For those of you who do not subscribe to the Castle Wales newsletter (although you should!
<VBG>) I am reprinting an article from the June edition. Check out the webpages
and join...
SO, if any of you have a few extra $$ this may be a wonderful chance to move to Wales!
The rest of us will know where to stay on our visits! <VBG> I'm also sending
this as it relates to one of our ancestors!
Enjoy,
E
OLDEST INN IN WALES FOR SALE
May 16 2001
The Western Mail
The oldest inn in Wales is being offered for sale, complete with resident
ghosts.
The Skirrid Mountain Inn at Llanfihangel Crucorney, near Abergavenny, has
been in use since 1110 and has had a colourful and, at times, gruesome past.
Owain Glyndwr rallied his troops on the forecourt of the inn before
embarking on raids on Pontrilas in Hereford.
The inn was used as a courthouse between the 12th and 16th centuries - most
notoriously for the 'Hanging judge' Jeffreys.
Landlady Heather Grant said, 'During this time upwards of 180 people were
hung from a beam in the stairwell here.'
One of the ghosts that haunts the inn is thought to have been a miscreant
who met an untimely end in the stairwell.
'We hear a man walking up the stairs and across the landing into one of the
bedrooms - normally it's a guest room, but I'm sleeping in there at the
moment.
'And my father, Bernie Clapham, has seen the shadow of a man standing at the
end of the bed.
'I wouldn't call the man sinister and he hasn't harmed anyone to date, but
there's a cold, unfriendly atmosphere whenever he's about,' she said.
The inn's other ghost is a lot nicer to have around.
'We also have a very friendly ghost called Fanny Price. She doesn't appear
that often, but we can smell her lavender-scented perfume and hear the
rustle of her dress.
A medium came to investigate her presence and he described a woman, aged
about 30, who died of consumption in one of the upstairs rooms.
A few months later, a couple came to the inn and asked if I had heard of
their relative, called Fanny Price, who was the innkeeper's wife.
They showed me a death certificate, which showed that she had died of
consumption at the inn in 1822 at the age of 32.
'It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end,' said Mrs Grant, who
kept a copy of the death certificate.
Through the years the inn has been visited by many Welsh princes and history
first records it as an alehouse called Mill-brook, where two unfortunate
brothers were tried for stealing sheep. One of them was hanged from the beam
in the stairwell.
Mrs Grant took over the inn on the edge of Black Mountains in the Brecon
Beacons National Park in 1991 and has developed a thriving business offering
home-cooked food, real ales and comfortable accommodation. She says she is
ready to move on.
'My decision to go has nothing to do with the foot-and-mouth crisis. I want
travel and work in another country while I am still young enough,' she said.
The Skirrid Mountain Inn is being offered for sale by Christie and Co in
Bristol and looks like a real bargain at an asking price of £85,000 for the
leasehold, which has almost 20 years left to run.
The feeling of age is still very evident in the pub, with its old pews and
dark furniture, large open fireplaces, flagstone floors, thick stone walls
and high ceilings.
Its main doorway and many of the windows are mediaeval and the oak beams
were originally ships' timbers.
State of the nation when the inn was built:
-The Normans had begun to penetrate Wales from the Marches where their
warlords had been given leave to take and hold as much territory as they
could.
-Celtic monasteries still existed in places like Beddgelert, Llanbadarn
Fawr, and St Davids and on Caldey and Bardsey islands, but in 1110 the first
Benedictine priory cells had been established at Cardiff, Cardigan, Monmouth
and Llanthony. In 1110 new Benedictine cells were founded at Kidwelly,
Llandovery and Llangennith.
-Gruffydd ap Cynan, who traditionally brought order to the measures of Welsh
poetry, was King of Gwynedd.
-The age of the castle had just begun. In 1110 the Norman warlord Gilbert de
Clare established the town of Cardigan and started work on a wooden castle
controlling the lowest river crossing of the river Teifi.
-Another warlord, Gilbert Fitzrichard, built a castle at Ystrad Meurig in
the same year. There were already castles at Carmarthen, Kidwelly,
Caerphilly, Cardiff and Chepstow.
-There were few stone buildings. Most people lived in single-storey
mud-walled cottages with thatched roofs.
-Transport was rudimentary. Apart from the decaying network of paved Roman
roads, people used ancient tracks. Much use was made of sea and river
transport.
-St Davids, where William the Conqueror arrived on pilgrimage in 1081, still
had a Welsh bishop.
http://icwales.ic24.com/0100news/0200wales/page.cfm?objectid=11054481&...
=full
IC Wales web site:
http://icwales.ic24.com