Weird Wrexham

Wrexham may well be the most haunted town in Wales; certainly in North Wales. Every year I learn of new ghostly experiences here. Of course, it's a big, busy place which spreads out into many satellite towns and villages, so not only does it have a sizeable population, it's had a large former population, too (if you see my point!)

Recently I heard that the swimming baths may be haunted - that deserves some further investigation. However, a correspondent to my www.uncannyuk.co.uk website has drawn my attention to several other allegedly haunted sites in the town. He works in a job that brings him into contact with lots of townspeople and hears of personal encounters that way. That nature of his work is such that he has asked that he remains anonymous.

The old 'Groves' school is one Wrexham location he has identified. He writes: 'I spoke to a young chap the other day who works as a security guard for a reputable company and he said he worked on duty at the Groves not long back, and during the early hours he was terrified by the sound of furniture moving around on the floor above his guard post. The building is alarmed and no one apparently in the building. Some of my colleagues have spoken to the cleaners at the Groves site and they confirmed they see ‘things’ there.'

My Wrexham correspondent has also had a couple of personal experiences with the supernatural, the first at Wrexham Training on Ruabon Road and the second at Trinity House on Egerton Street by the former ‘Thirsty Scholar’ pub.

He tells me: 'I was studying a part-time admin course at Wrexham Training about six years ago when I personally experienced the paranormal activity at that location. It was very lively to say the least. Staff and students alike were seeing and experiencing - often quite unpleasant - things. I maintained contact with some staff a little while after I completed my course, and things were still occuring there.

'In relation to Trinity House, I was working on a Mental Health Help Line in the evenings and weekends. Over time, I saw apparitions and heard the usual doors banging, and the lights on several occasions had a life of their own. When I left working there, I mentioned it to management, who then told me they too experienced seeing apparitions, doors banging, etc.'

This interesting chap has been good enough to offer further details, so I shall certainly take him up on that - keep watching this space!

The Carmarthenshire Ghost train

The most recent ghost story on Uncanny UK concerns a poltergeist that caused mayhem in an old farmhouse near St Asaph over the Christmas period of 1812. I took the story from a manuscript letter that describes the disturbances first-hand. The exceedingly rare nature of this source material makes it a favourite of mine and I have mentioned it in many of my books as well as on the Uncanny UK website.

Another recent article describes a few 'ghost trains', apparitions of locomotives that have long since shunted into the Great Beyond. Briefly, I mention a phantom train that was seen in Carmarthenshire. This ghost was recorded by the folklorist J C Davies, who got it first-hand from the witness, 'an old man named James'. Here I repeat the story verbatim from his book 'Folklore of West and Mid Wales', which was published in 1911:

'Some years ago when he [James] happened to be out about midnight once, he saw a train passing, which came from the direction of Carmarthen, and went towards Llandilo, and as no train was to pass through the station of Nantgaredig at that hour, he enquired of the Stationmaster next morning what was the special train that passed at midnight. In reply he was told he had been either dreaming or had seen the spirit of a train, as no train had passed at that time of night.
'A few days after this a special train passed through the station conveying a large funeral from Carmarthen to Llandilo; and James and his friend were convinced that the train he had seen in the night was nothing but an apparition of the real train with the funeral!'

James's belief was that the ghost train had taken the form of a - for then - hi-tech version of the phantom funerals that commonly reported as shuffling through Welsh lanes at twilight to warn of real funerals to come.

To read about the Christmas poltergeist, please visit: http://www.uncannyuk.co.uk/article.php?id=47 ; to read more about phantom trains: http://www.uncannyuk.co.uk/article.php?id=46 ; and to read more about phantom funerals, visit: http://www.uncannyuk.co.uk/article.php?id=22

The Gwyllgi, Black Dogs of Welsh folklore

The second part of the 'Beast of Brymbo' story has been uploaded on Uncanny UK, with witness Malcolm Jones's account of a huge, unidentifiable animal he saw one evening in the early 1970s.

His description of this creature, seen on a lane leading into the Wrexham village, echoes those of the Gwyllgi, the mysterious dog-like apparitions of Welsh folklore. These commonly reported yet inexplicable spectres have their counterparts in England, where they go by a variety of regional names, including Padfoot, Skriker, Trash and Black Shuck. In the literature, they are usually simply referred to as Black Dogs.

In Wales, as elsewhere, they are usually described as being black in colour, with a shaggy pelt and closely resembling a dog of the mastiff breed but much larger, about the size of a calf. They are said to haunt lonely lanes at night or twilight. Mr Jones's spook has many of these characteristics, although his had a leaner outline, more like a lurcher. There are other variants throughout Wales. In the Afan and Margam district of South Wales, for example, they were described as being blood red in colour. The most grotesque is that which haunted a green lane near Llysworney in Glamorgan: this was described as having the hind-quarters of a spotted dog but the head of a man.

When I was writing my 'Wales of the Unexpected' column in the Daily Post newspaper, I received accounts from readers of two separate Gwyllgi seen on Anglesey. These accounts are reproduced in my book of the same name (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, ISBN 1-84527-008-8).

The word Gwyllgi, incidentally, first appears in a rare book, 'The Vale of Glamorgan', published in 1839. I believe the best translation of the word would be 'Dog of the Twilight'.

The are several other stories of the Black Dogs to be found on the Uncanny UK website, including one that could fly! To read more visit www.uncannyuk.co.uk
To buy a copy of 'Wales of the Unexpected' from Amazon, visit: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wales-Unexpected-Richard-Holland/dp/1845270088/ref=sr_1_1/202-3642153-2258216?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1194708087&sr=1-1

Spooky limerick

Alan Daulby came across an odd litle book that he thought might help him with his dauntless efforts to learn Welsh. It's called 'Cerddi Dwli' (which means something like 'Nonsense Verse') and is by Leslie Harries, with sketches by E. Alwyn Lloyd.

It's general style gave it the appearance of having been published at any period from the 1920s to the '50s, although a scanning of the introduction made it clear it appeared sometime post-1960.

Among the many sub-Edward Lear limericks (llimericau?) in Welsh is one about a ghost at Llansannan in Denbighshire. Here it is:

'Roedd bachgen yn byw yn Llansannan

Yn gweled ysbrydion ym mhobman;

Nes gwelodd un nos

Un yn codi o'r ffos, -

Mae e' heddiw fel ysbryd ei hunan!

Mr Lloyd's cartoon shows a classic bwbach grinning under a tree. Welsh ghosts seem to enjoy haunting the countryside more than stately homes and castles, as they do over the border. Anyone able to translate the rather old-fashioned and perhaps provinicial Welsh of Mr Harries' verse will perform a kindness by uploading it here.