A ghostly image has been snapped at a museum prompting speculation that the spirit of the English scientist Edward Jenner could be haunting his former home. 

The attic doorway with 'ghostly' figure (left) and without (right)

A photograph seems to have captured a hazy image of a man sitting on a chair in the attic of the Edward Jenner Museum in Berkeley, Gloucestershire.

The picture was taken by BBC photographer Chris Sandys, who said: "I don't believe in ghosts myself, but this is strange."

Mr Sandys, who was taking images for a story on the museum's new Ghosts In The Attic exhibition, added: "As soon as I'd taken a panoramic photo, I reviewed the image on the camera and straight away noticed this strange formation of light, shaped like a figure, through the doorway in the next room.

"Without moving I did a few takes to try and work out what had caused it but couldn't see anything. It was so weird."

Jenner was the pioneer of smallpox vaccination and the father of immunology. He was born in Berkeley in 1749 where he spent most of his career as a doctor in the town before he died in 1823.

Museum director Sarah Parker said: "There have always been stories of ghosts at the Edward Jenner Museum. We usually take them with a large pinch of salt. We are truly flabbergasted by the image.

"You can basically see through a doorway what looks like a figure reclining in a chair, only there is no chair there. Who knows whether it is Jenner himself?

"We have graffiti from soldiers previously billeted in the attic rooms from the late 19th century and perhaps this is one of them or even one of Jenner's servants."