The White ladies of Aberavan & Margam

Afan castle always seems to have been haunted: from the days when it stood as a bastion against the Normans right through to when it became scanty ruins in the last century or so. It's stormy and often bloody history has added colour and authenticity to many stories and legends, and perhaps even contributed to the hauntings. According to some authorities a mile or so above the castle Lord Herbert Fitzmathew was killed by the Welsh in a gorge of the river Avan - crushed, and his neck broken by a pile of rocks, a place identified locally as Craigavan. There are those who assert that Lord Herbert met his death near Montgomery and the castle was actually known as Morgan Gam's in 1245. Later, during the days of Black David the wayfarer, the castle was attacked by thirteen men, and Black David hiding behind the door slew eleven of them one by one as they entered, then pursued the other two and slew them also. Many are the tales surrounding this castle. Perhaps the best known ghost of this place is the White lady of Aberavan, who is thought to be ether Lady Margaret, the mother of Sir John of Afan, or Jane de Afan the last occupant of the castle who parted with her heritage on marrying an English knight. Whatever the solution to her identity there seems no denying the fact that an eerie and silent figure, clad in a snow white dress has been seen in the past on, or near the castle mound nearby St Mary's churchyard. Indeed, not so many years ago it was still possible to find elderly inhabitants of the district who told of having seen the "Lady Wen". The term according to the Margam and District Historical Society, originally meant holy and blessed lady, and was a survival from times when many people, commonly invoked the name of the virgin mother. In the late nineteenth century the land was levelled and a street of houses erected, Afan castle being commemorated in the name of the road, Castle Street, which appears to have finally obliterated the enigmatic White lady. The vicinity of Margam Abbey has several ghosts. Margam castle completed in 1840, is a Tudor Gothic mansion built by the Talbot family, which has a White Lady of it's own as well as an unidentified Victorian male figure, while the picturesque ruins of the Cistercian Monastery, founded in 1147, has long been haunted by a spectral monk. Local people had recalled the lady visitor who was found deeply distressed after having been disturbed at prayer by a phantom monk. In 1953 there were repeated reports of appearances of the ghost, especially in the late afternoon and early evening. In 1956 a Taibach inhabitant stated that he had seen along with several friends a spectral figure clad in the unmistakable habit of a Cistercian monk. In 1958 two visitors saw the ghost again in the early evening; in 1967 two more visitors reported seeing a shadowy figure in the robes of a monk, disappearing in curious circumstances. Having spent some time in Margam Abbey's grounds, I find I have to agree with the views of John Vivian Hughes, a native of the borough of Afan, (whose family have been associated with the Margam estate for several generations), that the abbey precincts do indeed have a tremendous atmosphere; full of psychic power and undoubtedly, a haunted spot.

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