The strange photo of St. Dubricius Church taken by Glyn Townley, which I first published two weeks ago and elaborated on last week, has generated a lot of interest. I have received quite a bit of mail about it and people have stopped me in the street to talk about it. Most think the photo shows a very strange phenomenon, and I quite agree. The image, which I still see as a young lady in a brown dress is weird. Most people see the figure as a hooded monk or a lady in a bridal dress. I have to confess that I can see neither of these and believe that there is some autosuggestion involved there - what with it being the doorway of a church and all that.

Continued . . .

Last week, I showed my article to my daughter, Sarah, who said, 'I'll go there with you on 15th May 2027'. Sarah often wears dresses like the one I 'imagine' in the photo and she has black hair. Continuing with the impossible scenario, we got to joking, 'maybe the theory is true and the lady in the photo is Sarah - in 20 years time'.

In last week's article, I had mused about it being a warp in space/time, as the photograph's 'metadata', which cannot be changed without some extremely serious hacking, showed the picture to have been taken in 2027 with a Samsung camera. I have since received the following information by email from Karen Wren however:

'I also have a Samsung digital camera which is subject to various blips', said Karen. 'If the date is not set correctly, or if it’s knocked, then the date resets to 2027! As soon as I saw the 2027 date I guessed immediately that the pic was taken with a Samsung camera. Quite why they default to 2027 is another question, however.'

Well, that blows that theory out of the water. Shame. I have to admit that, much as I like receiving mail from Karen (she is a local friend) and was pleased to receive her down to earth feedback, at the same time I was quite disappointed. Although I was joking with the time warp theory, in a strange kind of way, I kind of hoped it would turn out to be a possibility.

Somebody else suggested: 'The picture at St Dubricious might be a 'Corpse Bride'.

No I don't know what one of those is either - though I guess from the Latin, 'corpus - corpse' (body) it is probably a dead bride. His money however is still on a 'priest in full regalia, i.e. a Bishop-type cape and cope with a robe underneath'.

Hmm. Change the word, 'bride' for 'parrot' and I think you probably have the makings of a good sketch there, which will still be funny in 30 plus years to come.

Continued . . .

Robin Shaw sent in the following:

'Alan,

Your Mystery picture. I think you have made a grave mistake. But in the spirit of things I am not going to undertake to make big issue of it. Perhaps you could send it to one of those ghostbusting groups, if you don't mind coffin up for them to look into it. Was the photo taken with a medium format camera? Either that or you are dead right about the time travel you speak about in the body of your article. Did you write the article yourself or do you use a ghost writer?'

Nice one, Robin! Actually, I put a new SAM card in my mobile and called Derek Acorah's 'spirit guide' for his advice.

Back to being serious though. There is no getting away from it - the mystery remains unsolved. Glyn and Josie from Yorkshire have been in touch and, out of interest have sent the photo next in the sequence of those taken at St. Dubricius that day. It is a perfectly normal photo. They also sent in a photo of themselves (below). Both they and we here at 'Wyenot News' would like to find out more. I don't suppose we ever will but it is good fun trying... ... as I said, over to Mulder and Scully, or anybody else out there in the ether who might have an answer.

Thank you - Astom Ingham Open Gardens

Last June you kindly published an article and photographs on the Aston Ingham Open Gardens. Yesterday I was contacted by a lady from the USA who had got my telephone number from that 'Wyenot News' article. She has relatives who left for the USA in the 1860s. They'd lived in Aston Ingham, Linton, Newent and Ross-on-Wye. She wanted photographs of the Aston Ingham Church flower decorations that we'd had for the Open Gardens week-end.

I thought that you'd like to know that she is a regular viewer and uses the 'Wyenot News' to keep in touch on what is happening in the areas where her family used to live. Thought you'd be interested in knowing this. Keep up the good work and very many thanks for all your help with the Aston Ingham Open Gardens Week-end! This year, with your support, we raised over £1,000 for local charities - much appreciated!

Alec Leggett

It is a pleasure, Alec, I enjoyed the tour to take photos and I am pleased to hear that the Open Gardens weekend was a success.

Was it Ross-on-Wye?

Dear Sirs or Madam,

I was recently on holiday in the UK and while traveling down the A40 highway on my way to Winchester from Hereford, (I was not driving, just a passenger) we crossed a bridge and I saw to my right, a lovely little town which I believe may have been Ross on Wye. What I saw was a very tall church spire to the right and the town to the left of the spire. I tried to take a photo but we were moving too fast for me to get my camera ready and snap the shot. Could I be correct in my assumption? If not I will have to check out other towns along the A40 on the internet.

Thank you for your assistance in pacifying my curiosity. Happy trails.

Yours sincerely,

B. Keeling

The Sherlock Holmes within tells me that you are an American and I strongly suspect, from your description, that you were indeed looking at Ross-on-Wye. However, as I was not in the car with you I cannot say for certain.

What I suggest is that you look at some of the 100,000 or so photos on 'Wyenot' and if one of them matches up to the view you saw, then it was. The 'Scenic Ross-on-Wye' page, or the photo at the top of virtually every page on 'Wyenot' are good places to start.

The British Legion held their British Legion Remembrance Day Service at Ross Baptist Church on Sunday evening, which began with the veterans meeting at Ross Market House and parading the short distance along Broad Street to the church, where the flag bearers formed a guard of honour at the entrance.

Saturday began with a gathering of new sponsors and ex-captains at Ross-on-Wye Rugby Club. The event was held to unveil the new match shirts sponsored by Walford Timber and to thank their other new sponsors Charlie's Bar and HB Spices and Flavourings Ltd., as well as a number of other sponsors who have sponsored individual games to be held later throughout the season.

Newly promoted to Gloucester Division 1, Ross-on-Wye RFC took a few knocks but came out 20-7 winners over Chipping Sodbury in their fist league game of the season.

In the opening quarter of the game, the only thing between the two teams was their goal kicker, with Ross leading 6-0, after two penalties from Alistair Rees and the visitors missing two kicks at goal. But soon Chipping Sodbury took advantage of their pressure to score the first try of the match and after successfully scoring the conversion they took a 7-6 lead. Ross kept fighting and came back soon after with a try from Alistair Hunter Blair to regain the lead and go in 13-7 up at half time.

In the second half, Captain, Andrew Hunt dislocated his shoulder and looks to be out for at least six weeks. Which saw Michael Davies come on and move TC Leech into the centre. Ross also made further changes bringing on Dave Mince and Nick Rawlins, which seemed to inspire the team. Capitalizing on their pressure after some good play from Chay Brine, Alistair Hunter Blair secured his second try of the game to give Ross a convincing 20-7 lead. But as the final whistle drew closer fullback Alistair Hunter Blair had to be replaced and looks likely to be off for around three weeks, so although Ross got a welcome win they are now missing key players to go in to there next league match at home against Longlevens on Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm.

Ross-on-Wye Weather Station is located by the tennis courts and bowling green at 'Crossfields' and is one of the important stations around the country which regularly sends data to the Meteorological Office. This is why Ross-on-Wye is sometimes mentioned on the BBC weather reports. It is currently still a manually monitored station and readings are taken twice per day by husband and wife team, June and Rex Swallow.

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