Rhian, the resident story teller at Plas Mawr took us on a tour of the house as the light was beginning to fade. Her first story recounted the experience of a recent caretaker and some mysterious footprints outside the door leading from the grand entrance hall…
We spent Saturday looking through the footage we shot at Plas Mawr in search of anomalous sounds and visuals from our exploration of the house. The building is full of creaking floorboards and the sounds of an old house settling and shifting, but we did hear one strange thing coming from a chimney which was at a very low frequency so only audible when we compressed the sound…we’ve christened it The Woomphing Ghost of Plas Mawr and it came from the chimney in The Lantern Room where the ghost of Dr Dick is said to haunt…hmmm…
Absent But Not Forgotten will be manifesting at Abertoir Horror Film Festival this year! The project will be split between two spaces in Aberystwyth Arts Centre where the festival is held over 6 days. The Box will feature interview footage about the ghosts and stories of the area. The Studio will become an installation which uses sound and footage from our visits to Aberystwyth along with textiles and objects to create an immersive experience which explores the world of the paranormal, truth and fiction.
On Friday we spent the day with novelist Niall Griffiths who lives in the hills near Aberystwyth and wrote the guide book Real Aberystwyth. He very kindly took us to some of the significant locations in the area and seriously spooked us with the stories and legends that haunt the villages, mountains and woods.
We followed this with a visit to Nanteos Mansion, just outside Aberystwyth and chatted to caretaker Paul about his experiences and the stories that are linked to this Georgian house built in 1738 by William Powell. Paul is not convinced by the voracity of the traditional stories, but has had a few odd experiences in his 6 years at the property. He also told us some contemporary anecdotes about the ghost hunters that have visited to investigate Nanteos and caused more problems than the spooks they were looking for…
As part of our project with blinc Digital Arts Festival we are looking for stories about paranormal and spooky experiences you might have had or heard about in Conwy. We are interested to hear about the traditional ghost stories of the town, but we’d particularly like to hear about what has happened to you, your friends and family.
Have you seen or heard a ghost? Experienced any strange phenomena such as things moving on their own, untraceable noises, the feeling of an unexplainable presence? Do you know any anecdotal stories about ghosts or hauntings in Conwy?
You can email us with your stories and images abnf@hotmail.co.uk or by leaving us a comment on the stories page.
If you are available during the weekend of blinc Digital Arts Festival 22 & 23 October, we’d like to be able to conduct some interviews for our archive, so please let us know.
Plas Mawr was built in C1585, the town house of merchant, Robert Wynne and the wives from 2 marriages, both called Dorothy. The building is kept and furnished in Tudor style by CADW. It is a stunningly beautiful property. The first time we visited I particularly noticed all the little passageways, doors and stairways threading throughout the house. It’s a slightly more daunting prospect to walk through the house after dark, but that’s what we did on Sunday night in the company of Plas Mawr’s resident ghost tour organiser, Rhian.
Rhian dresses the part in her floor length grey cloak and hood and is essentially intent on scaring the bejesus out of you. I consider myself quite hardcore these days – but she still managed to make me jump a few times. We filmed in night vision throughout the house.
We began the project in earnest and headed up the A470 from west Wales to Conwy on Sunday, it was raining (obviously), it was unreasonably early and my car had broken down so we were in a borrowed one. We had access to Plas Mawr on Sunday night to begin shooting footage and capturing sound for the project – so we were fully kitted up and feeling excited.
Just outside Machynlleth at Dyfi Junction, the windscreen wipers started to play up and we had to pull over and wait for the AA…an omen? Well, maybe – but the AA man was lovely and he fixed us up nicely ready for the onward journey. We got there in good time to get set up and intrigued to meet Rhian, the ghost tour lady for the venue who was going to show us around…in the dark.
Absent But Not Forgotten is an ongoing collaborative art project between west Wales artists, Kathryn Campbell Dodd and Jacob Whittaker.
“Belief in the paranormal can be controversial; but there is a strong human desire to find pattern and meaning in the unexplained. Absent But Not Forgotten uses video and sound experiments, textiles, furniture and technical objects to evoke the world of ‘ghost hunting’ through site-specific installations.The project considers the associations, clichés and influences of TV and films on the phenomenon.”
We have been commissioned by blinc Digital Arts Festival in Conwy, North wales to produce a sound and video installation in the courtyard of Plas Mawr, a spectacular Tudor town house owned and managed by CADW.
Plas Mawr is the best kept Tudor town house in the UK and reputedly one of the most haunted. Alongside the site specific work we are hoping to collect lots more paranormal stories from the town. We’re inviting you to post your encounters, experiences and tales along with images and short videos…watch this space for more news…
You can find out more about us here and more about blinc Digital Arts Festival here
Absent But Not Forgotten 