In the 1970's my family and I lived in a property called 'Gladstone
Villa' the place is now a hotel and is called 'Redz' and can be located in Cardiff
road in the former mining town of 'Bargoed', which is in the South Wales valleys.
The paranormal phenomena started soon after I was born in 1969, my mother told me it
started off quietly in the attic then eventually occupied itself in the main
bedroom, which was my grandparents room.
My parents were divorced so my mother and I
were living at Galdstone Villa with my grandparents, in later years as I got older
we noticed that the strange noises got increasingly worse we would regularly hear
footsteps in the main bedroom, and the sound of furniture moving, the occasional
loud bang, but when we went up to investigate we could find nothing that could
possibility account for the noise! Things continued to happen that simply defied
rational explanation. A family friend who didn’t believe us when we told her it was
haunted soon had her belief system challenged when the paranormal activity happened
in front of her, the lights were going off and on, she then contacted a medium for
us, when he came he challenged the spirit to perform by knocking on the ceiling with
a sweeping brush, sure enough the spirit knocked back! He then went into a trance to
try and make contact with it but got no name, but later told us that there was
indeed a presence in the place and its an earthbound spirit.
Another occasion the
local Vicar came to bless the house and after he left we did have peace and quiet
for a short while, but it did return!
One evening we were watching TV when my mam
happened to look towards the door and she saw an apparition, it was actually the
figure of a monk, she described him as wearing the typical monks habit with the hood
over his head so she couldn’t see his face! When she turned away and looked back
again he was gone, it was there for only a couple of moments!
The town of Bargoed is
steeped in history and there was a monastery directly opposite Gladstone Villa, the
place is still there now and is one of the oldest buildings in Bargoed, dating back
to the 17th century, this too is said to be haunted, it's now called the 'Rafa Club.'
We got used to 'our' ghost so much that my grandmother gave it a nick name, we then
called him 'Johnny.'
In the summer of 1978 we moved out of Gladstone Villa, not
because of the ghost but two local business men wanted to buy the property. The
place is now called 'Redz' also known as the Parc Hotel, I had my 40th birthday
there for old times sake and the staff told me of the ghost before I mentioned it,
they too had their own experiences, so Johnny is still there!
My mam and my
grandad still remember it, and my mam even now still doesn’t like to talk about it,
and wouldn’t want to go through it again!, for those who don’t believe that I’m
actually telling the truth.
I challenge anyone to spend the night at 'REDZ, THE PARC
HOTEL.' What I have said here really did happen,and I’m told that people that stayed
there has had 'sightings' in room 5, where my grandparents bedroom was, so look up
the hotel and book a room for the night.
