Past Paranormal Events
Margam Castle, Port Talbot - 6th March 2010
This proved to be an amazing investigation with all members of the group having some sort of experience during the night. Some people reported having shivers down their spines, lots of draughts around legs (the temperature was very low however) and being touched on the arms and legs, along with several people reporting chest pains in similar areas of the castle. These are all phenonema which have been reported by other paranormal groups who have visited the castle previously.
Throughout the night the group heard doors creaking, footsteps, bangs and taps on walls and floors (with one specific sound of something metallic being struck in the upstairs rooms) and whilst upstairs several members of the group also heard giggling and laughing. Light anomalies were also witnessed by the group and hopefully some of these have been caught on video. Photographs taken throughout the night have also shown some interesting orbs.
Some specific phenonema which came through was that of a strong floral smell in the stairway, which has also been reported previously, a strong smell of smoke and one member of the group picked up on someone who had fallen off the landing and landed on their head on the floor. This exact information was also picked up by a team who visited the castle back in 2006 and it is written in historical reorts that during the building of the castle several workmen fell from walls to their death with no logical explanation.
The table tipping experiments came up with some quite specific information with reports that the 'white lady' was with us when doing the experiment on the landing and that she was watching us closely and wanted everyone to know she was watching them! The same experiment also came up with the initials 'HT' which were also given as 'TH'. Perhaps this could be linked to either Thomas Hopper (1776-1856) who actually designed the castle or Henry Fox Talbot, who was a regular visitor to the castle during the time of the Talbots and as a pioneer phtographer was responsible for taking one of the earliest photographs of the castle. these initials also came up during another table tipping experiment in another area of the castle. Table tipping next to the nursery identified a child by the name of Emily who was 13 when she passed. She reported having 7 brothers and sisters (4 boys and 3 girls) and that her nanny had kept her locked in and that no-one else had known that she had treated her badly. Emily wanted to help her nanny because she was stuck and wanted forgiveness. She wanted to say a prayer for her! The other specific information which came from this experiment (other than personal messages for members of the group) was from Leo Foster who worked there in the year 1220 (also claimed to have links to 1888 when the Talbot family lived there). He claimed that he looked after animals, however none of this information has yet been verified but a potential link might emerge.
The group picked up on several children through the night; Abigail, Emily, Martha, Louise, Charlotte who told us that she was not allowed to come into the dining room, a little girl who did not give her name but who said that her daddy had gone into the woods and not come back and that she stood at the window waiting for him to return, and Matthew Edward Evans who was aged 6 but gave no further information.
One member of the group picked up on 2 monks, one of whom showed her the name Samson and either 1183 or 1783. He also showed a specific shape which when drawn could be linked to religous worship stones which are known to have been in the grounds. Another monk (Liam from Cork) was also sensed and it has been clarified that a Cisterian Abbey was on the site between 1183 and 1536.
Somebody picked up on a gentleman who was going on a hunt with his horse 'Sapphire' and whilst this specific information cannot be verified, it has been confirmed that during the time of the Talbots, annual 3 or 4 day hunts were held at the castle. another piece of quite specific information was an American soldier from World War II who had spent time at the castle and had been injured - he gave the name Andrew / Andrews. Again this specific information cannot be verified however it is recorded that British and American troops occupied the castle during the Second World War. Several members of the group picked up on a large Irish wolf hound and this has also been reported by other groups previously.
Other names which came up during the night were Joseph who could have been Hoseph Kirkman who was a gardener at the castle in 1727, Robert / Rupert - the gamekeeper had been Robert Scott, and John - there are two potential links here; John Thomas who was a gardner in the castle in 1661 and John Theodore Talbot Fletcher who was the great nephew of Emily Charlotte Talbot and who inherited the castle when she died and is reported to have spent a lot of time at the castle with his family.
The group did pick up on a variety of other names but had no other specific information associated to them to try and verify if they were linked to the castle. There were however two pieces of specific information which so far cannot be linked to the castle, that Aristotle Onasis had some association with the castle and that James had woked on the Lucitania when it sank and that he was the cousin of someone who lived at Margam!