Following on from the story of the strange lights in Llantarnam in Cwmbran History and Mystery, another ghostly sighting has emerged in the same area. The story was told to me by a friend and concerns a mysterious figure that stands on the road at Abbey Lane, Llantarnam. The figure has been seen many times apparently and is that of a man wearing a bowler hat.
If you walk up Abbey Lane you will come to a small row of houses. The house with the coat of arms above the door used to be the police station and there was also a pub here, the Coopers Arms, where inquests on bodies took place. Both are now gone and converted into houses.
So who is the mysterious figure? The Weekly Mail of 1883 might give a clue.
Printed in the February 24th issue was an article concerning a man, Michael Sullivan, who, on a Sunday morning was walking along the canal from Newport to Cwmbran. At Llantarnam he stopped in his path as he found a set of clothing lying on the ground. He gathered the items up and took them to the police station, but no one came to claim them nor did anyone report any missing persons. The police searched the canal but found nothing and as far as is known the case was never solved. So the owner of the clothes - a pair of boots, two shirts, a jacket, a blue and white handkerchief and a bowler hat - remains a mystery to this day.
