Rosa Speed seen at Penrhyn?

Yesterday I went to the Conwy Feast, an annual Food Festival with my friend Elaine, a Learning Assistant at Penrhyn Castle. I spent three cold, wet and windy hours sitting behind a table in a gazebo on the old suspension bridge, next to the toll house. I was helping to man a display about food rationing in WW2 for the National Trust. We only had one visitor who refused the free seeds we were giving away because she only liked flowers and we were giving away free packets of vegetable seeds!

After dismantling the gazebo in a gale, we packed everything away and went to enjoy the Festival. We visited Aberconwy House, a Medieval Merchant's house in the town centre built in about 1418-1419, a National Trust property. It is the oldest town house in Wales. I had read about the ghosts in Aberconwy House in a NT book about ghosts by Sian Evans. We asked the room steward upstairs in the house whether she had ever seen the ghost of Mr Jones, who lived there in the 19th century. She said that she hadn't seen him but had had many supernatural experiences there. She told us that she heard someone knocking loudly on the kitchen door and when she opened it there was nobody there. This has happened several times. I explained that I was collecting ghost stories from Penrhyn Castle. She said that she had seen a ghost there a few years ago, but had never told anyone in case they thought she was mad! I said that I would be very pleased to hear all about it and took notes as she recounted her story.

Margaret said that she lives near Penrhyn Castle and often takes her dog for a walk in the grounds. One day she had been walking the dog and had parked her car near the stable block, overlooking the sea. She got into her car to eat her lunch and enjoy the spectacular view. She suddenly noticed a young girl of about 12 years of age standing about fifteen feet in front of her car. She was wearing a long dress made of fine fabric, pastel in colour and down to the floor. The girl was also looking at the view over the fields to the sea, so Margaret could not see her face. She was wearing a small bonnet. Margaret said that she was struck by the beautiful dress, with its fitted waist and long sleeves. She sensed that the girl was unhappy and that she felt very lonely. She looked at the girl for a few minutes, then glanced away for a couple of seconds. When she looked up again the girl had completely disappeared! Margaret looked along the driveway in both directions but she could not see her. She has wondered who the girl was and whether she was a member of the Douglas-Pennant family who lived in the castle. She asked me whether there is a portrait matching her description in the castle. I promised to investigate and let her know.

I wondered if the girl could be Rosa, the daughter of Walter Speed the Head Gardener at Penrhyn, who died at the age of 11 in 1878. According to her niece she came home from school as usual, sat down in a chair and died. She had not complained of feeling ill and the doctors were completely baffled as to the cause of her death. Some subsequent events have increased the mystery, since a traveller by the name of David White recorded an entry in the Church Visitors' Book, stating that he was there to visit Rosa. This happened in August 1987, over a century after Rosa's death. David White was totally unknown to the surviving members of the family, and nobody could explain his connection. He visited the churchyard at least three times between August and October 1987, and each time he recorded a comment about Rosa in the Visitors' Book.

Penrhyn Cottage

Walter Speed and his large family of 14 children lived in a house called Penrhyn Cottage, which is just a short walk from the place where Margaret saw the young girl.


After hearing this story Elaine and I walked up to one of the Food Festival areas near the castle. We saw Geoff an Education Officer from Penrhyn, who we had been working with that morning. He was with his family, including his daughter Joanne. I related the story of the ghostly girl in the bonnet to them and Geoff was sceptical as usual, as he says that he does not believe in ghosts. His daughter Joanne said that she had had a ghostly experience at Penrhyn last Easter. She was standing in the Bell Corridor near the Servants' Hall looking up at the rows of bells. A man came up behind her and stood by her right shoulder. She assumed that it was her father Geoff and turned to speak to him. When she turned around there was nobody there. She had not told her Dad because she did not think that he would believe her. Several people have had similar experiences in the area around the Bell Corridor so I assume that there is a ghost there who likes to be sensed but not seen!


I am going to an end of season meeting next week at Penrhyn Castle, so I will hopefully be able to talk to a lot of room stewards, staff and volunteers. I hope to gather some more stories. Watch this space.......!

Updates today - more spookiness

Today I visited the castle with a friend. I spoke to all the room stewards as we went around the castle to ask if they had any interesting ghostly tales for me. The first one I spoke to was Penny who has been a room steward for 11 years. She has never seen anything supernatural herself but has heard a lot of stories from other staff and volunteers. She told me about a conservator called Wendy who used to work there a few years ago. She said that Wendy had to clean the rooms in the Keep above the bedrooms open to the public, which used to be used by Alice and Blanche Douglas-Pennant. The bedrooms on the third floor are largely derelict and infested with flies, as are the ones on the fourth floor. They are only accessible by two narrow stone spiral staircases so are not open to the public. Wendy was vacuuming the dead flies in the third floor rooms. She came back downstairs and said that she felt very uneasy, as she was convinced that there was someone watching her while she was in there. Penny said that several people have told her that they do not like the feeling in those rooms and that they will not go up the spiral stairs on the left, only on the right. There is a spiral staircase on each side of the Keep bedrooms.


A few weeks ago I was going around the house with my son Jason, talking to the room stewards, as I did today. When we went into the Drawing Room I spoke to a lady also called Caroline who was the room steward.  She told me that she was the wrong person to ask about ghosts, as she does not believe in them! I asked if she had ever had any reports of visitors feeling anything unusual when standing near the doorway of the medieval staircase. She said that she was not aware of anyone experiencing anything there but she did have a strange experience herself in that room a couple of years ago. She said that she felt as though her chest was tightening and she could not breathe. She thought she was having a heart attack. She used to be a nurse and was aware of the symptoms. She moved away from the doorway to sit down and immediately felt better. This has happened twice and she said that it was probably angina. She told us that she lives in an old Penrhyn estate house in Abergwyngregin. Her husband and children have all seen a man in a tall black hat and cloak standing on the stairs, but she has not, so she does not believe in ghosts!


My psychic friend felt exactly the same feeling of tightness around her chest when standing at the doorway to the Medieval staircase a few weeks before. She said that it was becoming hard to breathe and that she felt as though she was being squeezed from behind by a man who did not want us to be there. She had to move away from him. Cheralynn said she did not like it in there at all, as she could sense the man standing by the tower door was very hostile and domineering, and that he resents people being in his house. Could this be Gwilym ap Gruffydd (d. 1431) who lived in the medieval house with his wife Joan?  He had the look-out tower built. Their coat of arms used to be seen in the windows of the library until 1764. Cheralynn stood in the spot where he stands and said that she had a very tight, oppressive feeling. She felt very cold and had a sudden headache. 


She also told us that she sensed a presence in another room below us, under the floor. Cheralynn felt that John the Bottler (not butler) was working in the cellar below us.  When we spoke to Richard the House Manager later he told us that there are beer and wine cellars below that room, which were part of the original medieval house. Cheralynn said that John had a throat problem, which killed him. We visited the cellars about three weeks ago and Cheralynn could see John clearly. She described his dark clothing with a leather sleeveless tunic over a shirt. She said that he was drunk. She started to get very giggly and started acting as though she was drunk! Her husband told us that she does not drink alcohol. She had to go out of the cellar before she started to feel sober again.


Penny told me today that the name of a medieval servant who had responsibility for the beer and wine was a Bottelier, a word which developed into the word Butler. Interesting! I had not heard that word before. That must be what John the "Bottler" was trying to tell Cheralynn.


I saw my friend Pat today who has often worked as a steward in the kitchens. Pat said that she feels a presence in the Pickard room in the Stable Block and also outside the China Room, next to the kitchens. She feels this when she opens the kitchens in the mornings before the visitors arrive. When she leaves the door closed in the corridor next to the kitchens, she feels that someone is there. Other people have told me the same thing about the area by the China Room. It is quite dark really but looks light in the photo because I used a flash. The China room is the door to the left of the photo. It is where a specially trained maid used to wash the valuable china.

China room

Area outside China Room

Ghostly sigh in the changing room

My friend Elaine told me a fascinating story today. She was in the Education department for a course on Tuesday. She went into the changing room to get something and as she left she switched off the light. Just as the light went off she heard a loud sigh right next to her ear. She didn't dare to turn her head in case there was somebody behind her, so she left the room and did not go back in there until later. There was nobody else in the department. She wondered if she could have brushed her hand against some of the costumes hanging up on hooks near the light switch so she plucked up the courage to go back into the room and moved the costumes to see if she could recreate the sighing noise. She could not make the same sound at all. I asked the ladies who work in the Servants' Hall in the house about the sound they said they have heard in the Doll's Museum when they go in firs thing in the morning and switch the lights on. They described it as a sighing sound, exactly as Elaine described it. The Dolls museum is in the same corridor as the changing room. Spooky! I got changed in there today before I heard Elaine's story. Luckily I was not on my own. I don't think I ever want to go in there on my own again!

Education Department corridor

Changing room

A ghostly visitor in the tea room

The lady who phoned my husband yesterday told me a very interesting story on the phone this evening. Sharon used to work in the kitchens at Penrhyn Castle about 15 years ago. She was working in the kitchen opposite the door to the Tea Room. She had opened up and was on her own when she caught a glimpse of someone in the Tea Room behind her, standing near a glass cabinet, which had scones and cakes in it. It looked like a man wearing a black cloak. She could not see the face clearly as he seemed to be wearing a hood. She called, "I'll be there now!" and went to see who it was and what he wanted. There was nobody there. She wondered if he could have gone out into the corridor, so she went to look for him, but he was not there either. She said that if he was a visitor she would have caught up with him. She was talking to some of the other women who worked there a couple of days later, when she told them the story. They did not seem surprised and said, "Oh, so you've seen the ghost then?" After that she did not like being there on her own. She only worked there for one season.

I have asked her if she could possibly contact any of the people she knows who worked there with her, in the hope that they might have had a ghostly encounter. I will wait and see what stories they have to tell....!

Cake counter in the Tea Room

A phone call and an interesting ghost story....to be continued.

When I got home from my Welsh class in college this evening, my husband told me that a lady had phoned with a ghostly experience, which she related to him in my absence. She had read my recent article in the local newspaper appealing for ghost stories. Unfortunately she said that I can phone her back tomorrow evening to get the details as she was watching a programme this evening. How frustrating! It involves her seeing a dark figure in the tea room. I can hardly wait to hear the story from her tomorrow evening. I will put the story on here as soon as I hear it.

Polly, the ghost of a maid who fell downstairs

Housemaids’ Tower

John (conservator) said to me recently that there was a bad feeling at the foot of the stairs of the Housemaids' Tower. Several people have told me that a maid died there after falling down the stairs. Angela (previous Visitor Services Manager) related to me last week that there used to be a Room Steward called Ros who has since died. When she was at the castle she used to see a servant called Polly who she talked about regularly. She said that Polly was 14. Ros said that Polly was the maid who fell down the stairs and died. Ros used to see her in the King’s Bedroom and the Slate Bedroom. The room guidebook was often moved when she was stewarding in the Lower India room. It was sometimes found in the middle of the floor.

A psychic visitor said that she has seen the body of a young housemaid lying at the foot of the stairs of the Housemaid's Tower. She described her as being quite young. She said that the girl had been rushing because she was late for work, or that someone was calling her urgently, and that she had tripped and fallen, and consequently died from her injuries. The floor at the foot of the stairs is a stone floor and the stairs are very steep.


Kitchen stairs

Several visitors have seen a Housekeeper and they often comment on her authentic costume, assuming that she is a room steward. She is usually seen standing at the top of the stairs near the tearoom, which used to be the Housekeeper’s room. Apparently she looks very stern and has a large bunch of keys dangling from her waist, as though she is in charge and is making sure that nothing is being done that she wouldn’t approve of!

Strange happenings in the Nursery bedroom in the Keep

The Keep (square tower on the left)

Roy has been a Steward/Head Steward at the Castle for 16 years. He recently emailed me this story:

"About eight or nine years ago I was summoned by radio one day to a woman who was feeling unwell by the ‘Nursery’. On reaching her the Steward on duty said the woman had suddenly become extremely cold when looking in the Nursery doorway. After ensuring that she was comfortable in herself I felt her hands and they were literally frozen far in excess of just normally cold. She stated that it had felt like all the heat had drained down her arms and out of her hands as she stood looking in the room.

After a suitable interval, and when her hands were feeling a little warmer I asked if this had happened before and she stated “No”. After a suitable interval when we were assured that no further attention or help was needed she went on her way. I reported the matter to Gwyn who was then ‘House Manager’.

About three or four years later, I really am not sure, I was called yet again to the same location and a similar event but the lady concerned had only felt extremely cold all over and stated that as she had had similar occurrences before in various places she was not unduly alarmed and had really only wanted the steward to know that this had happened. I again reported this to Joan.

This re-occurrence raised my interest somewhat as we do know something of the history of this room with relation to the Hon. Alice Douglas Pennant so I discussed the matter with my daughter who has a friend who is known to be psychic and has proved this in various ways.

We arranged that my daughter would invite her to the Castle and that I would be present when they went round. NOTHING was mentioned to her about the two events and I just kept a watching brief as they neared the room to see if anything happened.

When they reached the Nursery and looked in through the door my daughter’s friend said immediately, and without any prompting, “This is a very unhappy room”. Later in the Tearoom when we were discussing how she had enjoyed the tour and her statement was mentioned she could not elaborate further except that it had alarmed her slightly at the strong feeling of unhappiness that she had felt at the time."

Several stewards have mentioned to me that visitors have commented that there is a feeling of unhappiness or coldness in the room.

Martin (Visitor Services Manager) said that the servants’ stairs have a very creepy feeling about them and that the nursery feels very cold. He has not seen anything, but has had some uncomfortable feelings in these areas of the castle. John (conservator) told us that he comes in to open the shutters in the mornings and feels very uncomfortable in the room. He comes in and opens them very quickly, then leaves. Anthony (conservator) also mentioned the creepy feeling in the Nursery when he goes in to open the shutters/blinds in the mornings, which he also does very quickly, then leaves the room.

Richard Douglas Pennant told me about the time his mother Lady Janet stayed in the castle with her grandmother and was put into a bedroom in the keep that absolutely terrified her. She refused to sleep there and was moved without question to another bedroom, where she slept without fear for the rest of her stay. He thought it could have been the Nursery bedroom.

Slate Bedroom

We went into the Slate bedroom. Roy (Steward) said that women stewards do not like going in there. John (conservator) said that the Hoover switched itself off once when he was working in the Slate bedroom. He checked the wire and the plug but they were fine. He switched it back on and it worked perfectly. Someone would have had to push on the switch to stop it. He felt uncomfortable, as though someone was there in the room with him. John said that there was always a creepy feeling there, even during the day: a dark, resentful feeling.

Tony (conservator) told me that he had been in the Slate Bedroom in February 2010 and that he caught a glimpse of someone in dark clothing, like a dark silhouette. He was opening the blinds near the Slate Dressing Room and the dark shape moved from the fireplace over to the window where he was standing. He said that it moved very fast and he had to jump backwards out of the way to avoid being hit by it. It disappeared through the window. It was a sunny day.