(I read that Robert Synge was the rector from 1844 to 1862).
A Haunted Rectory.
Story of uncanny “goings on”.
Midnight noises.
From our own correspondent. Haverfordwest, Tuesday.
Remarkable stories of ghosts appearing at Walwyns Castle, a lonely Pembrokeshire rectory, were told to me to-night by the Rev. D.H. Richards, the rector. Although he himself has not experienced the uncanny “goings on,” Mr Richards told me they were vouched for by a son of a former rector, the Rev. Robert Synge. The mysterious occurrences always used to begin in the midnight hour. Noises were heard as if slates were falling off the roof at the front of the house, but upon investigation everything was found to be intact.
The rector then told me that there used to be an old dresser in the kitchen which contained a lot of old crockery, such as old Welsh plates. Suddenly, a loud crash would be heard in the middle of the night, but when the occupants went downstairs everything was found to be in order.
A further story was that when going to bed at night with the aid of a candle the light would be blown out at the top of the stairs. Again, the bedclothes used to be pulled off the beds in the small hours of the morning. Who pulled them off was a mystery, but the fact remained they were on the ground.
“Personally,” said the Rev. D.H. Richards, “I am not sympathetic towards the stories, but it is said in the village that they were all true.”
Another story which was told me by the rector was that when the old rector used to go across a certain field a hound always accompanied him, but the hound was invisible to the other companions of the rector.
Mr Richard Synge, a son of a former rector, also told me that Walwyns Castle was haunted. “Many times,” he said, “my mother saw a ghost which took the form of a woman, short and dark and dressed in the clothes worn 300 years ago.”
Western Mail, 1st February 1933.