It may seem like hundreds of joggers stepped back in time during their weekly run – but the image of Cassiobury Park’s old gates is actually a clever photography trick by a history author.

Greg Hill created the “ghostly” photograph while taking official snaps of more than 300 people participating in the weekly Cassiobury Parkrun, which begins at Rickmansworth Road at 9am every Saturday.

Using a picture from a recent book he published in association with English Heritage called Lost England, Mr Hill superimposed the “much-missed” park gates, which were controversially knocked down in 1970.

He explained: “I thought it might be interesting to superimpose runners gathering at the start with a c1900 photograph from the recent book I published in association with English Heritage called Lost England.

“It gives a ghostly impression of what might have been, as the positioning and scale of the famous and much missed Gates, built in 1800 and demolished in 1970, in the face of much criticism, is about right.”