Llanyrafon Manor Farm Ghost Hunt (6 hrs)
Schedule
Fri, 07 Feb, 2025 at 09:00 pm to Sat, 08 Feb, 2025 at 03:00 am
UTC+00:00Location
Llanyrafon manor Farm, Cwmbran | Cwmbran, WA
The Medieval Llanyrafon Manor Farm is another of Tracey & Nigel Turners very own properties, so you know it's a special building.The whole site is notoriously haunted, and its history is phenomenal!
You really are in for a treat!
The Manor is the oldest non-religious building in Cwmbran. This medieval manor house is truly unique in every way. Llanyrafon Manor Farm is a Grade II* building which are particularly important buildings of more than special interest; 5.8% of listed buildings are Grade II*
Llanyrafon meaning – Church by the river / Cwmbran meaning – Valley of the crows.
INCLUDED
*Unlimited -Teas-coffee-Hot Choc-bottled waters-Juice & Biscuits
*Paranormal investigation with Tracey & Nigel Turner
*Séance technique experiments
*Use of paranormal equipment
*Free time to explore yourselves
*Access to most areas including -Our 3 acres of grounds
AREAS
Ground floor - Tudor kitchen-Buttery & Panel room.
First Floor - Great Hall - Great Chamber-First floor bedrooms-
Attic bedrooms & landing
Base room is - The Tearoom
Lift access to first floor only - flat gravel pathway to the front door and although the grounds are flat they are uneven in some areas.
Toilet facilities on two floors including disabled toilets.
We also have underfloor heating throughout and portable heaters (just in case)
RULES
No pregnant ladies sorry/ No drugs or alcohol allowed.
Terms and conditions always apply.
GHOSTLY ACTIVITY
Where do we start? …The Manor has a wonderful welcoming atmosphere even the ghosts have decided to stay.
Regular sightings of a Cistercian Monk seen wandering the grounds, Footsteps and dark shadow figures seem to follow those who are brave enough to walk the grounds at night especially around the old barn buildings. The spirits of two children who are said to have drown a very long time ago in the river that runs by the side of the Manor are seen and heard playing in the attic. A little boy has been seen by many sitting in one of the upstairs windows, who's sad cries for “Mam” have been heard echoing down the dark corridors. Heavy footsteps are heard ascending the large wooden staircase. Reports by staff of the large main entrance doors bursting open followed by load banging on the upstairs doors. A spectral cat has been seen by many. A Few mediums have picked up an old lady placing herbs in the chimney of the kitchen fireplace. Reports of poltergeist activity within the tearoom, cakes being thrown off the counter. Lights are also known to flicker on the landing between the Great Hall and Great Chamber.
During a full moon it is said that if you were to look out over the front lawns you might catch a glimpse of a ghostly horse and carriage approaching the manor.
HISTORY
Llanyrafon Manor is a grade II* listed building dating back to the mid 1500's.
A timber-framed medieval building thought to date back to the 13th century on the site which was possibly a farm for the monks of Llantarnam Abbey. Some of its remains can be seen today (behind the lift inside the manor). The site was sold after monasteries were dissolved in the 1530s., Catherine Parr herself visited to divide up the land.
It’s thought most of the rest of the manor was built in the early 1600’s and as it stands today.
The Griffiths family owned it for centuries. The earliest member of this family appears to be one Walter Griffith of Llanyrafon who practised as an attorney and left a will dated 20th November 1629. The will was proved at Llandaff the following March wherein considerable property was left to his widow Margaret and his son Charles. Walter Griffith is later mentioned in a Survey of Magna Porta of 1634 when it is mentioned that he had made and erected two weirs on the River Llwyd.
The argument is that the description of the house as a great mansion in Walter's indenture documents of 1616 suggests that the manor was already quite large by this date.
The manor once stood in a thousand acres of ground. Inside there are fireplaces believed to have been brought from Tredegar House by Mary Morgan who married into the Griffiths family to end a very lengthy feud and a post and panel partition which holds graffiti by Charles Griffiths.
A bitter feud broke out between the families with accusations of bribery against Griffith, criminal damage when Giles Morgan was accused of raising an armed band to destroy Mr Griffith's bridge over the Afon Llwyd and even the attempted abduction of Griffith's stepdaughter Mary by members of the Morgan family. In a bid to end the feud the families joined twice in marriage. First when Walter's daughter Cecilia married Thomas Morgan and secondly when his grandson Charles married Mary Morgan of Newport.
The house remained in the Griffiths family until 1886 when its final owner Florence Griffiths died a spinster. It then passed to the Laybourne family. It was bought as a wedding present by Richard Laybourne for his daughter Edith on her marriage to Alfred Pilliner. The manor remained in use though, it was divided up by Alfred Pilliner and became a farm. The east and west wings became cottages while the north wing was converted into quarters for unmarried workers.
The farm continued to produce cider well into the 20th century, many of the apple trees remain today.
During the First World War, three Italian prisoners of war worked on the farm.
Rupert Pilliner of Llanyrafon, a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Field Artillery, was Mentioned in Dispatches for his bravery. He died in Belgium, only three months into the war, aged 23. He’s commemorated on Llanfrechfa war memorial.
During renovation work within an upstairs bedroom conkers were found under the floorboards within what was known as the secret room where they hid older boys away in fear of losing them to war. It seems the boys past the time away playing the game of conkers.
During the Second World War, members of the Women’s Land Army worked the farm. They were not from farming families but learned how to perform tasks including ploughing, milking, harvesting and digging.
From a map produced in the 1920's, we get a glimpse of what a busy and lively place the manor must have been. There was a kitchen garden, a carpenter's workshop, stalls for geese, a pigsty, sheds for wagons, a hay barn, stables for horses and extensive orchards. Behind the large barn is a waterwheel that powered an elevator to stack the hay and there was also a grindstone to crush apples to be made into cider.
After the war, the manor’s historical importance was officially recognised. The building was bought by the corporation set up to develop the new town of Cwmbran but was boarded up and unsafe in the 1970s. It passed into Torfaen council’s hands in 2008.
Today Llanyrafon Manor Farm stands as grand as ever, its history once again showcased for all to enjoy.
ADDRESS; Llanyrafon Manor, Llanfrechfa Way, Cwmbran NP44 8HT
