The Grapes

Newtown

Powys

After speaking to Helen, who own the Grapes, she invited Unexplained Wales to do a tour around the pub and let us carry out an investigation. After giving Helen a paranormal report to fill in and on returing it to us, Unexplained Wales arranged a date to go in and investigate any paranormal activity that may have been occuring there.

In this Investigation report, you will be able to:

1, Read the report that Helen gave us

2, Find out what used to be the Grapes pub

3, Read our full investigation

4, Look at pictures from the investigation and video footage

Eye Witness Accounts

Jordan Weaver- My Experience When Living at the Grapes

The living room for the residents used to be our playroom when I was about 8-9, We used to have toy cars on the mantelpiece which one day moved on their own.

Elora Maughan- My Experience

While living at the Grapes in Room 7, I regularly saw white flash in my window most nights, within the last few months I lived there.

Aled Lewis- My Experience

One evening I was in the bar with Helen waiting to lock up the pub. There was no one else around, Helen walked into the kitchen and it looked like she walked through somebody, We checked and there was no one else in the pub.

Ffion Pugh- My Experience

On Several occasions when working behind the bar at the Grapes, glasses have just smashed on the shelves for no reason also just dropped on the floor behind the bar when they where safe on the shelves.

Kim Gannon- My Experience

When I stayed in the top flat I had various experiences of things dropping off my chest of drawers and glasses being thrown at the wall when there was no one else around.

Helen Lewis (Manager)- My Experience

I lived at the Grapes for over 6 years and have worked there for over 8 years. While living in the top flat various things would go missing and turn up in the strangest of places.

In one of the far rooms things would drop of the floor for no apparent reason. In the middle floor things got moved around in, what is now the living room, Room 5 has always felt cold and damp even with the heating on.

In the bar on several occasions glasses have just smashed on the shelves and dropped off the shelves, The television in the pool room has changed channels on its own in the past and turned off.

Often when I have worked I have felt that there is someone there and as silly as it may sound we nick named him "George".

A couple of times I have thought I have seen shadows walking down the corridor by the toilets but when I went to look there was no one there.

History Of the Grapes And Surrounding Area

THE OCCUPANTS 5-7 COMMERCIAL STREET AND GRAPES COURT

On St David's Day 1819 fifty boats carrying several hundred workmen sailed into Newtown to mark the opening of the Western Branch of the Montgomeryshire Canal for navigation. The men were treated to "a substantial dinner and plenty of cwrw da" in recognition of their work. Nevertheless it was to be another two years before the waterway could be fully used. It had to wait for the completion of the Pumphouse to provide an adequate supply of water to feed the upper end of the navigation.

The Long Bridge, designed by the County Surveyor, Thomas Penson, was completed in 1827. As well as forming an improved link between the Canal and the town the bridge provided an opportunity to develop the land on the north side of the river as a part of the rapidly growing handloom weaving industry. A grid of streets were laid out on fields that had up till that time been a part of the Lower Bryn Farm. The land was then divided into building plots which were then sold. Development must have been rapid for only two years after the opening of the bridge the Vicar of Llanllwchaiarn, the churchwardens, overseers, and 12 others petitioned the Justices of the Peace to grant a licence to Richard Gittins for a public house in Penygloddfa (the name comes from one of the fields on which it was built).

The Angel Factory in Commercial Street (now Roberts & Quin), mentioned in the 1851 census, did not close until 1886. When its occupier, the Montgomeryshire Flannel Company, became bankrupt in 1891 the liquidator put their equipment up for sale. Advertised were "an iron handloom, 18 narrow handlooms, 3 spinning jennies, reeds and sleys, large quantity of weft, bobbin sticks, 2 wire beaming rakes, oil pumps and tins, 4 iron stoves with piping &c &c".
Around the corner in Crescent Street, John Pugh, who had been recorded as living in Commercial Street in 1851 then employing 18 men. had extended his business into the Crescent Factory. He had also extended his wealth and had moved in The Woodlands, a large house on Milford Road. In about 1880 John Pugh retired and passed his business to one George Morgan, who set about modernising the factory. In 1882 he installed a steam engine and power driven carding engines spinning machines and looms. He also installed about 500 hand operated spindles and 20 handlooms. He was of the opinion that there would be work for handloom weavers for many years to come. But by this time both hand and power loom weaving in Newtown was in a long terminal decline. George Morgan was declared bankrupt in 1895. The Crescent Factory ceased production for ever.
The 1861 census records that George Matthews, retired manufacturer, was living at No.7 Commercial Street. He may have been the father of William Matthews who had a substantial hand loom factory in Union Street. This factory eventually passed to William's son, Charles, who was forced out of business by his creditors in 1891.
The last hand loom manufacturer in Newtown was Evan Watkins who had a factory in Wesley Street. He retired from business in 1904, but whether his handloom operation lasted till then is not known. A decade earlier he had foreseen the end of Newtown's textile industry. The Montgomeryshire Express had sought the views of various manufacturers in the town on their views of the future of their trade.

"Mr Watkin stated that there was now hardly any demand for the fine woven Welsh flannel, as the purpose for which it was formerly used were now adequately provided for by the knitted garments, and people would rarely purchase flannel of a fine nature for the purpose of making underclothing when they could purchase ready made garments at a much cheaper rate - in fact fine Welsh flannel had now become a luxury. But there was no doubt that the fine flannels woven on the hand- looms were of a much superior class than the flannels woven on the power looms, yet the great drawback to the sale of fine flannels was the introduction of knitted goods. . . . . .He was now the only manufacturer in the town who made Welsh flannels exclusively by the use of hand-looms. . .[It would not] pay a company to manufacture Welsh flannels by handloom process, as there was no market for a quantity, and if there were large additions made to the number of producers now in existence it would mean the flooding of the market, and trade would suffer. The present demand for Welsh flannel was confined almost exclusively to the coarser kinds, and the trade in this respect was swallowed up by the cheap production of the power-looms."

Grapes Court (or Grapes Yard) does not appear in either the 1891 or 1901 census. This may indicate that by that time No.5-7 had been "knocked through" into the Grapes Court dwellings to form three larger and better ventilated houses. Although the health benefits of doing this was well understood at that time, the last back-to-back houses in Newtown did not disappear until the local council's "slum clearance scheme" in the 1950s and 60s.  The Urban District Council had intended to include Pengloddfa in their clearance scheme but fortunately the local government reorganisation of 1974 swept away the UDC before they could do the same to this historic collection of buildings.

The Investigation Report

Unexplained Wales investigation team

the Grapes Inn, Newtown Powys

Saturday 31th October 2009

Halloween

Investigation team – Wayne, Archie Joelene, Carole, Shelly, Aileen.

Also present - Helen (pub manageress), Ben (Helens son),Sadie and Ffion (Helens friends).

Equipment used: Night vision video camera, Digital Voice recorders x2, Digital cameras x5, Thermometer, Laptop computer to download the pictures after each break. Use of Dowsing rods and Crystals to help communication.

The Investigation.

The team arranged to meet at the pub at 11.00pm (Fri). We were introduced to Helen, Sadie, Ffion and Ben. Helen gave a brief outline of the pub, although she admitted she knew little of its history. Helen also gave us a drawn plan of the pub. The large building consisted of three floors, plus a cellar.

Hopefully, we would be investigating two of the floors plus the cellar. The top floor was a residential flat, so we would not be able to go up there, which was a little disappointing as Helen said it was reported that there was regular poltergeist activity in the flat.

We had to wait until the pub was closed for the night, so we sat in the main part of the bar chatting, and trying to plan the nights proceedings.

Archie – I found that for some reason, I was drawn to look at a doorway behind us (which had an exit sign on it) I could not take my eyes off the door, and as we were chatting I was drawn back, time and time again to it (I found that it opened to a small corridor, where the male and female toilets were, and at the end of the corridor was another door, a fire exit, which led outside to the back yard).

Helen closed the pub at 12.00am (Sat 31^st Oct- Halloween) and we started to set up for the night. Helen showed us the pubs CCTV system, which showed 3 views (two of the bar area, and the third was a night vision view of outside – all 3 of the cams in use would automatically switch to night vision when the lights were off). I asked if this last view was of the area of the yard at the other side of the fire exit door, Helen said it was. The pictures on the monitor were very clear, Wayne asked if the pictures were recorded, Helen said they were saved to hard drive for 7 days, so Wayne asked if it was possible to have a copy of the nights recordings, Helen said she would try and get them off the CCTV for us. I found, as before, I could not take my eyes off this particular section of the screen showing the outside. Helen said that there was a lot of activity in the corridor, and outside in the yard. She said that lights had been seen on the CCTV screen, of the smoking area that had been set up at the far end of the yard, when it was known that all the light had been switched off for the night.

She also mentioned (almost in an offhand manner) that she had an old picture of a man with a monkey that was taken out in the yard area. I wondered why she had mentioned it.

Helen gave us a guided tour of the pub, cellar and the floor above.

In the cellar, which was quite cold obviously, there was a cooling fan for the beer, which was quite noisy. Helen said that she could turn it off if we wished. We asked if she would.

When we went to the living room, Archie felt he immediately had to go across the room and stand right in front of the fireplace, on the spot where the hearth would have been, and as we talked about the room and what had been happening, Helen pointed at the fireplace, and said thats where we have seen things.

When we returned to the bar, we decided to conduct an experiment, where we could set up some coins on a green baize cloth, these coins spanned many eras, dating from the present, back to the mid 1700's. They were lined up on the cloth in three straight rows, each row covering a different age (the idea was to see if they might be moved by any spirits present if they recognised any from their own time period). Once this was done, we decided to split into 3 small groups, to allow us to cover the largest area possible:

Then we turned off all of the lights.

Wayne, Helen and Ben - the Living room.

After calling out in the room, Wayne said he could hear the sound of fingers running across the wavy surface of a radiator.

Helen said she was feeling a warm sensation on her back, and cold breath on the back of her neck (we had noted earlier, that the whole pub was very warm, with the exception of the Cellar)

Helen also had the sensation of someone stood by her side.

Ben said he had a warm feeling on his top left shoulder and bottom right of his back.

Wayne said he had the sensation of his hair raised on the back of his neck.

Aileen, Sadie and Ffion – the Bar area.

The group were getting little response from the rods, and it was thought that Ffion would do better. The rods responded that they wanted Ffion to speak. She started getting a response, from a man who liked the nickname of George. They also heard a ticking sound within the area. Ffion said her neck was being touched. A male presence responded that Sadie reminded him of his wife, and that he had his grandson with him.

They got a response about a railway train crash near Abermule (it is known that there was a train crash disaster in Abermule).

They felt a pull towards the back door, at this point the digital camera they were using jammed.

They walked over to the corridor by the toilets, and got the response that somebody didn't like them there.

Ffion said she had the feeling that someone was touching her legs, which made her feel uneasy.

In the snug area of the bar, a light was seen going past the window, and Ffion said she felt someone grope her breast. The group had the feeling that it was a man who liked young girls.

Archie, Jo, Carole and Shelly – the Kitchen.

The group sat at the table, and each tried in turn to use the dowsing rods to get a response, when calling out. This seemed to not work very well.

The group then walked into the middle of the room (it was noted that the room was originally two separate rooms, and had been knocked through). Jo's walkie talkie started crackling with static, it seemed to persist and Jo found that the static effect was localised in the middle of the room. It then seemed to move to the side of the room by the wall, and then moved back to the centre.

We discussed whether we could get any response with the static by asking questions. Initially the crackling seemed to quieten in response to the questions, and went down to a ticking sound from the radio, but then the static seemed to escalate and the noise got much louder. The only way the static would stop was if the radio was moved away from the area.

Archie decided to stand in the centre of the room on his own with the radio. By using the radio static as a detector found that the static area was localised 2 ft from the ceiling and 2 ft from the floor, and radiated to make a circle of approximately 4 ft across.

The static then stopped, and Archie found it again in the corner of the room (it was moving around the room). It then went back to the centre of the room again. - We had not got an EMF meter with us, so it was difficult to ascertain whether the static was caused by electrical disturbance. Caused by faulty wiring etc. in the room. While Archie was doing this, Jolene mentioned to Carole and Shelly that there were a lot of orbs showing on the video cam, centred around Archie.

Aileen radio'd to tell us that her camera had jammed in the bar area, when she was trying to take pictures of the corridor doorway.

The group started feeling a cold sensation ontheir legs while this was going on.At this point Jo radioed down to the others and suggested we all meet up back at the bar area.

Jo downloaded everyone's photo's onto her laptop, and we decided where we would all go next.

Ben showed us a photo that he had just taken in the living room with his phone camera, which he thought showed a face by the wall unit.

Sadie, Ffion and Ben - the Bar area.

They sensed a man, woman and their grandson in the room with them.

Sadie reminded the man of his wife and she felt quite uneasy at this. She felt the name was Henry.

Ffion started to feel really ill and felt she didn't want to be there.

Sadie saw movement in the passage window by the toilets and they heard the door inside the corridor bang loudly. This quite frightened the two of them and they decided they wanted to leave the pub there and then. They found Helen and told her that they were leaving, and then left.

Wayne, Helen – the Kitchen.

The group had a response using the dowsing rods, of two names in the kitchen, Alice and Henry. A date was given around 1920, and that Alice does not like men. Alice responded that she was regularly raped from the age of 14 years old, by the owner of the mill.

A horse and cart was sensed by Ben outside, and then the response came that Alice was suffocated by this man. Helen got the sensation of a hand across her face and an arm across her throat. Alice said that her son saw her murdered by Henry. Alice also had a daughter who died at birth, and that Alice was buried by the area now occupied by the pool table.

Wayne said he had his hand touched, and Helen was pushed in the back.

While this was going on the walkie talkies continued giving out loud static.

A further response stated that Alice died in her mid 30's. Her son was born when she was 15 years old and her daughter born when she was 19 years old.

Wayne at this point asked for Alice to do something else apart from the static, and the coolers started up in the cellar (these had been turned off earlier by Helen).

Alice was asked where Henry was, the response came that Henry was in the bar, and that Henry liked young girls, who he constantly raped.

Alice responded that she started working at the mill at the age of 12.

Wayne said he had a headache, neck ache and felt cold and Helen said she could feel pressure on the back of her neck.

Archie, Carole, Shelly, Aileen and Jo – the Living Room

Aileen had the dowsing rods and Archie stood at the side asking questions. Jo filmed from the settee. We looked at the wall unit, where Ben had thought he had captured an image of a face, but it turned out to be some artificial flowers.

Three spirits were detected by the rods in response to questions, found to be 1 woman and 2 men, and after questioning, the rods pointed directly at Archie (who was standing directly on Aileens right side – both of the rods swung sideways to where Archie was standing) they were adamant that Archie needed to help them.

The first spirit was actually Aileen's mother. Archie asked if she had unfinished business, to this there was a definite yes. We wondered what it may be, and Aileen said she thought she knew what it was.

Aileen asked her mother a question that was personal to her and the spirit of her mother answered it with an affirmative, it was noted by Shelly and Carole that while this was going on, Aileen's face was 'overshadowed' and shook up Shelly a little. ( as the rest of this is of a personal nature between Aileen and her mother, we felt it unfair to disclose what was said).

Wayne radio'd to say that the cooler in the cellar had just turned itself on (no one was in there).

The second entity was asked if his name was Joseph when Shelly suggested it, it said no. Archie asked was it Joe? The reply was yes. Joe wanted help to pass over, which Archie did.

The third entity, Aileen said was giving her a name of Florrie, and another name of Giuseppe Garibaldi, with links to the Rhondda and some kind of mining disaster or event. She was also seeing a metal plaque, but could not say what was on it, apart from the fact it had his name on it.

After radioing the others, it was decided to go back down to the bar area.

Jo downloaded all of our pictures onto the laptop again. Then we discussed what to do next.

Sadie and Ffion returned, and we told them that if they did not wish to carry on, they could leave if they wished. They decided to stay.

We discussed our last reults, and Aileen mentioned sensing the name Florrie. Helen said that a landlady of the pub many years ago was called Florrie, and that Helen had a picture of her somewhere. Then she said that it was the same picture of the man with the monkey she had mentioned earlier.

Wayne, Helen and Ben – the Living room.

They felt a bearded man was standing in the corner by the wall unit, he had his arms folded in front of him. They were given a date of the 1600's, and that he shot his wife through jealousy, by the door 3 times, in the neck, lower back and the left shoulder. Then he shot himself in the chest by the window.

He responded that he didn't like men.

We had a short break, then started our last vigils.

Helen, Sadie, Ffion Carole, Jolene Shelly and Aileen – the Bar area.

The group decided to sit on the floor around the pool table. The two young girls kept feeling that they were being pinched and grabbed, and they all felt that the young girls needed some sort of protection, so they sat in a circle on the floor around them. It was decided to ask questions using a crystal pendulum.

They thought that they saw a figure in the corridor through the door window,They noted that there was a banging coming from the door by the gambling machine (the side door to the corridor).

Helen started having stomach pains, and felt that someone (whom she took to be Alice) was holding her from behind, and had arms around Helens waist.

Helen sensed that someone died during childbirth (Alice had already earlier said that her daughter had died at birth)

Jo said she heard a dragging sound by the front door of the bar.

Again the camera's jammed when attempting to phograph the corner where the corridor door and slot machine was. No apparent reason could be found for this.

Wayne and Archie – Ironing board room.

Wayne suggested that he and Archie went to the small room where the ironing board was (with the wooden fire escape steps at the window) Archie had said he felt that we needed to contact someone in this room, when Helen was showing us round.

Wayne had the rods while Archie asked questions. There seemed to be more than one spirit in the room, and when questioned, showed three seperate entities. Archie said he had a clear mental picture of a snow covered lane, and asked if the spirit was run over by a horse and cart. The answer was a strong yes. Wayne started to complain that the back of his neck was hurting. Archie asked if the spirit wished to pass over, it said yes. Archie helped him to pass over.

Wayne had to sit down at this point, and we started to ask questions to the next spirit. This one turned out to be Waynes father. Wayne ascertained it was him by personal questions (the rest of the information is private to wayne).

The third spirit was quite weak, and not much could be gained from the questioning.

We decided to go back down to the bar to regroup.

After having a small break, it was suggested that we try using a glass on the table (like a ouija board) We all stood round the table, Wayne filming on the video cam.

Jo suggested that Archie ask the questions. He asked if there was any spirits present. Very slowly the glass started to move across the table, then it picked up speed, and before long it started spinning round the table in a large circle.

We asked if it was here for anyone in particular, and the glass stopped circling and quickly slid over to Helen. We asked if it was Alice, and it started spinning very fast in a circle again. At times it was difficult to keep a finger on the glass. Jo suggested we each, in turn take our figer off the glass as it was circling (to show that no one was actually pushing the glass – if the person pushing lifted their finger the glass would stop moving) at no time did the glass stop or slow its circular motion.

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

As we were doing this, most of us saw a male figure walk past the door window that was directly behind us. Aileen thought it might be the man that lived on the top floor. She came back a few minute later (the glass was still circling during this time) and said there was no one there. We were really please with the results of this experiment.

Archie decided that we should try and help Alice move over to the other side. Everyone agreed, so this was done. The atmosphere seemed a little lighter afterwards.

We checked the coins on the bar, a couple looked like they had moved slightly, but it was probable that because the cloth was overhanging the bar, the cloth had been tugged, thus moving some of them.

Helen came over and said that she had found a camera wrist strap behind the bar, and asked if it belonged to anyone. Aileen said it was from her camera, and had not noticed that it was missing, but she said that she had not been behind the bar, and was puzzled as to how it got there.

We all decided that we should end the night there (we didn't realise that it was 5.30 in the morning). It had been quite an eventful night. We packed up our equipment, and said to Helen that we would check with her in a week or so to see if she noticed any changes in the atmosphere in the pub.

Post investigation data

Archie searched the census returns that were available for the row of houses and the yard that covered the Grapes Inn, and found some puzzling facts.

Alice E Davies 2mths old No 5 Commercial st 1881 Census

'' '' 9yrs old '' 1891 Census

'' '' 19yrs old '' 1901 Census

No record for Alice after this date

Alice had brothers Joseph and George

Henry E Davies 3yrs old Grapes Yard 1861 Census

Father Pauper, formerly Inn keeper

Henry Edward Davies 20 yrs? Grapes Yard Mill worker 1871 Census

same mother (now widow) as other henry, so age is possibly wrong

Information collected and recorded by Archie Rodway

Team member

Unexplained Wales Investigation team

1^st November 2009

Helen (Manager of The Grapes FeedBack)

"After participating in a recent investigation that took place at The Grapes, Newtown, I thought I would write to tell you about how much I enjoyed the whole experience.

I am a true believer and regularly had feelings that there was some sort of prescence at The Grapes after living there for over 5 years and having many things happen to my self or saw them happen to others. This is why I wanted to take part in the investigation, I never thought I would experience anything personally or come out with some of the information that felt I was being told to me, I was totaly overwhelmed by the whole experience and would have no hesitation in taking part in any future investigations,

Thank you so much for letting me be involved.

Helen"

We would like to give a BIG  thank you to  everyone at The Grapes in Newtown, Powys for letting us in to do an Investigation.