The inhabitants of New Tredegar, says a local journal, have been lately somewhat excited by sensational reports about a loud knocking noise heard inside a local surgery. The knocking, it is said, would commence at 11 p.m, and continue till 5 a.m. It is generally believed that it is one of the ghosts that haunt our dear little Wales. The story has had the effect of scaring the whole of the place. A great crowd might have been seen surrounding the place each evening, and the knocking could be distinctly heard some little distance away.
Everything was done to try and unravel the mystery, but without success. The knocking still continued. There are large numbers who can vouch for the truth of this story. It was at first thought that the noise might have been caused by water pipes, but it was ascertained that there are no water pipes in the house. The knocking sounded as if some one was knocking a wooden partition.
Up to Sunday night it had been going on for four or five nights, and caused the inhabitants of the house to lose their rest.
Morning Leader, 22nd January 1903.
Strange Spirit Rapping. Old Lady in a White Cap.
Ghost laying, like hunting the sea serpent, is a pastime that generally yields but very unsatisfactory results. One of our men yesterday betook himself to the Monmouthshire Valleys bent on finding a solution to the mystery which has created such a sensation in that district, but after repeated efforts, that certainly did not lack persistency, he came home with his mission only partly accomplished.
New Tredegar is a typical Welsh mining village, being built like most of them on the slopes of two hills, whose bases are layed by a purling brook. The house at which the unwelcome visitor gave manifestations of its presence is one of the earliest houses erected in the district, and immediately faces the stranger as he leaves the station of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway. The house, together with the surgery adjoining, to quote auctioneers’ phraseology, “stands in its own grounds,” and commands, except on foggy days, an extensive view of the picturesque valley below. Although built in the early seventies, there is nothing in the construction of the house to mark it as a congenial habitation for a spectral visitor.
It is tenanted by two miners, who, when our representative called, were engaged underground in a level which runs, by the way, almost immediately under the house. The good wives were at home, however, and both required but little inducement to enter into the subject which has occupied so much of their time during the past week. Our man, with a view to “business,” took leaf out of the book of the accommodating Vicar of Bray, and for the nonce professed himself to the women as an out-and-out believer in ghosts and apparitions generally. This seemed to have a consolatory influence on the good dames.
“You can have no idea of the time we have had with it during the past week,” said the younger, as she heaved a deep sigh. “What does he look like?” asked our man. “Look like!” came the astonished reply; “that’s just what we would like to know. Not a sight of anything have we seen.” Then how do you know of his whereabouts? “By his eternal rapping,” was the ready answer. What part of the house does he inhabit? “One of the bedrooms,” was the reply; “and the tapping appears to come underneath the skirting-board at a spot just above the pantry.” Seeing that the interest of our representative deepened, one of the women conducted him to the pantry, and then with averted eyes pointed out the spot wherefrom the noise proceeded.
What time does he usually make his visits? asked our man, with just a suspicion of tremor in his voice. “In the dead of night,” came the reply. “All of a sudden we hear a series of violent taps, and then all is silent as the grave.” What adds to our annoyance,” they added, “is the manner of some people who have been told by us of it. They laugh and think it is our imagination. It is impossible to sleep on account of this unearthly tapping, and we would defy anybody else to sleep after hearing it. We get so much worried on Saturday that we called in the police to hear it for themselves.” And did the tappings recur? “Yes,” was the answer. “The police thought it might be caused by a rut, but the noise was far too loud for any rat. And a gentleman who believes a little bit in spiritualism, he came here, too.” Was he able to communicate with the ghost? “Well, he tapped twice on the pantry door, and asked ‘Are you there?’ and lo! in reply came two audible taps. He then gave three beats, and if I was never to move from here exactly the same number came in return.”
Our representative then with a magnificent show of courage tried to hold a seance himself with the invisible visitor, and rapping the pantry door twice in succession bravely waited for the result. But alas! the spook was not “having any.” It was clear that he drew the line at newspaper men. After this ineffectual seance one of the women turned to another subject, which have more of the mystery about it than even the tappings.
“About a week ago,” the younger woman said, “a little relative of ours from Dowlais came here to stop with us one night. About midnight she suddenly got out of bed, awakened by some noise, and we could hear her crying. On getting up we found her standing on the floor of the room, still crying and pointing to the corner. ‘Look at her,’ she said. There was nothing visible, however, in the room to the other occupants. ‘What do you see?’ asked the girl’s relative. ‘Look at the old lady in the white cap,’ came the affrighted answer. Still there was nothing visible to the other women in the room. “A day or two after this that child’s granny died!” added one of the women solemnly. The child left New Tredegar early this week, and since her departure the uncanny tapping has ceased.
Now that the noise has stopped people are busy adducing theories to explain the phenomena, but up to the present the matter is shrouded in a fearsome mystery.
South Wales Daily News, 23rd January 1903.