St. Marys is a 14th-century church in Worstead, Norfolk.

The White Lady Legend

According to local legend, the white lady appears at the church at the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve.

The oldest recorded story comes from the 1830s. In this tale, a local man was in a nearby pub with his friends on Christmas Eve. The man decided he would take it upon himself to ring the bells at midnight to celebrate the birth of Christ. Naturally, the conversation turned to the white lady.

Bravely, or maybe stupidly, the man declared he was not scared of the white lady. In fact, if he saw her, he would offer her a kiss!

The man, no doubt egged on by his friends, set off in the direction of the church. His friends waited to hear the sound of the church bells. Midnight came and went, and no bells were rung. The man’s friends worriedly, and I am sure nervously,y made their way to the church. There, they found their friend crouched in a corner of the bell tower, with a look of pure fear on his face.

He screamed, “I’ve seen her! There! There!” while pointing wildly about. The man lapsed into unconsciousness and died shortly afterwards!

The white lady photographed

One hot August day in 1975, Diane and Peter, Berthelot, and their son decided to visit the church and get out of the heat.

Diane, who had an ear infection and was feeling rather unwell with it, decided to take a pew towards the front of the church. As she did, she prayed for better health. Peter explored the church and took a few holiday snaps.

One photo he took was of his wife resting on the pews.

Sometime later, the family and their lodger, Barbara, decided to view their summer snaps for the first time. Barbara innocently asked, “Who’s that sitting behind you, Di?” Diane was not alone, as they believed.

They were shocked to see a white figure sitting behind her! Peter and Diane were adamant that no one else was in the church with them.

The next year, the family returned to Norfolk. They took along their photo and showed it to the vicar of the church, who told them the story of the white lady.

The white lady—is she malevolent or benevolent?

We have seen from the first story that she did not take too kindly to the man paying her a visit. However, Diane felt that the presence shown in the photo with her had a healing effect. She stated that as she sat down,she felt a tingling sensation. In fact, she credits the white lady with keeping her healthy ever since.

Locals believe she is friendly these days. She has been seen a number of times. A man remembers seeing her walking through the graveyard and through the doors of the church. He also claimed that a white light seemed to emanate from the windows. He strongly believed he saw an angel.

In another story, a group of friends were drinking in the graveyard. One young man happened to be leaning on a gravestone. According to him, the gravestone seemed to move. He turned around to see a woman in a white dress and bonnet staring down at him with a stern face! The friends left pretty sharply.

Maybe she doesn’t take too kindly to people misusing the church? What do you think? Let us know here.

Read more here.