Welsh UFO sightings from 1879. For sightings from other years please click HERE.
PRESS
January 1879
Caerphilly
Tragic tale of death premonition from a boy who duly died by falling through ice. I've written more about Daniel Desmond and his family HERE.
PRESS
January 1879
Bodlondeb, Conwy
The Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald of 11th January told readers that ghostly cries 'like those of a child in distress' were being reported in the area. The North Wales Journal (17/01/79) confirmed the story, stating that the path was now deserted in the evenings, but said that sceptics were inclined to say the cries were the sound of porpoises.
PRESS
March 1879
Ponterdawe, Swansea
I've also been collecting tales of 'corporeal' ghosts and other supernatural tales that could represent UFO activity. This one was never much of a candidate but it's such a good story it deserves recording anyway! Apparently a local friendly society's rules refused to pay out on suicides - but one ex-member was determined his widow should get the money...
STRANGE CASE OF SUPERSTITION IN WALES. A strange ghost story comes from the Principality. There is a friendly society at Ponterdawe, in the Swansea Valley, amongst whose rules is one that the funeral allowances on account of a deceased member shall not be paid in cases of suicide. One of the members recently died by his own hand, and the club accordingly refused to pay the death money. For this reasonable and just refusal the members are now complaining that they are subjected to serious persecution from the unseen and presumably a ghostly agent. The manifestations began on a recent Sunday, when one of the officers, returning home over a lonely road, was assailed, as he asserts, by the spirit of the late member, who, failing to obtain a satisfactory reply to his demand for the money in a somewhat unspiritlike manner, assailed the unfortunate man, and actually "tore his clothes to ribbons." Such, at least, was the account he gave, in tones of horror, at the first public-house he came to after this terrible encounter.
But the ghost does not appear to have been satisfied with this demonstration. On the following Tuesday evening, whilst the members were assembled in the lodge room, the usual knocks were heard at the door of a brother seeking admittance. The door was opened, but no one was to be seen. The members, however, are all very certain that they heard the voice of the deceased utter the words: "Pay my widow my funeral, and then I shall be at rest." The meeting precipitately broke up, and the members are now puzzled to know what to do with such a determined deceased brother. The narrative is worth repetition, if only as bringing to light a novelty in the conduct of those who "revisit thus the glimpse of the moon."
The story seems to have originated in the Western Mail (08/04/79) before being picked up by English papers and then, via the Birmingham Gazette, making it back to Wales in publications like the Llangollen Advertiser (18/04/79) and the Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald (19/04/79).
STRANGE GHOST STORY FROM PONTARDAWE. A correspondent sends us the following extraordinary statement: - It appears that a friendly society, held not a hundred miles from Pontardawe, Swansea Valley, is likely to have some trouble through non-payment of the funeral allowance to a deceased member. The story runs that one of the members having recently committed suicide, the club refused to pay the death money, according to their rules. As one of the officers was returning home last Sunday week, he was met, in a lonely part of the road, by what he asserts to be the ghost of the late member, who, failing to get a satisfactory reply to his demand for the money, tore the man's clothes to ribbons. Such is his story, as related in accents wild at the nearest public-house he came to. The following Tuesday evening, while the members were assembled in the lodge-room, the usual knocks were given at the door, which, upon being opening, disclosed nothing; but a voice (the deceased's) was heard, saying "Pay my widow my funeral money and then I shall be at rest." A general skedaddle ensued, and now they are puzzled to know what to do with such a determined ex-member of their lodge.
Meanwhile, a fellow member of the friendly society in question wrote to the Western Mail (16/04/79) to complain that the story was untrue and completely without foundation. Sadly it was too late - almost every newspaper in Wales carried the tale at some point that April.
THE PONTERDAWE GHOST STORY AND YOUR CORRESPONDENT. SIR, - In your issue of Tuesday last appears a report of the extraordinary ghost story at Ponterdawe, in which a certain friendly society is represented as refusing to pay funeral money to the widow of the unfortunate man who committed suicide. The unfortunate man was a member of two friendly societies at Alltwen, namely, the Loyal Patriot Lodge of Oddfellows, M.U., and the Friend in Need Friendly Society. As the story is totally untrue and without the slightest foundation, I therefore, as a member of the said societies, on behalf of the said societies, and at the desire of several gentlemen, ask you to give to the report the most unqualified denial in your next issue of the Western Mail and Weekly Mail, it being most defamatory and damaging to the character of these societies and their officers. There is not a word in the rules of either society that deprived the widow of the funeral money, neither was the committee mentioned held, nor a word uttered at either of the societies against paying the widow, and, further the person who invented the ghost story is not a member in either of the societies, much less an officer. But it seems that the only object of your correspondent in sending such lies to your paper was to deceive the public and discredit a certain friendly society - I am, &c., LOVER OF TRUTH.
PRESS
September 1879
Tonyrefail
The village of Tonyrefail had been haunted by a 'ghost' lobbing stones. It turned out to be Elizabeth Jones who was duly fined for the offence at Pontypridd Police Court.
CREDULITY AT TONYREFAIL. CATCHING A "GHOST". Elizabeth Jones, Tonyrefail, was fined 5s and cost at Pontypridd police-court, on Wednesday, for damaging tiles, the property of Thomas Edmunds, of the same place. The hearing of the case occupied a considerable while, and created much amusement. It appears that the inhabitants of the locality have been for some time in a state of consternation, owing to the hurling, at odd seasons, of numbers of stones at the tops of houses there. Complainant was one of the aggrieved, and his property sustained damage to the amount of 5s. It was supposed by many that an invisible hand threw them, and they were chary about walking about. At last it was found that defendant was playing these pranks. The costs which she had to pay amounted to over £2.
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