Welsh UFO sightings from 1883. For sightings from other years please click HERE.
PRESS
March 1883
Caernarvon
A ghostly carriage is seen on multiple occasions, by multiple witnesses. The Cambrian of 30th March 1883 reported:
A WELSH GHOST STORY. A singular story is current at Canarvon, the facts of which rest upon the statements of several trustworthy witnesses. A few nights ago, at a late hour, an individual walked from the centre of the town to Llanbeblig Church, which stands on the outskirts. On reaching the edifice, he retraced his steps, and had proceeded about a hundred yards, when he observed ascending the hill towards him a very bright light. As it approached, the illumination appeared to proceed from a black-looking vehicle, something like a bier, to which one lamp was attached, and which was drawn by one horse. He noticed no occupant or driver as the vehicle passed him noiselessly, casting a bright and peculiar glare on the roadway.
Looking back up the hill as the vehicle went along he saw it apparently go through the carriage gates of a large house. Thinking that the occupant of the house was about to receive some guest of distinction, curiosity promoted him to turn back as far as the gate of the residence to see who was about to alight from the vehicle. To his surprise he found the gate fast shut, and the mysterious car and its no less mysterious light had disappeared. He thought the circumstance singular, but took no further notice of it at the time. Twice since, however, he has encountered the shadowy vehicle at the same spot, and on each occasion been equally at the loss to account for its silent passage along the roadway - even the horse's hoofs making no sound - and also puzzled as to its singular disappearance.
Several other persons have also had a similar experience, and one declares that after the vehicle had apparently passed through the gates of the residence referred to there was a sudden illumination of the place and the car vanished. This same witness also noticed that the lamp attached to the vehicle was on the wrong side; therefore, if it was arranged by ghostly hands, the ghost must have been one of antiquated notions, unless, indeed, he proceeded on the principle that the car was meant to figure in a funeral procession, and that in death the order of things would be reversed, as in the case at military funerals.
The particular. part of Canarvon where the singular incident occured is one where a ghost ought to be somewhat "at home." Not only has Llanbeblig churchyard been a place of interment for generations, but it is close to the site of the old Roman town of Segontium, the reputed birthplace of Constantine the Great, and of Helena, the daughter of Octavius, a noteworthy woman among the Romans. Of Segontium only a few remnants of walls and foundations are left, but nearly two thousand years ago it was an important Roman station, from which the legionaries were at once enabled to watch the Menai Straits and the Snowdonian range of mountains for the approach of their enemies, the then wild and barbarous Cymru. Those who argue in favour of the supernatural might plead, with some show of reason, that if ever beings of mortal mould are permitted to "revisit the glimpses of the moon," or, invisible to man's sight, to play fantastic tricks, it would surely be on a spot like that described, which is haunted by so many strange memories of the past, and which has so many weird surroundings calculated to inspire awe and wonder.
The North Wales Express of the same day also covered the story:
A GHOST STORY. A spectral horse and carriage, without a driver, are said to be haunting the neighbourhood of Llanbeblig Church. A correspondent in a contemporary, who assures us, to begin with, that he is not superstitious and does not believe in ghosts, tells the following story: One dark night I walked from the central portion of Carnarvon to Llaneblig Church, and on reaching that time honoured edifice, I retraced my steps. I had proceeded about a hundred yards when I observed, ascending the hill towards me, a very bright light. As it approached the illumination appeared to proceed from a black-looking vehicle to which one lamp was attached, and which was drawn by one horse. I could see no occupant or driver as it passed me noiselessly, casting a bright and peculiar glare on the roadway.
I looked back up the hill, as it went along, and saw the vehicle apparently go through the gates of a large house. I thought to myself 'The occupant of the house is receiving some guest of distinction to-night,' and curiosity prompted me to turn back as far as the gate of the residence to see who alighted. I found the gate fast shut, and no trace of the light of the vehicle which I supposed had passed through. I thought the circumstance singular, but took no further notice of it at the time. I have, however, twice since encountered this shadowy vehicle at the same spot, and on each occasion been equally at a loss to account for its silent passage along the roadway — even the horse's hoofs making no sound, and also puzzled as to its singular disappearance. I learn that several other persons whose truthfulness cannot be doubted had a similar experience." Our contemporary appends in a footnote the very sagacious opinion that the writer and the other persons alluded to, were the victims of an optical illusion or a clever trick!
The Merthyr Express of August 4th 1883 published correspondence on the so-called Brynmawr Ghost:
THE GHOST AT BRYNMAWR. SIR, Your correspondent, "One Opposed to Superstition," in writing on the above subject, says, "Day after day I have listened to tales brought from all directions concerning the ghost, some contradicting each other, and all of them exaggerating what they supposed they had heard." Now, sir, if your correspondent were not foolish and untruthful he would never circulate what he acknowledges to have been contradicting and exaggerating tales.
He admits that the reason why he wrote was, because it had been reported to him "that no less than six Nonconformist ministers were conspicuously present on one of the nights." Now, he would have shown a little common sense if he had told us how much of this part of his contradicted and exaggerated story was true, for I only saw one Nonconformist minister presenttold us how much of this part of his contradicted and exaggerated story was true, for I only saw one Nonconformist minister present, and, by his efforts to discover the cause of what your correspondent calls "mysterious sounds," it was very clear to all that that minister was no believer in ghosts.
Again he says, "Now, sir, to put it fairly, did these gentlemen betray an overplus of common I sense in making themselves conspicuous by their presence on such an occasion?" To this I reply that they (if more than one) showed the same over- plus of common sense by their conspicuous presence as the church schoolmaster did, for no one made himself more conspicuous than he, although your correspondent ignores his presence, so that he might meanly traduce Nonconformist ministers.
He adds, "It may be said that they were there to endeavour to persuade the young woman out of her illusion. If so, they should have sought a more convenient as well as a more respectable time than eleven or twelve o'clock at night." If he were as anxious to have acquired facts as fallacies he would have known that the only conspicuous minister had visited the young woman for the purpose he names, at three o'clock that afternoon, and, concerning the late hour, why did the schoolmaster remain in the house so long after the minister had left?
He writes, "Only last Saturday night, I heard several of the superstitious saying that the ministers had laid the ghost for a hundred years. Well, by all accounts the ghost is gone." No it seems that the same mysterious sounds, as your correspondent calls them, are heard still but as the four policemen - the sergeant included — the conspicuous Nonconformist minister, and the church clerk and schoolmaster, all failed to discover the cause, the family are trying to discover it themselves.
Your correspondent signs himself "One Opposed to Superstition," but we all know how superstitious he is, yet we do not know that all his Church friends were equally superstitious, until he showed it in his letter. He says, "Day after day I listened to the tales brought from all directions concerning the ghost," and "I have listened to tales that have been told in the most serious manner, and, apparently, with the greatest confidence in their authenticity, the events of which occurred forty years ago." What a revelation for him to make! How very green he is!
Now, we all know that "birds of a feather flock together," and that as it was with the Jews and Samaritans, so it is now - the Church have little or no dealings with the Nonconformists — hence it is very plain that he got all his contradicting and exaggerating statements from his superstitious Church friends. It is well known that his master is a firm believer in ghosts, even down to the latest Llanthonv Abbey apparition, and it is just as well known that the Brynmawr schoolmaster is the vicar's man every inch of him. —Yours, &c., ONE WHO KNOWS. [In justice to the Brynmawr Schoolmaster we feel bound to state that the letter to which the above is a reply was written by a gentleman who is a perfect stranger to Mr. Tong. —Ed. M.E.]
The Wrexham Advertiser of October 6th 1883 reported on ghost that turned out to be a bat at Plas Power Colliery:
A GHOST AT PLAS POWER COLLIERY. For some time past the workmen at this colliery have been much disturbed by strange noises for which they could not account, but which were very audible to the men as they moved about the works some scores of yards below the surface. Various were the surmises of the colliers, most of whom had been several times startled by sudden noises, sometimes before, sometimes behind, and sometimes above them, as they traversed the dark passages through which they had fo make their way to their work.
Occasionally they had indistinct glimpses of something moving rapidly before them, but as to what was its shape or of what it was composed the feeble lights which they carried in their hands did not inform them. At length they became almost unanimous in the belief that the place was haunted, and that what they had so frequently seen and heard was a real ghost. The manager, Mr Reynolds, has however solved the mystery. Walking along one of the underground passages which was about 260 yards below the surface, he suddenly encountered the "ghost" which he caught and found to be a large bat. There was much laughter amongst the men when the capture became known. The bat was allowed to escape and it still haunts the lower portions of Plas Power Colliery.
PRESS
1883
Towyn
Multiple sightings of a female ghost in black mourning clothes were reported on in the Cambrian of November 2nd 1883:
A GHOST AT TOWYN. SIR, Will you allow me sufficient space to relate what is told and believed by not a few people in this knighted part of the country. "About half a mile from Towyn, on the main road fading to Aberdovey, by an ancient stone style, on the left hand side, an apparition of the sort which was Common enough in the land some fifty years ago, is teputed to have appeared in the guise of a tall and comely maiden, to a gentleman who was on his way home late one night last summer. The raven-locks and melancholy expression of the spectre's face deeply impressed and frightened the lonely traveller, and he ran home and told his friends what he had seen. After this event the denizen of another world did not appear to any one for a while, and the sceptics began to redicule.
Soon, however, disbelief received another rebuff. Two young ladies were walking out one night, and when passing the ancient, lo there stood the apparently sunk in the same sort of melancholy everie as she was in the first night of her recorded appearance. The ladies swept past at a running pace, but the denizen did not appear to move, but by the time they reached the entrance to a lane that leads from the main-road at right angles some hundred and fifty yards from the style, there was the spectre clad in deep mourning, with a look of unutterable melancholy and grief on her beautiful face, but she never spoke a word. Perhaps words are not used in the region she belongs to. The ladies reached home in fear and trembling and fainted, if report be true, as soon as admitted to a candle-lit room.
After this gangs of young people strayed out several nights in succession, in hopes of seeing the pensive face, but their curiosity was not satisfied. Time went on as it always does, and the excitement was begining to subside when an elderly gentlemen, in his travels, at a close of a toilsome day, had to pass the haunted place, and there once more appeared the agonised face, the handsome form and sombre dress. The traveller gazed at the sight in astonishment and essayed to speak but his tongue clove to the roof of his mouth, and words failed him, and he was most reluctantly compelled to retire without having held parlance with the most beautiful and sorrowful looking being his eyes ever beheld. The young people recommenced their watchfulness, but nothing have they yet seen. Possibly the satisfaction of their desire will be denied them. Such are the tales old at Towyn, on the shores of Cardigan Bay, while valleys are refulgent with sunshine, at the close of the nineteenth century. There are in the parish of Towyn sixteen places of worship — ten schools, and a clergy preachers and teachers, yet there remains a canopy of superstitious darkness. WILL 0' THE WISP.
The Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser also made mention of this story in their November 9th edition:
A ghost has appeared in the neighbourhood of Towyn in the shape of a beautiful young lady, clad in deep mourning, and having a look of unutterable melancholy." The common belief is that this unwelcome visitor has been seen by several people by the side of the Aberdovey road, about half a mile from Towyn. present consisted of a bl
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