish' buildings - across the West Mids region - that currently occupy sites which formerly had some type of 'spooky' story associated with them.....!? I think it's completely natural that the over-riding question should be... are these places still 'under the influence' of what might have been occurring there in the past, eh!?