WHEN an unidentified mummy was discovered in a cold and dark warehouse earlier this year, nobody suspected it may have been the inspiration for a century of books and films dedicated to the sinister world of the undead.

Wrapped in expensive linen, preserved with beeswax and bitumen, the mysterious cadaver looked like any other Egyptian mummy, probably shipped over by a wealthy Victorian as an exotic curiosity for his drawing room.

But after closer inspection by a Yorkshire Egyptologist, it appears the mummy acted as the catalyst for a genre of horror.

The body came to light after Dr Joann Fletcher visited Hull Museum to examine its Egyptian collection.

After looking through the collection, it emerged that the museum also had two mummies which had been damaged during wartime bombing raids, and had been left untouched in a warehouse for decades.

Dr Fletcher then set about investigating the history of the mummies, and after weeks of searching, she traced one of them back to Whitby, North Yorkshire.

The fishing port has long had a connection with the undead after the novelist Bram Stoker visited the town and was inspired to write the classic horror story Dracula, which features Whitby and its abbey.

It was discovered that the mummy had belonged to MP Sir George Elliot, who visited Egypt as an advisor to the khedive, the viceroy under the Ottomans.

During his stay in Egypt, he acquired a number of artefacts, which included a mummy said to be the body of an Egyptian princess.

Sir George later settled in Whitby and it is understood Bram Stoker visited him at his home in Royal Crescent.

Shortly after his visit to Sir George's home, where he almost certainly will have viewed the mummy, Stoker wrote his novel, Jewel of the Seven Stars, in 1903.

Although there were earlier mummy movies, the horror films inspired by the novel started with the 1971 film, Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, followed by the Awakening in 1980 and the 1997 Legend of the Mummy.

At the beginning of the 1900s, Sir George donated the mummy to Whitby museum, before it was sent to Hull several years later, where it remained for decades locked in a warehouse.

Councillor Dorothy Clegg, of Whitby Town Council, said the town now seemed synonymous with horror stories.

She said: "This is incredibly exciting for Whitby. To think that Stoker was inspired to write the Jewel of the Seven Stars after seeing this mummy in Whitby is amazing.

"What is it about Whitby that seems to start all these strange horror stories?

"We already have a Dracula trail and now we might be looking at a mummy trail."

It also looks like the true identity of the mummy may remain a mystery, as it has been discovered that it was, in fact, a male body, not a princess.

Coun Clegg added: "This mummy is surrounded in mystery, and to think that we know very little about it, yet the fact it spawned an entire genre of horror films, is truly fascinating."