Last Friday was a filthy night, the wind howled and the rain lashed down, but many members (and non-members) turned out to attend our meeting in Monkton Church Hall. Inside it was warm and cosy, everyone settling down with a warming drink and candles were lit to provide the right atmosphere for our 'Ghostly Tales of Pembroke.'

Pembroke has its fair share of eerie tales, many well-known, others the result of personal experiences. I cannot say that I have actually seen a ghost so I started the ball rolling by recounting a well-known story, the story of the Bush House Ghost.

The Bush House Ghost

Bush House had been the former home of the Meyrick family, built around 1905 because the original mansion had burnt down some years earlier. In the early 1950s, the land around Bush House was bought by the education authority and the new Pembroke Grammar School was built (at a cost of £250,000) in its grounds. Bush House itself was converted into residential accommodation for students who wished to study agriculture at the school.

While conversion work was still going on, late one evening the night watchman, 84-year-old Mr. David James, of Pembroke Dock, saw a man aged around 65 to 70 years of age, approaching. He was carrying a double barrelled shot gun and three dogs followed him. As reported in the West Wales Guardian at the time, Mr. James said: "I was perplexed to see a man about at that time. I challenged him first in English and, as he did not reply, I spoke to him in Welsh. He still did not reply and I was just going after him when suddenly he disappeared into a small pond."

Eerie experiences were later reported to have taken place concerning three Manchester workmen: George Hesketh, his son Roy (described as a hefty 14 stone, six-footer) and a young Italian named Tony. The story was related by one of their colleagues, Mr. Ken Ballman.

"George Hesketh told me that from the very beginning something very fishy was going on and, there is no doubt about it, they were very frightened. The Tilley lamp for no apparent reason would flicker and grow dim. They failed to sleep that night because of continual bangings and noises on the doors and walls. The young Italian Tony felt tugging at the overcoat he had pulled over him to serve as bedclothes. He was so alarmed that he got up and bolted one of the two doors in the room. There was no way of securing the other door so he nailed and battened it."

It appears that, despite all, they returned the following night. However, something occurred, something so unnatural that they grabbed their clothes and tore out of the house for there, surrounded by an eerie light, was a woman dressed in a crinoline walking slowly, silently up and down the path outside until, very slowly, she appeared to melt into nothingness.

Who was she? Who was he? Apparently, there was a story about a local squire who had shot his wife in the year 1802 and covered it up by saying that she had died of pneumonia. Was this true? There is no record of any death concerning this family. However, the legend of lady in the crinoline was investigated by the West Wales Guardian which, on September 9, 1955, reported that four local men (including Vernon Scott and J. Meyrick Owen) had volunteered to spend night in the haunted house. This attempt to prove the existence of the Bush House ghost failed as no spectral appearances occurred!

The Guardian did, however, interview Mr. W. S. Thomas, president of the Pembroke Dock Christian Spiritualist Church who ventured an opinion that the ghosts were none other than the ancestors of the Meyrick family, the lady probably living in the Victorian era, while the gentleman could have been a gamekeeper.

"The probable reason for their appearance at this time is that they resent the intrusion of strangers and the alterations which have been carried out on the house and the estate... these 'ghostly' appearances may seem strange and unnerving to people not versed in psychic phenomena, but to the spiritualist they are a perfectly natural and welcome occurrence."

Ghostly Monkton

Monkton abounds in ghostly sightings and experiences. Old buildings have their secrets and it is not surprising to learn of the ghost of Monkton Old Hall. Many years ago, the Rev. Tudor Evans, lived there and frequently had his sleep disturbed by a knocking at his door in the early hours. Every time he got out of bed, the knocking stopped. In another room, the family dog absolutely refused to enter and the vicar's daughter claimed to have seen the head and shoulders of a hooded figure at the window of the same room.

If men of the cloth have admitted to feeling the presence of strange phenomena, we should not be sceptical. Priory Church itself has many secrets and it was during its restoration, at the end of the 19th century, that some of these were revealed. Gruesome discoveries were made. Masses of human bones were found under the floor and a skeleton of a monk (some say a nun) was found walled up above the porch, in such a position to suggest he had been interred alive...

Monkton Priory Farm

Ghostly experiences can be very real and someone I know very well who has had such an experience is Pauline Waters whose family have, for generations, lived at Priory Farm. This, incidentally, was the Prior's house in the days when Monkton was, as its name infers, a monastery and is one of the oldest buildings in Pembroke.

"There have been many ghostly sightings in and around Priory Farmhouse," Pauline told me, "my mother told me about a monk-like figure which made its presence felt, like a wind rushing past. The atmosphere was so terrible at one time that my grandmother Venetia slept with a shotgun by her side. Things were moved around, bedclothes pulled off, doors rattled, so much so that in the 1920s the building was actually exorcised.

"The source seems to have been a rather macabre discovery made many years previously. My grandfather, George Jenkins, had discovered a discrepancy in the building: as he walked around the house he found that the dimensions of its exterior it did not correspond to those of the interior. He concluded that there must be a hidden passage or room. Well, when he knocked through one of the walls he discovered a concealed passage wherein lay a skeleton surrounded by oyster shells. It was reckoned that this was a monk called Oyster John.

"After exorcism, the ghost did cool down a bit, but it carried on walking. When my parents married in 1937, mother went to live in the farmhouse, but she felt most uncomfortable and it got to the point where she decided to leave. One Easter night, as she and father returned home after a dance at Haggar's ballroom, they saw a figure passing into the dairy. They thought it must have been grandfather: they called, but there was no reply. When they went into the house, something gushed past them as they climbed the stairs and, as for granddad, they found him asleep in bed... he hadn't been out. Well, mother went and packed her bags after that. She left the farmhouse to return to Bush Lodge to live with her family until another house could be found to live in."

Contact

If you have any stories, photographs or feedback for this column, please contact me, Linda Asman, on 01646 622428, email [email protected]">[email protected] and visit our website http://www.pembrokeandmonkonhistory.org.uk">www.pembrokeandmonkonhistory.org.uk

November events

On Saturday, November 2, 10.30 - 12.30, there will be a local history coffee morning at Monkton Church Hall. The Dyfed Family History Society will be there and Rosalie Lilwall will be giving a talk on 'Getting Started: Tracing your Family Tree.'

On Friday, November 15, we are holding a fundraising Victorian Murder Mystery in Pembroke Town Hall with the SeeSaw Players (Victorian dress optional). Also included is a two-course meal. Tickets are now available and must be sold in advance as places are limited.