Welsh UFO sightings from 1860. For sightings from other years please click HERE.
PRESS
May 1860
Fishguard
The Pembrokeshire Herald and General Advertiser (11/05/1860) were dismayed to report that droves of people were visiting an alleged haunted cottage in Fishguard.
-
A GHOST. - A miserable little cottage on the outskirts of the town, has, for some time past, been the nightly rendezvous of courageous old dames, and adventurous swains, who, after stimulating their valour to its highest pitch by sundry potations, have resorted thither and awaited, with distorted jaws, and hair erect, the appearance of a most eccentric ghost, who was said to herald his approach with a sublime chorus, produced by invisible saws, hammers, and other implements familiar to him when 'in the flesh,' to the amazement and consternation of his surviving relatives. We have not, however, heard that the courage of either of the gaping expectants was tested by the appearance of the departed one, though numbers testify to having heard sounds which a sceptic would probably attribute to the close proximity of vermin disposed to have a little fun at their expense, the sounds of whose pattering feet, as they indulged in a merry dance among the rafters, were expanded by the heated imaginations of the listeners, into concussions of hammers and hatchets, innumerable, and to whom the grating of teeth upon the rotten framework of the cabin sounded like the united efforts of a host of departed spirits sawing with a most supernatural energy! Difficult as we find it to preserve our gravity while writing on such a ridiculous subject, we are bound, in truth, to state the affair has produced a strong impression upon the minds of many simple people, and affords an excellent opportunity to our numerous ministers and others interested in the moral and intellectual condition of their benighted neighbours, to perform a service to society by sifting the matter thoroughly, and disabusing the minds of the ignorant, of such intolerable superstition.
PRESS
May 1860
Solva
Arthur Mees wrote into the Western Mail (24th February 1921) about a premonition of the Solva lighthouse keeper that came true in 1860.
-
Mr. Arthur Mee writes: - "The mysterious disturbances in a house at Hornsey can be paralleled here in Wales, and even in our own neighbourhood. Some years ago I collected a large number of such like uncanny happenings. Naturally, however, the victims are reticent on the subject, one reason being that the presence of 'ghosts' is enough to depreciate the value of any property. People who study the occult say that the Hornsey disturbance is caused by a poltergeist, which is German for a noisy or hooligan spirit. Smart people affect to laugh these things out of court; they happen, nevertheless, and can be a source of immense worry and annoyance. Well attested instances are on record where such disturbances were caused by spirit entity uneasy about something that had occurred in this life. A famous example from West Wales will be found in the report on Spiritualism drawn up many years ago by the London Dialectical Society.
It may not be generally known that the Smalls Lighthouse was constructed at Solva. The resident engineer was Sir James Nicholas Douglass, who effected the first landing on the rock on September 2, 1836, and the work was completed on August 7, 1861, at a cost of £50,125. The erection of this lighthouse was attended with many difficulties and dangers, and the resident engineer, with the whole of the rock party, 42 in number, once narrowly escaped foundering with their vessel on the occasion of the great gale which commenced on October 25, 1859, when the Royal Charter went down off the coast of Anglesey, with 450 lives. As it was there were two accidents that proved fatal. In May, 1860, a stonemason while crossing from the old to the new lighthouse was struck by a sea that rebounded from the latter building and carried him off the rock, and was drowned.
The principal keeper of the old Smalls Lighthouse was Mr. Henry Rees (an uncle of Mr. C. M. Rees, The Studio, Solva), a most respectable and worthy man. One day when Mr Douglass visited the rock, he noticed that Rees was in an unusual state of depression, and asked the cause. The man told him he could not shake off a dream he had the previous night. He saw, with great vividness, a ship go down in a storm, and in spite of his efforts he could only save three men. Mr. Douglass laughed at the man's fears, and thought no more of the conversation. He left the rock that night as usual, but before morning such a gale was blowing and continued that it was a week before the steamer could again visit the rock. On landing, to Mr. Douglass's great surprise, it was found that Mr. Rees's dream had been fulfilled. A Norwegian ship had foundered on the spot where he had seen it, and he had saved three men who were then in the lighthouse, and the additional mouths had caused provisions to run short.
PRESS
December 1860
Church Street, Wrexham
The Pembrokeshire Herald and General Advertiser (21/12/1860) had another ghostly tale for its readers. A police officer on his beat was convinced he had seen a ghost - but it turned out to be a drunk...
A GHOST AT WREXHAM. - A few nights since, one of the police officers stationed in this borough, whilst on his beat, was (as the Yankees say) pretty considerably alarmed by witnessing, as he considered, a ghost, in Church-street. Being an individual not accustomed to such an unusual sight, it was thought prudent to approach the spirit with due care and caution, fearing his ghostship might be in no mood for any familiarity. The 'peeler' summoned up all courage and accosted the spirit with a polite inquiry of what might be its business, and turning on the light from his lantern to distinguish the features, if possible, the secret was at once disclosed. It appears a 'knight of the thimble and bodkin' had been for a considerable time past partaking too freely of the 'dew off Ben Nevis,' had escaped from the custody of his keepers, and in his shirt gaiters only had strayed into Church-street, seeking for a policeman to apprehend, as he stated, his Satanic majesty, who was continually coming down the chimney in the shape of a sweep. The 'peeler' at once saw how matters stood, and with the greatest good nature accompanied the party home, and after considerable trouble and persuasion he went to bed. He is now just recovering from a severe attack of delirium tremens from the cause above stated.
0 comments:
Post a Comment