Abertridwr, Caerphilly

Superstitious Colliers.
Despite every inducement to it to make another appearance, no more has been seen of the Abertridwr ghost. The victim of the alleged manifestations, who before the recent ghost scare was employed at one of the local collieries, is now (according to the "South Wales Daily News" debarred from descending the shaft. The colliers in the district are said to ahve made representations that the presence of a "haunted man" in the colliery would be a foreboding of evil. The victim has received many letters of advice upon the matter, but no enclosures. The letters come from all parts of the country, and offer various suggestions for solving the mystery. One writer recommends that he should sleep with a number of knives under his bed, stating that this "cure" had proved effectual in the case of a child who was under a "spell."
Northern Daily Telegraph, 8th March 1906

Coalisland, Tyrone, Northern Ireland (1900s)

Ghost Scare in Ireland.

A Belfast correspondent telegraphs that the district of Coalisland, Tyrone, is in a state of terror in consequence of the nightly visitation of a "ghost." The coal miners have several times refused to work at night despite the visits and assurances of local clergy-men. The spectre is that of a woman dressed in white. Large numbers of men declare they have seen the figure between midnight and three in the morning.
Derby Daily Telegraph, 5th December 1906.

 

Spook or Donkey?

Irish Miners Terrified into Prayer by a "Ghost".

(From Our Own Correspondent.) Belfast, Wednesday Night.

During the past few days a "ghost" of terrifying aspect, has caused much consternation among the men employed at the coal-pit at Red Row, Coalisland. I interviewed to-day the men working at the pit regarding the visitor. Amongst those by whom the "ghost" has been seen are the following workmen: Bernard Quinn, King's Row, Coalisland; Joe Hararan, Annagher; James Hughes, Derry; Joe McMahon, Braekaville, and the latter's father, John McMahon, who works at the Roan Spinning Mill. These are the men, bright and intelligent, with whom I conversed and from whom I obtained the following statement:

James Hughes saw the "ghost" first on the morning of Nov. 28th, at about half-past one o'clock. It was walking round the shed at the gable end of the Red Row, which is about 25 yards from the pit. Joe McMahon saw it after Hughes. It was dressed in white, and had a white cover on its head. You could not see arms nor legs on it, nevertheless it wore distinctly the shape of a human being. On Thursday morning, about the same hour as on Wednesday, Joe Hararan, Bernard Quinn, and John and Joe McMahon were sitting in the cabin, when they all saw the ghost, about two yards from the chestnut tree. 

The apparition, they say, looked like a man or a woman. Jas. Hughes and Joe Hararan walked out on the ban and looked at it for a minute or so. They then came in and sat down, the ghost standing all the time. About two minutes later it moved on again, and the four men then knelt and began to pray, whereupon the ghost came over the ditch into the field that the pit is in and disappeared, apparently, into the earth.

On Saturday morning the ghost came at ten minutes past one o'clock, and stopped at the Red Row corner for about three minutes, and then walked right past the chestnut tree, where it disappeared. It was then "in the shape of a four-footed animal, about the size of a sheep, and had a tail about two feet long, and ears about eighteen inches." About ten minutes later it reappeared, but this time it was like a human being, but all white - dazzling white. It stood now on the middle of the road, about twenty yards from the pit, and a while after walked through a gate into a field.

The men have not seen it since. They all say the apparition would terrify anybody.

London Daily News, 6th December 1906.

 

 Coalisland "Ghost" Turns Out To Be A Donkey.

For some time past the inhabitants of Coalisland and the surrounding district have been considerably alarmed by the reported appearance of a ghost near the old coalpits. Youths and maidens, and even those of riper years, were afraid to move out of doors after sunset. Various theories were advanced to account for the strange apparitions. Search parties were organised, and some daring individuals waited the other night with the coalers till the visitor arrived, when it was discovered that the "ghost" was no other than Mr. John Corr's grey donkey, which, it seems, is in the habit of roaming about after night near the old coalpits.

Belfast News-Letter, 13th December 1906.

Cornish miners

The festivals still celebrated by the Cornish miners are probably Christmas survivals of the Pagan customs of doing honour to the gods for the enrichment of the earth. On the second Thursday before Christmas - Picrons-day - some Cornish miners feast in honour of St. Piran or St. Kinan, the supposed discoverer of tin, while others on the Thursday before Christmas observe the feast of Chewidden, in commemoration of the first manufacture of white or smelted tin.
Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser. 12th December 1906.

Pit Ghost: Uncanny story from New Mills.

The inhabitants of New Mills woke on Saturday morning to find they had in their midst what was termed "a real, live, although headless, female ghost."
The story was that two or three of the miners int he small colliery at New Mills, when working during the night, saw the ghost, and heard its blood-curdling screams until they were nearly frightened to death. They declared it lifted up its arms, uttered loud screams, and then vanished into thin air, and that it was the ghost of a woman who is said to have been brutally murdered in the vicinity of the pit very many years ago, her head being severed from her body.
It is further related that soon after the murder the ghost appeared to the workmen who were attending to the engines during the night, but that it was "laid" by a local preacher, and had not appeared since until last week.

Investigations, however, throw a somewhat different light on the affair. The hills around New Mills have for centuries been worked for coal; but the pits have been "set down one by one", until the only concern now working is a small colliery at Ollersett, in a wood just outside New Mills. It is an old pit, which has been closed for many years until about two months ago, when the workmen, some fifty in number, were transferred from the Pingot pit, close by, which was closed. The proprietors are the Ollersett Colliery Company, whose manager is Mr. Jas. Ramsbottom.

Interviewed, Mr. Ramsbottom welcomed the opportunity of giving his version of what he considers "nothing but bosh." "Then there is nothing in it, is there?" "Nothing whatever, and I am surprised anyone should believe such rubbish in these days." Mr. Ramsbottom admitted that two of the men stated they had seen something in the pit, and had heard noises, and this had been construed into a ghost.
"Then they have heard noises?" "Yes, noises had been heard, and there was certainly 'a funny noise' in the shaft, but it was caused by the air current. It was 'a whistling sound,' and no doubt sounded a bit dismal. Sometimes it 'goggled,' but it was nothing whatever but the pump. It was a wet shaft, and when water fell down the inside from one ring to another it set up a funny noise, which echoed through the pit as if someone was talking. 'To say it is anything more is ridiculous,' added the manager. 'I have been there twenty-three years, and have never seen or heard anything but what I have told you, although I have gone through the place hundreds of times, both alone and with company at all hours of the night."

There is no record anywhere, writes our representative, of any woman having been murdered there. But many years ago a demented woman dashed a child's brains out against a tree, and sixty years ago several colliers were suffocated in the mine.

Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Monday 26th January 1914.