Aberglasney House
A large manor house located within the Tywi Valley of South-West Wales, Aberglasney House is said to have been inspiration for poets since 1477; mainly for it's gardens. The house currently contains twelve named gardens, and it's famed cloister garden dates back to the 1600s. Later in it's life, the house was used as a base for the US Army in the build up to D-Day, but then fell into ruin during the remainder of the 1900s. The location was saved and restored during the 1990s, and is now open to the public. The location allegedly boasts between ninety and one-hundred and twenty different ghosts. The commonly mentioned spectres include a girl cooking in the basement, a previous owner, and the spirits of maids whos deaths were signified by the sighted presence of 'corpse candles'.
History
Aberglasney House is located within the parish of Llangathen, which is within Carmarthen, Wales. Apparently Aberglasney dates back to the 13th century, which would put the location as possibly being inhabited since the 1200s. As nothing at all is known about the location from this time period, it's safer to say that it dates back to the late 15th century, and so the late 1400s. There are medieval poems dating from 1477 onwards which seem to potentially reference Aberglasney House. One such poem, by Lewis Glyn Cothi, reads translated as follows:
'He has a proud hall
A fortress made bright with whitewash
And encompassing it all round
Nine green gardens
Orchard trees and crooked vines
Young oaks reaching up to the sky.'
The first date I've found regarding ownership is 1541, however, this may be incorrect. Apparently this was the year Sir William ap Thomas, the potential first owner of Aberglasney House, became the High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire. While looking into when he was knighted, which was apparently done by Henry VIII, I discovered a Sir William ap Thomas who apparently died during 1445. This Sir William was knighted by Henry VI during 1426 and fought at the Battle of Agincourt. He was also a High Sheriff of Carmarthenshire, although during 1435, and became the Sheriff of Glamorgan during 1440. He also had lots of influence within South Wales. This information, plus the sources with conflicting information including the same image regarding his tomb, indicates to me that both Williams are the same and that the dates have been muddled up by someone. Both Williams also seem to have a connection with the poet Lewis Glyn Cothi.
As I couldn't find anything at all on a Sir William ap Thomas who was around in 1541, I am inclined to believe the dates from the 1400s are correct. Apparently William also added Aberglasney Chapel to Llangathen Church. Regardless, the next owner of Aberglasney House was Anthony Rudd who was born during 1549 and died during 1615. Anthony Rudd became the Bishop of St David's during 1594, and he is credited with having rebuilt Aberglasney House during 1603 with his son, Sir Rice Rudd. They also created the Cloister Garden during 1600, which is the only surviving example of it's kind within the UK. Apparently, when Anthony Rudd first purchased the property, it was known as Llys Wen.
The house was assessed for Hearth Tax during 1670, and due to the location's thirty hearths and thirteen chimneys, it had one of the largest hearth taxes in the country. This combined with Sir Rice overspending on the renovations meant that the Rudds had a fair bit of debt starting to mount. As the estate could no longer be afforded by the Rudd family, Sir Rice's grandson, also called Sir Rice Rudd, had to mortgage the estate. Anthony Rudd's tomb is in the parish church, and he was famous for offending Queen Elizabeth I in a sermon as he alluded to her advancing years.
The next owner was a successful Carmarthenshire lawyer called Robert Dyer. He bought Aberglasney House during 1710, and it was during the 1700s that the Yew Tunnel was planted as a hedge. A few changes occured to Aberglasney House under Robert Dyer's ownership. He substantially remodelled the house in the Queen Anne style, which was fashionable at the time, plus he removed the forecourt wall which was originally connected to the gatehouse. It now stands alone as a garden feature, and most of the gardens were left untouched. The facade was completed during 1720, although Robert Dyer died before he could see it's completion. Robert's second son was John Dyer, a notable landscape poet. His poems, such as 'Grongar Hill' and 'The Country Walk', described the scenery of the Tywi Valley. 'The Country Walk' reads as follows:
'See, below, the pleasant dome,
The poet's pride, the poet's home...
See her woods, where Echo talks,
Her gardens trim, her terrace walks,
Her wildernesses, fragrant brakes,
Her gloomy bowers and shiny lakes,
Keep, ye gods, this humble seat,
For over pleasant, private, neat.'
I've found that Robert Dyer was succeeded by his son, another Robert Dyer, who married Frances Croft of Croft Castle. However, the Dyer family also ran into debt and so had to put all 584 acres of the Aberglasney estate up for sale during 1798. The next person to own Aberglasney House was Thomas Philipps (alternative spellings Phillips, Philips) who was born during 1749 and died during 1824. Thomas had travelled to India during 1768 or 1670, and spent the next thirty-two years there. He began working as a surgeon and then rose to Head Surgeon with the East India Company. By 1800 Thomas had invested £25,000 in the East India Company's funds and hoped to retire on a substantial pension of £300 a year.
Thomas' dad and brother, John Philipps, worked hard to secure the estate for Thomas who knew he wanted to return to Wales. Once they obtained Aberglasney House, for 10,000 guineas during 1803, John updated the house between 1803 and 1805 in preparation for Thomas' arrival. Thomas didn't begin his journey from India to Aberglasney until the January of 1805 due to having significant issues with moving his money from India to Wales. Thomas then arrived at Aberglasney House during the April of 1807, and later in the same year he gained confirmation that he would be retiring on £300 per year.
Thomas lived in the house with his mistress, Mrs Jane Moore, who he later married during 1823; a year before his death. While Thomas owned Aberglasney House, he added new doors and gates, servant bells were installed throughout the house, a portico and circular drive were added at the side of the house, along with bay windows, plus new furniture was added, the roof-line was altered, and the other windows were fixed. With all of this, the external appearance of the house came to look as it does now.
When Thomas died childless during 1824, the house was left to his sister's son; John Walters. It seems that, in the will, this was under the condition that the 'Philipps' name was taken by John. As a result John Walters became John Walters Phillips. As for the different spelling of 'Philipps' to 'Phillips', I don't know if this is what actually happened or if it's a case of sources misspelling the last name which has then given rise to alternative spellings. I suspect it could be a case of an error between sources, however I could be wrong.
Aberglasney House then passed to John's granddaughter, Marianne Emily Jane Pryse, also known as Mary Anne. I have also found her name be spelled as Marrianne. During the 1900s she married a young soldier called Charles Mayhew and they both moved to Derbyshire together. The house was let out during most of their married life, and during 1902 Charles retired and so the couple moved back to Carmarthenshire to live in Aberglasney House. Charles was best remembered for his fierce teetotalism, and so the couple held Temperance rallies and gave Llangathen it's Temperance Hall.
As Charles died during 1907, Mrs Mayhew left the house during 1908. She moved to London and refused to let out the house during her thirty year stay in London. She then died during 1939 and the property devolved through her dad's second marriage and into the Pryse-Rice family. The pipes had burst and flooded the house during 1930, and this led to the house's partial abandonment. During World War Two, between 1939 and 1945, Aberglasney House was requisitioned and used as a holding station for troops of the US Army in the build up to D-Day. A stray Luftwaffe bomb fell on the property after a raid on the Swansea docks, although it seems the bomb missed the house and landed in a field towards Lanlash.
The next owner of Aberglasney House, following Mrs Mayhew, was Eric Evans. Eric died at the age of thirty during 1950, and his son's trustees decided that the property was not economically viable and was possibly unlucky. As a result the estate was split up and David Charles, a Carmarthen lawyer, bought the house and farm. Total abandonment of the property occured during 1955, and another sale occured during 1977 which fragmented the estate even further. Many estates underwent this treatment during the 1900s, and it led to the deaths of many country houses. In the case of Aberglasney House, it became not only uninhabited, but also neglected and vandalised.
Luckily, the Aberglasney Restoration Trust was established during 1994. This led to the property being rescued during 1995 as it was bought by the Trust with the money being donated by an American benefactor called Frank Cabot. The restoration began during either 1995 or 1998, and was the idea of William Wilkins CBE, the founder of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust and the first promoter of the National Botanic Garden of Wales. William oversaw the plan for the restoration and recreation of both the gardens and mansion. He was also key to the fundraising side as he was the first chair of the Trust. Thanks to individual donors, trust funds, charitable donations, and grant money from statutory bodies; the restoration of Aberglasney House and Gardens was made possible.
The location was made famous by the BBC Wales four part programme 'Aberglasney: A Garden Lost in Time' which followed the restoration of the site. It was also restored by modern designers that included Penelope Hobhouse and Hal Moggridge. This all led to Aberglasney opening to the public on the 4th of July 1999 with an admission charge of £3.95. The Ninfarium was completed during 2005, and the ground floor of the mansion was complete during the Spring of 2013. During 2016, the old piggeries restoration project was completed. This project transformed derelict buildings into a plant propagation and a leaning and training facility.
Currently the location has twelve different gardens; The Alpinum, The Asiatic Garden, The Cloister Garden, The Kitchen Garden, The Ninfarium, The North Lawn and Yew Tunnel, The Rose Garden, The Rose Wall, The Stream Garden, The Sunken Garden, The Upper Walled Garden, and The Woodland Gardens. The gardens cover ten acres of land, and feature over twenty different garden styles. The mansion is a grade II listed building, and the centre of the mansion is covered by a glass roof. It's also the mansion which is home to The Ninfarium, which is an award winning sub-tropical garden. There are also tea rooms and a gift shop which sells all sorts of random things such as plants, garden tools, cards, toiletries, jams, chocolate, honey, tea, and more.
Hauntings
Accounts of Aberglasney House being haunted seem to date back to the 1600s, with some sources narrowing it down to either the 1630s or 1650. There are a couple of slightly different versions of what happened during this time. Sources saying the event occured in the 1630s say a housekeeper saw five candles floating in the Blue Room. Then, the following morning, five servants were found dead in their beds. The cause of death was asphyxiation from a charcoal stove which had been left burning to dry the plaster that had recently been applied in their room. The sources saying the event occured during the year 1650 say it was five maids, and that they died within the Blue Room. They died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to an open fireplace. These sources also say five candles have been seen burning in the Blue Room since then. There is also a source which has said it was four maids who died, and that they died within the attic bedrooms. This source goes on to say candles were seen floating at the foot of a staircase by a night watchman, and when he followed the candles to the attic he then discovered the bodies of the maids.
The candles described in the accounts are known as 'corpse candles', or 'canwll corffe' in Welsh. It's said that these candles appear in the house before any tragedy, and that this started following the deaths of the maids. During the 1930s, the maids were apparently spotted by someone doing work on the exterior of the house. The window of the Blue Room was completely covered in ivy, and it's said that when the worker cut the ivy back, he saw five victorian girls looking out of the window towards him. It's also said that people standing in the courtyard have seen flickering lights, like candle flames, drifting through the corridor which contains the door to the Blue Room.
Thomas Philipps, one last owner of the house who died during 1824, is also said to haunt the house. His haunting is also associated with a curse on the property as ever since his death, future owners of the house seem to be cursed with bad luck; this resulting in many children dying in infancy. Another curse which possibly falls on the property is one relating to the Coed Llathen battlefield. The battle which occured on this field led to the then Prince Edward being defeated by Llywelyn ap Gruffydd's army during 1257. It's said that anyone living in the shadow of the hill where the battle was fought is cursed.
Another spirit within Aberglasney House is a young girl who appears to be cooking. It's said she is sometimes seen in a corner in the basement. Footsteps are also heard within the house, and cameras fail for work. Mediums have visited the property, and one such medium claimed there are over ninety ghosts within the property. It has been said there are between ninety and one hundred and twenty ghosts here.
During 1999, a medium visited the property and sensed the spirit of someone trying to evade capture in the woods behind the house. People report feelings of unease within the Pigeon House Wood, and at a certain point people feel a sudden fear followed by coldness. The psychic said that when people feel uneasy in the woods, they're feeling the person evading capture. They also said that the spot where people feel sudden fear and coldness is where the person evading capture was killed by a bullet.
Summary Of Hauntings
1. Thomas Philipps, died 1824
2. Young girl, cooking - corner of basement
3. 4 or 5 maids/servants, died 1600s - The Blue Room
4. Corpse candles (5?) - stairs to attic (?), corridor containing Blue Room door
5. Footsteps
6. Camera malfunctions
7. Battlefield hill curse (?)
8. Thomas curse (?)
9. Feeling of unease - Pigeon House Wood
10. Feeling sudden fear - Pigeon House Wood
11. Feeling sudden cold - Pigeon House Wood
My Thoughts
Being completely blunt, the summary of hauntings is incredibly short for a location said to have between ninety and one hundred and twenty ghosts present. Plus I was being quite generous to include the curses on that list, and by splitting up the Pigeon House Wood phenomena into three seperate points. I don't think there is anything to the curses at all. The details I've found are far too vague, and it's unlike tales of curses to not go into detail on the misery they've brought someone. Citing 'bad luck' isn't at all convincing to me.
I find the corpse candles particularly interesting as they remind me of the tradition of placing coins on the eyes of the dead so that they can pay the ferryman to take them into the afterlife. I know the details are completely different, but it has that same kind of foreboding charm to me. It also sounds very much so like a tale someone has created. Five victorian maids sleeping in their beds, and then a watchman follows floating candles to see they've died in their sleep. The particularly interesting part is that someone has apparently seen the spirits of the girls on the room, and that others have seen the flickering candle light from outside. As a result, I think the maids could be present, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just story and legend. The inconsistency regarding what happened, and when it happened, doesn't fill me with confidence that it actually did happen.
Regarding Thomas Philipps, I absolutely believe he could be haunting the house. He seems to have had a strong attachment to the location, it served as his retirement home, and his family did some work to improve the property. These are all good reasons to assume that he could still haunt the building. I believe, for the same reasons, that other owners of the property could also haunt the location. The footsteps could possibly be attributed to these more grounded hauntings, as could the camera malfunctions. Although, camera malfunctions could just be an excuse thrown out by investigators when they don't capture anything.
As there is an extreme lack of detail regarding the girl in the basement, I feel there's potential for this haunting to be legitimate, however I have to acknowledge it could have been made up by a medium or by the property owners to boost the location's haunted reputation. As for the strange feelings people get in the woods; I think it's just nature. I can't accurately comment as I haven't been to the location, but I know woods can be quite ominous places, especially if they're somewhat untamed. This could cause the feelings of unease. As for the fear and coldness; the fear could be a result of possibly being alone in a place no clear paved trails may be visible, and the coldness could be a result of passing into an area which is more open to a gentle cold breeze.
I do not trust mediums at all due to how many have been shown to be false over the years, although I do believe legitimate ones can exist. I suspect that Aberglasney House may have been investigated by a fair few who are not legitimate. I highly suspect it's these mediums who have said the vastly over exaggerated number of ghosts, especially as one did give the number ninety. I do think Aberglasney House will be haunted, but I would expect it to be by homeowners and few bits of activity here and there based on the summary of hauntings.
Thank You!
Thank you for reading this article! It was a far more straight forward location than usual, and I was honestly surprised at how few hauntings there seem to be. It's also really odd how I didn't find anything in connection to the gardens, only to the house and woods. I think I'll have to look more into corpse candles as they strike me as something that could exist across locations as a superstition or omen. As I'm in Scotland for a good portion of next week, the next article will be either the next journal entry or an article discussing a certain livestream. It all depends on how much work I get done tomorrow. Then, next week should be another location on Monday and a journal entry on Friday.
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Sources I Have Used
1. Aberglasney
8. Wikishire
14. List Wales
15. Parks & Gardens
17. Dicamillo
18. Mirror
19. Visit Mid Wales
21. Visit Gardens
22. Bishops Mill
23. Tripendy
26. BBC News
29. Tumblr
30. Easy Voyage
31. Nick Brunger
32. Campsites
37. Spooky Isles
38. Tours Of Wales
39. Wikipedia
40. Castle Wales
41. Gwallter
42. Study.com
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