A new series delves into eerie events at a remote farm

Haunted house or spooktacular hoax? Ghosts in the garden, menacing messages, a macabre monk… a new series delves into eerie events at a remote farm

• Spooky spectacles apparently occurred at remote Penyffordd Farm in Flintshire
• READ MORE: 5 possible explanations for paranormal activity REVEALED

The spectre of a hooded monk next to a baby’s cot. Objects moving mysteriously. Eerie religious writing appearing on walls. A ghostly pregnant teenager lurking outside the house.

These spooky spectacles occurred at remote Penyffordd Farm near Mold in Flintshire between 1997 and 2010, leading to claims of it being ‘the most haunted house in Wales’. 

But were the apparitions real or an elaborate hoax by the Gower family, who owned the house at the time?

It might sound like an episode of Most Haunted, but four-part series Paranormal: The Girl, The Ghost And The Gravestones, presented by Radio 1 DJ Sian Eleri, takes a serious look at the evidence and speaks to those who experienced the hauntings. 

Sian had access to an archive compiled by psychologist Dr Michael Daniels, who was asked to investigate by the Gowers. It contains photos of the eerie spontaneous words that appeared on walls.

Spooktacular: Sian Eleri investigating the spooky events that apparently took place at Penyffordd Farm near Mold in Flintshire

‘The Gowers claim to have experienced over 300 paranormal events,’ says Sian. 

‘There were so many instances… whether it was carvings and stains on the walls in a language they couldn’t understand – religious Welsh words like “peace”, which are not necessarily menacing words, but they’re still sinister in the context of where they appeared. And objects would move on their own and they’d see visions of a girl in the garden.

‘It gives them credibility that they brought in a psychologist. They were desperate to understand what was happening, particularly David Gower, who was a headmaster and a chemist, a man of science you wouldn’t expect to believe in the paranormal.’

The hauntings started in 1997 after the Gowers moved a gravestone that was leaning against their 15th-century house. 

The stone was inscribed with the name Jane Jones, who died aged 15 in 1778. Rose-Mary Gower, David’s wife, claims to have seen an apparition of a pregnant girl in a cloak in the garden.

Sian visits an archive of births and deaths to investigate. ‘There was a Jane Jones who lived in the area and passed away at the age that the gravestone claimed,’ says Sian, who is told Jane probably died in childbirth and was denied a church burial because she was unmarried. 

‘The Gowers buried the gravestone in 2010, and Michael, the current owner of Penyffordd, found it and dug it up. It was really emotional. I felt for Jane; she was once upon a time a real person.’

David, Rose-Mary and their son John-Paul moved to Eastbourne in 2002, but their daughter Nicolette stayed on in the house with her husband and baby son. 

Speaking about her experiences for the first time, Nicolette recalls waking one night to see the hooded figure of a monk leaning over her baby’s cot.

Were the apparitions real or an elaborate hoax by the Gower family, who owned the house at the time? (stock image)

‘I can’t imagine how I’d feel in that moment, to wake up and see something looming over my newborn child. It must be pure terror,’ says Sian. 

‘I could tell that she was really traumatised. If she was lying, she’d have to have an Oscar somewhere to be able to pull that off.’

Yet some of the Gowers’ former neighbours believe Rose-Mary was making up stories to get attention – she appeared on Kilroy and talked to the press frequently. 

A psychologist suggests ‘priming’: that Rose-Mary had heard of previous alleged hauntings in the area – Irish hikers claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary in a nearby field a year before the Gowers’ hauntings began – and became convinced it was happening to her. 

A professor of chemistry explains how the words on the walls might have been faked: by writing them in salt water, then painting over them with silver nitrate, which reacts to light, images can be made to appear as if by magic. Sian points out that David is a chemist who might know that.

Sian tracks down Rose-Mary and David to hear their side of the story. But is she convinced?

Initially sceptical, Sian ended up spooked. ‘I liked to imagine that the world is black and white, but having spoken to people and experiencing things myself along the way, it’s made me question how I think the world works. I’ve had some terrifying experiences that they can’t pinpoint a real reason for.’

One was after Sian returned home to London. ‘I was home alone and started hearing almost like a growling or panting outside the bedroom window. 

‘The panting and growling got louder and louder, almost as if it was completely surrounding me. 

‘I was so terrified and frozen with fear that I ran to the pub until my partner came home. Whether it was just a fox I’ll never know, but I was scared.’

• Paranormal: The Girl, The Ghost And The Gravestones, Tuesday, 9pm, BBC3 and Wednesday, 10.40pm, BBC1.

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