Around the time of 1982, the then landlord of the Prince of Wales Inn described a problem concerning what could only be described as a supernatural occurence.

The story unfolds that after stop-tap and after finishing clearing the bar, both he and his wife began supper when they both heard the Sunday school organ playing in the upstairs room, (the old Guildhall).

Thinking someone had sneaked into the room and was playing tomfoolery, he ran up the outside stairs, threw open the door and dashed into the room.

The instance the door was opened the music stopped - yet the whole room was empty!

The stairway is the only access to this upper room and a complete search was conducted to make sure that it was indeed empty before returning downstairs. In all, the same thing happened on three seperate occations - each time the ghostly music stopped the moment the door latch was touched.

Unruffled and unconvinced that this was anything other than some physical phenomena that could be easily explained, not only were local specialists called upon, but also some of the World's leading experts in these fields and a great deal of media attention was raised in the process.

Results from weeks of monitoring using very sensitive and sophisticated recording eqipment revealed a theory that sound energy had been captured by the silica and larric salts contained in the ancient walls of the building - the sounds being uncanilly like that of the Sunday school organ!

Since the above episode, the Prince of Wales Inn has been refurbished a couple of times and the ghostly organ has gone to ground. The tapes did however, produce some other sounds - the echoing footsteps of someone pacing across the bare boards of the hall, together with murmered, but heated conversations quite distinct from those going on in the bars below.

As far as it is known, no murder or other foul deed has occurred at the Guildhall in the past to provide any basis for these hauntings.For those who have heard the ghostly sounds however, tales of these and others from around the locality, can surely capture the imagination, especially if heard around the glowing fireplaces in the Prince of Wales Inn on a cold, dark winter's night.

Bibliography:

(1) Kenfig Society

(2) Kenfig.org LCG