HGB Ep. 509 - The Witch Farm

Moment in Oddity - The Muffin Man

We are all familiar with the brothers Grimm fairy tales which can be fairly dark in nature. Many nursery rhymes and childhood songs can have dark connotations as well. For instance, Ring-around-the-rosy has been said to be about the circular red rash which was an indicator of the bubonic plague. While a pocket full of posie was related to the flowers kept in plague doctors pockets to lessen the stench of dead or dying people. Similarly, The Muffin Man song has a lesser known dark reference as well. 

"Do you know the muffin man? The muffin man, the muffin man. Do you know the muffin man who lives on Drury Lane?"

Now, this rhyme has SOME historical truth behind it because during the Victorian era there were indeed 'muffin men' who would deliver fresh baked goods right to people's doors. But some tales tell terrifying tragic stories meant to warn children about a 'Muffin man' by the name of Frederick Thomas Lynwood. Urban legends said that Frederick was a 16th century baker turned serial killer. He was told to have used mouth watering muffins that he tied by string to lure children into his clutches where he proceeded to kill them. The full moniker linked to this myth was "The Drury Lane Dicer". Although there is no documented truth to be found for the story, a childhood rhyme with a Hansel and Gretel spin, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - The Tuxedo Created

In the month of October, on the 10th in 1886, Griswold Lorillard of Tuxedo Park, NY created the first tuxedo. Lorillard came from a family of wealthy tobacco magnates who lived just outside of New York City. Because of their wealth, they belonged to the Tuxedo Club in Tuxedo park. This particular October, a formal debutantes ball was being held. Lorillard didn't care much for the jackets men wore because the tails were hard to sit and dance with, so in frustration he cut the tails off his coat. His friends liked it and decided they wanted the same. They also all chose scarlet satin vests to wear under their tailless dress coats. When the group entered the ballroom, they drew gasps from onlookers. They definitely ruffled the feathers of the older society with one quipping that the boys looked like royal footmen who ought to have been put in strait-jackets long ago. However, the new style caught on and was dubbed the tuxedo after Tuxedo Park where it was first introduced.

The Witch Farm

One of Britain's most haunted homes was nicknamed The Witch Farm. A young family experienced seven years of haunting activity while living there. This was meant to be their dream home, but it became a nightmare. Some people believed that ley lines of dark energy ran under the property. There are some who thought that the family who lived there were perhaps having mental health issues. Many people witnessed or experienced unexplained things at this property to lend credence to the stories. And the history of the land certainly has fuel to spark paranormal activity. Join us as we share the compelling haunting of The Witch Farm!

The Brecon Beacons is a mountainous region in Wales that is now a national park that gets four-and-a-half million visitors every year. The name was derived from a Welsh term for peaks and the name of a medieval kingdom that was once in the area. There are numerous burial cairns throughout the hills and dozens of hillforts dot the landscape. The area of the Brecon Beacons where the haunting we are going to discuss is set, has long been associated with mysticism and the occult. People claim that witchcraft and sorcery were practiced here for years and many landmarks are even named after witches. Celtic myths go back hundreds of years and many claim there are curses connected to the land. It was here, in the shadow of this mountain range, that a young couple would start a family together on a rural farm. A farm known by some as The Witch Farm. 

The official name of the farmstead is Heol Fanog (He Ail Van Og) The couple were Bill and Liz Rich and the year was 1989. Liz was Welsh and three months pregnant when they moved in and Bill's son from a previous marriage, fourteen-year-old Laurence, joined them on the farm too. Bill was English and during this time in Wales, English people were not real welcome. So some of the neighbors weren't keen on having Bill here. Other then that, everything seemed fine at the farm. That was until the Riches received their first electric bill. That electric bill was huge, 750 pounds, which is equivalent to 2,000 pounds today. Something was causing a large drain on the power in the house. The Riches asked the electric company to come out and check the meter because clearly it was measuring wrong. The company checked everything and they could find nothing wrong with the meter. The breaker box was checked and there were no shorts. The company was perplexed, but still insisted on being paid. The Riches didn't have that kind of money, so this became a bit of a fight back and forth with more high electric bills and no one being able to figure out what the issue behind the drain could be. Liz and Bill were frustrated, but they certainly didn't think there was anything paranormal about the issue. That thought didn't cross their minds until they heard the sound of disembodied footsteps running through the house. That was unnerving enough and then Liz heard the door slam even though the door never moved.

Shortly after those two incidents, the couple caught the scent of sulfur. They couldn't figure out where it was coming from and then the scent changed to an incense smell. Bill decided to ask a neighbor if he had heard about any weird stuff happening at the house. This neighbor told him that there were ruins of the former manor house on the property. There had also been a cemetery and stones were taken from both of these sites to build the house that Liz and Bill were renting. Weird occurrences continued to happen in the house. There would be times when the heat in the house would be unbearable and other times it would be freezing cold. It was as if polar opposites were fighting in the house and as we continue to share the crazy things that happened here, that will become more apparent. 

The Riches had a pig on the farm that was very tame and sweet. They named her Lucinda. One day she suddenly seemed to lose her mind and got crazy and wild. It seemed as though she was possessed and the tame pig became violent. It got so bad that they had to euthanize her. Whatever happened to Lucinda seemed to carry on in the other animals on the property. Eventually they all had either gone crazy or run away. This included two cats, a guinea pig, a dog and a herd of goats. The next odd occurrence happened in the bathroom. The toilet had actually pushed itself up and gone cockeyed, so they called out a plumber. The plumber went into the bathroom and couldn't figure out what the issue was because the toilet was sitting the way it was supposed to. The plumber leaves and the toilet does the same thing. The plumber returns and fixes the toilet and then tells the Riches that he had been to the house before. He had installed central heating for a previous owner and was called back to the house after all the radiators had pulled themselves off the walls. He fixed them all and left. The plumber was called back again because the radiators had pulled free again. The way he was able to stop this from happening again was using screws that had crosses on them. The radiators never pulled away again. 

Liz then saw her first apparition at the house. She had been at the store and was coming back into the house when she saw an elderly woman standing in the window, wearing modern clothing. Liz sees this apparition again later. This time, the ghost is sitting in a chair near the baby's crib and she looked sad. The spirit seemed to be a good presence in the house. Later, Liz was talking with the landlord of Heol Fanog and she saw a photo of his mother. She realized that was the woman she was seeing in the house. Her name was Marion Holborn and she died at the age of 95 in 1980. An armchair that she loved had actually come with the house and that was the chair that Liz had seen the ghost sitting upon. The sounds of both booted and slippered footsteps continued to be heard in the house and the electric bills continued to be high. Liz became pregnant again. Liz had given birth to Ben the year before and this second child born in 1990 was a girl they named Becca. Even though Becca was very young when she lived in the house, she still remembers many experiences. One of those was a dream she had over and over where she was being pushed down the stairs, but she always woke up right before she hit the bottom of the stairs. An interesting connection to this is that the Riches would hear the footsteps going down the stairs and they always stopped before reaching the bottom.

There were moments when the energy in the house seemed clear, but the claustrophobic and oppressive times became more prevalent. The family was desperate for help so they brought in a trance medium named Larry Harry. He brought a team with him that included two Dutch mediums. The group decided to conduct a seance and during that, Larry brought forward four spirits that he described as an old woman, a mischievous young man, another young man and something ancient and dark. Bill's teen-aged son, Laurence, had been having some issues in the house and he was becoming angry and hard to deal with. Larry the medium felt that Laurence may have brought something into the house, so Bill decided to send Laurence away to see if this would get rid of the dark entity. That didn't work and while it seems harsh that Laurence was sent away, he later told his dad that he was thankful to have been sent away from the house because he knew it was doing something to him. 

The Riches start sharing a room at night to sleep because the kids are scared. Sometimes Becca's dreams would get so bad that Liz would rush her over to her grandparents house to stay. Becca saw the old woman's spirit and she described her as being gray. She literally saw her as black and white colored. The spirit would watch her and her brother play, but she felt that it wasn't in a nice way. She would scowl at them. Larry Harry returned to the house and conducted an exorcism and things felt lighter for awhile. The feeling of being watched went away and the electricity normalized. Bill got back into his painting and started painting lots of eyes in the pictures. It was as if he was reliving the feeling of being watched all the time. A neighbor came over and asked Bill to paint a portrait of his horse. He left Bill with a picture of the horse in the field. After Bill finished the painting, the horse died right there in the field, in the spot where the picture was taken. That neighbor stopped talking to Bill and blamed him for the death of the horse. Could this be related to the haunting or just a weird coincidence?

Bill and Liz started having the same dream, which featured the couple trying to escape the house but they always ended up back at the house. Bill started getting cracks in his hands as though his hands had been cut several times. This issue lasted for months and doctors couldn't find a good treatment for it. Some believed it was a form of eczema from stress. A reporter came to the house to cover the story of the fight the Riches were having with the electric company. The bills were going up again. The reporter met the cameraman outside and they both joked about the stories of haunting activity rumored to be happening in the house. After going inside and sitting down at the table, the reporter heard what she described as a primal growl. The cameraman whipped off his headphones and asked, "What was that?" Liz responded, "Apparently, it isn't happy that you are here." Nothing else happened after that, but it left the reporter and cameraman unnerved to the point that the reporter remembered it 30 years later.

Liz contacted a local historian to see if she could dig up a history about Heol Fanog. She found an old map that showed the barn from the farm and three other farmsteads. All the way back to the 19th century, people on these properties had nothing but bad luck. This was in regards to finances, disputes and other things. The historian said that the land was said to be cursed and she referred to it as Wales' Bermuda Triangle. Shortly after this revelation, Liz and the kids saw another apparition in the house. They had a passageway in the house that always felt creepy and the whole family hated walking down it. The kids wouldn't go unless Liz carried them and one day she was doing just that when she saw a very tall figure that was dark that seemed to come through the wall. It felt menacing, but Liz couldn't see a face on it. She told the kids to repeat over and over that they didn't believe in ghosts and the figure seemed to go away, but then one of the kids yelled that the shadow man was behind them. He then went away.

People wondered why the Riches wouldn't just leave the house that was terrorizing them. As is the case with so many people stuck in a haunted house, finances prevented them from moving. All their money had been wrapped up in the house, especially with the large electric bills. Bill was getting little work. The couple went to the housing commission for help and were turned away. They finally ran away to Liz's mom's house, but they felt they were followed. They heard voices coming across the baby monitor. Bill went to check on the kids and Liz heard him go into the room, but the voices never stopped. Bill saw nothing. He eventually returned back to the farm and took up his painting again. His pictures became more and more disturbing and he started drinking heavily. After Liz returned with the kids, she noticed that Bill would rarely come out of his studio and she finally went in and became angry with him, demanding that he start being a father again. 

The Riches were going to need more help and even though Liz wasn't a religious woman, she went to talk to a vicar. His name was Reverend David Holmwood and he had conducted numerous exorcisms and considered himself an expert in the paranormal. He agreed to help the Riches, but told them he would need time to prepare, which ended up taking months. Everything was set to get underway in June of 1991. The Riches met up with the Reverend and drive up to the farm with him. Holmwood has also brought along a woman named Anita who was a reformed Satanist. As the group approached the farm, a large owl flew straight into the windshield, cracking it and forcing the car off the road. They were unnerved, but pressed forward. After arriving at the house, they split into two groups. Bill and the Reverend went to his studio, while the women decided to go to the kitchen and start praying. About mid-prayer, Anita yelled for Holmwood. Liz had become possessed. Her face was distorted and she laughed weirdly. The possession lasted for a very short time and Liz claimed that she felt violated by this entity that entered her without permission.

Reverend Holmwood would carry on exorcisms for months, bringing some relief for bits of time. The local historian visited Liz and announced she had found more information on the history of the property. During Victorian times there was a farm down the road from Heol Fanog named Comegoody Farm. In 1848, there was a really bloody and nasty murder. The victim was Thomas Edwards who was a farm hand at Comegoody. His friend and fellow farm worker, James Griffis, was thought to be the perpetrator. He hit Edwards in the back of the head with an axe and stole what little money he had. Griffis then hid the body in a manure pile. The police found it because when they kicked the pile, a large pool of blood flowed out. The police didn't think the murder took place at Comegoody and there was a theory that it took place at Heol Fanog.  

The Reverend told Bill that he needs to burn a bulk of his paintings because they are feeding the spirit or being used by the spirit at the farm. This really crushes Bill's spirit and one day when Liz arrives home from shopping, she finds Bill on the floor in the kitchen. He is weeping and tells her that he came into the kitchen and found a knife out on the table. He at first was angry because he thought Liz had left it out, which would be dangerous for the kids. After grabbing the knife to put it away, Bill felt an overwhelming desire to kill himself with the knife. He put the knife in the drawer and turned away. When he turned back, the knife was back out on the counter. 

Despite the trouble the Riches had with animals on the property, they decide to bring home a Doberman. It doesn't take long before the dog isn't doing well, so Liz takes it to the vet. During the visit, Liz tentatively tells the vet what has been going on at the house because she is sure the woman will think she is crazy. The vet stops what she is doing and asked where Liz lived. After hearing Heol Fanog, the vet explains that she knew the place well and had known the previous owner. While that woman never said she had any issues at the farm, the vet sure did. She would go and care for the animals when the woman was out of town and she always felt dread at the house and she heard the disembodied footsteps many times. She said that she felt pure hate at the house. 

On March 13, 1995, a man named Eddie Burks arrived at the farm. He was a ghost hunter who was introduced to the couple by a friend of Bill's because he had garnered a bit of celebrity in 1993 when he helped with a haunting at a bank. (Read excerpt) So basically Burks thought of himself as a psychic therapist. When the Riches ask if he is there to do a seance, he says no, he just wants to listen. Burks immediately picks up on two boys and decides to focus on one of them first. This boy is named Thomas and Eddie sees through his eyes. The time is the Victorian era and Thomas is in the woods where seems something horrific happening to a woman. He rushes back to the farm where he lives and tells his friend James what he saw. This is James Griffis.

Then Thomas got blind drunk at a pub and started talking about what he saw. This was stupid because it got back to the group of men who had done this thing and they were going to shut him up. These men forced James to do it or they would kill his family. Eddie says he's going to let Thomas go and talk to the other boy. This spirit says he is James and that he didn't speak up at his trial because he thought the group of men would save him. That didn't happen and James was hanged. James tells Eddie that what Thomas saw was the master of the manor house and some of his cronies violating the woman. So they died to protect that man and this is why they still haunt this area.

After Eddie leaves, it seems that he left open a portal he had opened for the boys to pass through. Heol Fanog seems to become a transit center for ghosts. Liz claims they started seeing dozens of spirits. One of those spirits that Liz saw was a boy missing half of his face. Possibly Thomas? The next electric bill was normal, but this was short lived. The meter went crazy again and Liz wants to ask Eddie to come back. Bill says he thinks something else is the issue. Something he got involved in years before. He tells Liz that he was a witch. It seems that a man named Alex Sanders was house sitting the flat below Bill's right after he graduated college. Alex Sanders was called the King of the Witches by tabloid newspapers. He conducted rituals for the rich and the famous in the 60s. The men became friends and Alex said he would help Bill become a witch and this would in turn give him success with his art. Bill saw the power in Alex and he wanted that. He participated in a ritual. About halfway through the ritual, Bill said he wanted to stop, but the door was already opened. This was very dangerous because the energy had already been raised. The gateway was open and quite possibly could have affected him later. The BBC Witch Farm show interviewed Maxine, Alex's wife and she recalled Bill being the only initiate that had ever stopped a ritual before. She definitely felt that could be the issue.

Eddie did return to the house and conduct a final exorcism that seemed to help a bit. He at least closed the portal. In 1996, Liz's grandfather died and she inherited enough money that the couple were able to buy a house in a nearby village. The darkness never left Bill. Liz felt he was destroyed physically, spiritually and mentally after they left the farm. He deteriorated quickly, losing his license after drunk driving. Becca remembers her dad drinking a lot. Liz and Bill separated and Bill was eventually found in a bad state by his landlady. He was hospitalized and put on life support and died three days later. The drink killed him, but could have Heol Fanog made things worse for him?

There are many theories as to what was causing the haunting at Heol Fanog. Some people thought that local farmers were upset that they had an Englishman living on a Welsh farm and that they may have done something to the animals. And that perhaps they told stories of curses and other things to scare the family away. Other people thought that the animals were affected by illness, possibly ergot poisoning from grains that caused hallucinations and death. And perhaps the family was even ill and seeing things from the same kind of thing. These seem far fetched, but one very real possibility are ley lines. Ley line experts visited the property and detected ley lines running below the property. These seemed to be streams of dark energy and one was below the electricity meter, which may have been the cause of the power surges. One douser who came to the house found what he called black streams. These are ley lines from radiation and apparently two black streams crossed under the barn. And then, of course, there was the murder.

Liz told Wales Online, "I know people will just think we're weird people and we're making it up all but you'd have to have one hell of an imagination to make all this up. It felt dangerous in that house. The kids always slept with me, I wouldn't let them sleep on their own. I definitely felt very threatened there. When you've met evil, you know it. Ghosts don't scare me now because I've come up against such evil in my life. That's the truth."

Mark Chadbourn wrote the book "Testimony" in 1996 about Heol Fanog and in it he writes, "A dozen people of varying degrees of credulity, differing ages, sex and religious persuasion are convinced something beyond the bounds of reason happened at Heol Fanog between November 1989 and June 1995. Something supernatural. Something Evil. This wasn’t a simple haunting. This was human lives pushed to the limit by a malignant force which exhibited a terrifying sentience. A battle not only for the sanity of Heol Fanog’s bewildered, increasingly distressed residents, but ultimately for their very souls. I was drawn to the story of the Rich family by an article which appeared in The Independent, a newspaper not renowned for fantastic supposition. It told of a house where strange things happened. Where electricity was drained from the system for no reason. It also hinted at other, darker things which it decided, in its wisdom, to leave well alone. I, not being particularly wise, wanted to know more. I rang the Richs and chatted to them about their experiences, ostensibly to write an article for a magazine, but also because my curiosity was piqued. You see, I’ve always wanted to know if there was something more. As a journalist, talking to people all the time, you realise most folk are inherently truthful when talking about their experiences; they don’t fabricate. So on a human level you come to realise that all those who claim a brush with the supernatural can’t be lying. There must be something there. Why aren’t there more investigations? As Bill Rich and I talked, I realised The Independent had only scratched the surface of what had happened in that house. There was an interesting story to tell on many levels, if I could cope with the chills that were crawling all over my skin. A story not just of the supernatural, but of raw human emotions as ordinary people struggled to cope in the face of madness. Of how lives can be unbalanced by the real world and those who claim to be spiritual saviours. And I was angered by how these two people could be treated by the arrogance of those who refused to believe – called liars or fools because they dared to talk about an experience at odds with the scientific rationale."

The people that live at the farm now have been there for 25 years and never experienced anything out of the ordinary. The story of Heol Fanog is an incredible story, practically unbelievable. And yet there were many witnesses and something clearly changed the lives of several people. Is The Witch Farm haunted? That is for you to decide!