Redmond Coleman – The Melting Pot

Bare Knuckles, White Ladies and Martyred Rebels: The Mythic Townscape of Merthyr Tydfil

by Gareth E Rees

The article below is copied, courtesy of Gareth E Rees from his website Unofficial Britain. To view the original article, please follow this link: http://www.unofficialbritain.com/bare-knuckles-white-ladies-and-martyred-rebels-the-mythic-townscape-of-merthyr-tydfil/

In the year leading up the (Not So) Great Pandemic, I was fortunate enough to take a trip around Wales, researching my book, Unofficial Britain on a sunny weekend in spring.

It was just me, my car and a smartphone. Plus some underpants. Clean ones, at that. No expense spared. Those were the days when you could buy pants on a whim, simply by walking into a clothes shop.

One of my aims of my trip was to explore the Brymbo steelworks near Wrexham, where my grandfather worked until his death in 1976, and where my uncle worked until the factory closed in 1990.

As I was to discover, the ruins of the Brymbo works are haunted by a bottom-pinching phantom steelworker and two black dogs, which I saw with my very own eyes, but that is a story you can read in the book when it comes out.

While I was in North Wales, I was accompanied to the secret mustard gas factory nestled in the Rhydymwyn Valley by Bobby Seal, who wrote about it for Unofficial Britain in 2015: The Valley Works: Mendelssohn, Mustard Gas and Memory.

On the second day of my mini-tour I drove to South Wales, stopping at Port Talbot to look at its still-functioning steelworks, where a monk is said to haunt the grounds of Tata Steel (more of that in my forthcoming book, too).

As I approached Cardiff, I decided on a detour to Merthyr Tydfil, once the great industrial centre of the British Empire, dominated by four ironworks: Plymouth, Penydarren, Dowlais and Cyfarthfa. By the 1830s, the latter two had become the largest in the world.

As iron made way for steel in the latter half of the 19^th century, the Ynysfach Ironwork closed. Its Coke ovens became a hub for the homeless, destitute and society’s outsiders. At the time is was considered a den of boozing, thievery and prostitution, but it may well have great place to hang out and – from the perspective of today – at least they could all be closer than 2 metres apart.

It was here where local bare knuckle fighter Redmond Coleman became locked in an epic battle with his rival, Tommy Lyons. The fight is said to have lasted over three hours, leaving both men flat out on the ground at the end, panting with exhaustion. It would have made the infamously long fist-fight scene in John Carpenter’s They Live seem like a minor playground scuffle. Redmond Coleman was so attached to the place that he later claimed his spirit would never leave Merthyr and instead would remain to haunt the Coke Ovens.

This form of afterlife was to be the fate of Mary Ann Rees. Alas, she had no choice in her decision to haunt Merthyr Tydfil. In 1908 she was murdered by her boyfriend, William Foy, whom she had followed into Merthyr on her final evening alive, suspecting him of sleeping with someone else. Her broken body was found in a disused furnace. Rees is considered to be the White Lady who today haunts the old engine house: a sad lady in a long, flowing dress.

The decline of the coal, iron and steel industries devastated Merthyr but it remained a hub for manufacturing. In the 20^th century the Hoover factory employed over 4,000 people, with its own sports teams, social clubs, fire brigade and library.

In 1985, Sir Clive Sinclair’s infamous C5 battery operated vehicle went into production at the factory. A local urban myth was that the motors for the CV were, in fact, repurposed Hoover washing motors. They created only 17,000 units before operation was shut down six months later.

The factory closed in 2009 and remains a quiet hulk by the Taff at the edge of the town. Across the road is a derelict car park, its tarmac crumbling, with moss and grass creeping across the last faded parking bay lines.

A majestic pylon inside the perimeter of the abandoned car park slings electricity over the factory to the other side of the valley, where its brethren have amassed on the hills in great numbers. Whatever has happened in the past century, power still pulses through the town, coursing through the veins of Wales.

The fall of the Hoover factory was another blow to the economically stricken town, which might have lost its role in the world, but keeps its story alive in public artworks that I saw on my journey.

The past is never far away when you walk through Merthyr, a townscape saturated in industrial lore.

… Near St. Tydfil’s Church is an ornate drinking fountain on a raised plinth. It commemorates the pioneers of the South Wales steam coal trade. Its canopy is adorned with steel motifs of coal wheels, steamboats and a miner with a pickaxe.

…On a modern brick wall in the town centre, beneath a ‘To Let’ sign, is an abstract frieze of the industrial landscape.

….A pub that has opened in the restored water board building is named The Iron Dragon, with two resplendent golden dragons sculptures jutting from either side of the stone columns that frame the door.

…The Caedraw Roundabout outside the Aldi contains a sculpture by Charles Sansbury, which transforms an earth-bound pit winding gear into a 12 metre tall spire, surrounded by a crescent of standing stones, positing some link in the imagination between the Neolithic and the industrial revolution.

…Pink granite benches are engraved with poems about the industrial past. “the stalks of chimneys bloomed continuous smoke and flame”, says one by Mike Jenkins. Another quotes the scientist Michael Faraday:

“The fires from the hills shone very bright into my room and the blast of the furnace kept up a continual roar.”

On another bench I read lines from ‘Merthyr’ a poem by local lad, Glyn Jones:

“…I find what rustles/ Oftenest and scentiest / through the torpid trees / Of my brain-pan, is some Merthyr-mothered breeze”.

In that same poem, Jones describes the post-industrial town’s decayed slum areas mid-century as “battered wreckage in some ghastly myth”.

On this bench pictured below, was a reference to Dic Penderyn and the 1831 Merthyr uprising.

At that time, the town was home to some of the most skilled ironworkers in the world. But unrest was growing….

Locals were increasingly angry about their inadequate wages, while they were lauded over by the industrialists of the town. It was time for change, but they were hopelessly disenfranchised with only 4% of men having the right to vote.

In May 1831, workers marched through the streets, demanding Parliamentary reform, growing rowdier as their ranks swelled. They raided the local debtors’ court, reclaiming confiscated property and destroying the debtors’ records. Growing nervous about the rebellion, which was beginning to spread to other villages and towns, the industrial bosses and landowners called in the army.

On June 3^rd, soldiers confronted protestors outside the Castle Inn and violence broke out. After the scuffle, Private Donald Black lay wounded, stabbed in the back with a bayonet by an unseen assailant.

Despite there being no evidence that young Richard Lewis committed the act, he was accused of the crime and sentenced to death by hanging, disregarding the petition of the sceptical townsfolk, and even doubting articles in the local newspaper. The government wanted the death of a rebel as an example to others, and poor Dic Penderyn was to be it, regardless of trifling matters like proof.

He is now an important cult figure in the working class struggle, buried in his hometown of Port Talbot, but remaining here in spirit, one small burning flame of Merthyr’s fiery legacy.

To buy a copy of Gareth’s book, please follow the link on his site.

Cefn Cemetery

by Carolyn Jacob

Cefn-Ffrwd is the largest Cemetery in the Borough covering approximately 40 acres.

Cefn Cemetery in the early 1900s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

In the nineteenth century burial was a huge problem here. In a hundred years Merthyr Tydfil grew from a Parish of just over 500 persons to the only large town in Wales with a population of over 50,000 in 1850. During the 1849 cholera outbreak there were over 1,000 deaths in one month alone. Infant mortality was high and other diseases such as smallpox and TB were rife. Not all the chapels and churches had their own burial ground and the responsibility for burial lay with the Parish Authorities.

In 1850 there were three Merthyr Tydfil Parish Burial Grounds, the Graveyard around St. Tydfil’s Church, the Cemetery in Twynyrodyn and the new so called ‘cholera’ Cemetery in Thomastown. Dowlais had two Parish cemeteries, St John’s Church and a small cholera cemetery near the Works. This was a time when cremation was unheard of, and these soon became inadequate.

The Board of Health, founded in 1850, took advantage of a new Act of 1852, which empowered them to set up Cemeteries and leased land in Breconshire to set up a new Cemetery. The Cemetery was managed by the Burial Board. The first burial took place on 16 April 1859. The Ffrwd portion of the Cemetery was added in 1905, the first burial being on 20 November 1905.

The bridge connecting the old cemetery with the new Ffrwd section during construction in 1905. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Average burials in the nineteenth century were around 400 annually. In 1878 the son of one of the gravediggers set fire to the ‘dead-house’ of the Cefn Cemetery and a report of 21 of December 1878 described the ‘unseemly behaviour’ of children frequently climbing about the monuments of the Cemetery. In 1902 when the road to Cardiff was widened a large section of the St Tydfil Graveyard was removed and the ‘remains’ were moved to Cefn Coed Cemetery. Those reburied included Charles Wood, who erected the first furnaces at Cyfarthfa.

Easter was a traditional time for ‘flowering the graves’ and a report in the Merthyr Express of 26 March 1916 records that:- ‘at Cefn Cemetery on Friday and Saturday, relatives of the dead attended from long distances to clean stones and plant flowers’.

Cefn Coed became a Municipal Cemetery for Merthyr Tydfil in 1905. Welsh Baptists were buried in unconsecrated ground and Roman Catholics in consecrated ground. There is a separate large Jewish Cemetery at Cefn Coed and there is an index to all the Jewish burials in Merthyr Tydfil Library.

There are many famous people buried in Cefn Coed Cemetery including:-

Enoch Morrell, first Mayor of Merthyr Tydfil and the Welsh Miners Leader who had to negotiate the return to work after the General Strike.
Redmond Coleman, the boxing champion of Wales at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Adrian Stephens, inventor of the steam whistle.

The old cemetery buildings at Cefn. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Army Boxing

by Barrie Jones

Merthyr Tydfil is known for producing boxers of British, European and World renown, my maternal grandfather, Michael Leahan, was not of that class but he was a boxer of some talent in the short time that he competed.

Michael was born in 33 Cellars, Pontstorehouse, Merthyr Tydfil of second generation Irish parents and such was the poverty and dysfunctional family background that he was not expected to survive his birth.

He was baptised at home on the day of his birth, 16^th October 1888, but was sufficiently strong enough to receive a church baptism 12 days later and even then his mother, Johanna delayed the registration of his birth until the 28^th November.

Michael’s father Patrick was a drinking companion of the notorious pugilist and bully Redmond Coleman, but it his highly likely that he learnt his boxing skills whilst serving in the Second Battalion, Welsh Regiment. He had enlisted as a boy soldier and then in April 1907 soon after his eighteenth birthday he formally enlisted for the standard seven year term. At this time the Regiment was stationed in South Africa and it was there in Bloemfontein in 1909 that he won the Army and Navy feather-weight championship. At this time one of the Battalion’s instructors was Sergeant William John Ranger, a proficient gymnast and holder of the Army and Navy middle-weight championship of 1905. Sergeant Ranger is more likely to have been the main influence on Michael’s boxing expertise.

The Battalion completed its tour of duty in South Africa in March 1910 and returned to its barracks at Pembroke Dock and it was there that the Regiment prepared to send a group of soldiers to the forthcoming Army and Navy Boxing Championships at Aldershot in the October of that year. The squad comprised of:

Private King, welter-weight,
Private Leahan, light-weight,
Private Skeets, feather-weight,
Private Skerry, feather-weight, and
Sergeant Ranger, middle-weight.

As part of their preparation and an indication that they thought they had a strong squad of competitors, the Regiment hired the services of Fred Dyer of Cardiff to act as the squad’s trainer and instructor, Dyer was the current light-weight champion of Wales. In addition, the regiment organised an evening of warm up bouts in the gymnasium at Llanion Barracks between the squad members and local boxers with Dyer refereeing the bouts. The local press reporter paid a lot more column inches to the bout between Michael and a Li (Elias) Evans: This was a splendid contest, and both men showed not only plenty of stamina but plenty of skill also. Leahan, who when the regiment was stationed at Bloemfontein held the light-weight Army and Navy championship of South Africa, won the bout, and had slightly the better of the exchanges, but in the point of skill there was little in it, and if anything Evans’s footwork was superior. The Milford lad is a very pretty and clean boxer, and is game too. His opponent, however, appeared to have a harder punch. Each round was fought at a rare pace, and it was only in the third round that the soldier scored. Later, in the evening a backer of the Milford lad challenged Leahan to a 15 rounds contest and this was accepted.

The Championship at Aldershot was held over four days with over 300 entries for the 12 championships. However, Michael was the only ‘Welshman’ to “survive the punishing early stages”: In the third round of the rank and file light-weights Private Leahan won a good fight against Sergeant Instructor Bradley (Army Gymnastic Staff). The latter was a cautious fighter, and covered himself well, but Leahan, with well judged leads, got over his guard, and got home left and right on the head and ribs several times in the first and second rounds. The Sergeant, coming up in the third round a bit ’groggy’, Leahan saw his advantage and took it. Boxing his opponent all round the ring he had him helpless across the ropes, the referee stopping the fight in the Welshman’s favour halfway through. In the next series of the same competition Leahan met Private Ronan (2^nd Royal Dublin Fusiliers) and had all the work cut out to win. He did so, however in the third round with a terrific right swing on the point. Ronan coming up very dazed, Leahan forced matters and had Ronan hopelessly beaten when time was called. In the semi-finals Leahan met Corporal Miller (1^st Royal North Lancashire Regiment) and was beaten after a fine struggle.

Miller had been the losing finalist in the previous year’s championship and he ‘found however in Leahan, his strongest opponent, and had to go out all the way to win his way into the final. Leahan made use of his long reach, and at the end of three very hard rounds against a most experienced fighter he only lost by the smallest margin. In the final Miller met Sapper O’Neil (Royal Engineers) winning with ease.

Returning to Pembroke Michael had his second bout with Li Evans over 15 rounds for £10 a-side. An infantryman’s pay was 1s a day, approximately £1.50 a month. At today’s prices, the purse of £10 is equivalent to just over £1,000. Michael had an advantage of 10.lb in weight, and this in the course of the 15 rounds told against his opponent, who, despite his cleverness, received some severe punishment in the earlier rounds. Evans was, perhaps, the more scientific boxer, but Leahan was the harder hitter, and at the end of the 15 rounds was awarded the verdict on points.

The local backer, ‘Professor’ Alf Harris, must have thought that he had a good money earner with these two opponents and on the 26^th November promoted another bout over 20 rounds for £20 a-side at his pavilion in Milford Haven.

The building was packed to its utmost capacity. Leahan scaled 13.lb heavier than Evans. Evans was knocked down in the eighth round and again in the eleventh round but rose before the call of time on each occasion. The whole 20 rounds were fought and Leahan was returned the winner on points. Mr Isaacs, of London, was the referee, whilst Mr H. Stephens acted as timekeeper.

The bouts with Evans are the only professional bouts that I believe my grandfather contested and I presume that his Regiment only allowed him to compete because they were held locally and were good for regimental morale. I don’t know if he was allowed to keep his winnings! Michael continued to box for his regiment: In the following October (1911) he competed in the Army and Navy Championships held at the Connaught Drill Hall, Portsmouth, losing on points in the second series of bouts to Leading Seaman Savage (H.M.S. Argyle), and, in April 1913 he fought two bouts at the Bordon Garrison Championships (Hampshire), losing in the final to Driver Evans (141^st Battery) by “the smallest possible margin of points”.

In August 1914 Michael’s regiment was part of the British Expeditionary Force that entered the war in France. In September 1915 Michael received a gunshot wound in the right knee, the wound was serious enough to end his military service and he was discharged on the 6^th September 1915, with the rank of Lance-corporal. Of course his wound also ended his boxing career and he returned to Merthyr Tydfil to work in the coal mines. After the war my grandfather never enjoyed good health and died from tuberculosis on the 29^th May 1928, aged 39 years.

Merthyr’s Boxers: The First Boxing Champion of Merthyr

by Lawrence Davies

Along with the town of Pontypridd, Merthyr could rightly claim to be one of the foremost hubs of Welsh boxing history. Although many would no doubt prefer that his name had been forgotten altogether, Redmond Coleman was one of the first men to put Merthyr ‘on the map’ as a town capable of producing gloved boxing champions, whose names will no doubt ring down the ages, men like Eddie Thomas, Howard Winstone and the never to be forgotten Johnny Owen.

Redmond had ended up fighting for recognition at the Blue Anchor in Shoreditch, his well known reputation with the knuckles or ‘raw ‘uns’ having convinced the lightweight Welsh boxing champion, Patsy Perkins to step up and act as Redmond’s manager. Not too long afterwards Coleman floored challenger Curly Howell at the National Sporting Club in Covent Garden before an appreciative crowd of well heeled gents.

Coleman took out the Bristol man in less than a round, a devastating right hand to the jaw sending Howell to the boards, his head making a sickening crack on contact. Curly was out for the count. A promising boxing career appeared to be on the cards, but the ‘Iron Man’ of Merthyr apparently found London was not to his liking, and travelled home.

Although Redmond fought with gloves, it was with the knuckles that he was thought to be virtually unbeatable, and there were plenty of Merthyr men who were willing to step up and meet the challenge. Knuckle fighting had always been how the men had settled their differences, and it was ‘on the mountain’ that contests were usually fought.

The first Welsh boxing champion to receive widespread national recognition was Ned Turner, in the early 1800’s, and was thought to have been the second greatest lightweight in the country, showing such cleverness and skill in the ring he might be thought of as the very first ‘Welsh Wizard’.

There can be no doubt that his example inspired a number of his countrymen to seek recognition between the ropes of the old prize-ring soon afterwards.

It seems that one of the very first prominent fighting men of Merthyr was a pugilist named John Thomas. London was the centre of the prize-ring in those days, and it is in London that the appearance of Thomas was first noted, when he appeared at a benefit event held to raise funds for a veteran fighter. Thomas decided to ‘step up’ and meet an unnamed ‘Sawney’ or Scottish ‘champion’ who had previously appeared before the audience. Considering that Thomas had not sparred on the stage of the Tennis Court before, he did exceptionally well. The ’round hitting’ of the Scotsman was ‘well met’ by the ‘straight muzzlers’ of the ‘Welchman’. Thomas got the better of the ‘Scotch Champion’, and at the end of the contest ‘Taffy retired as proud as one of his native buck goats…’

This unexpected turn of events led to something of a rivalry between the two Celtic warriors, with it having been noted that the Welsh and Scottish ‘Champions’ met a number of times afterwards with both knuckles and gloves. Thomas would appear to have had a great deal of support from his backers at Merthyr, and boldly threw out a challenge to any man in England of his weight to meet him for anywhere between £50 and £100. One person who was greatly irritated by the challenge was Thomas’ Scottish rival, who quickly stated his desire to draw Thomas’s ‘…hot Welsh blood on the earliest occasion’, and claiming to have been in bad condition when they had first sparred. So sure was the Scotsman of his victory over the Welshman that he had also planned to travel to Merthyr to meet Thomas with the knuckles and hand him a beating, and was prepared to throw down a £20 deposit on the contest at the Bell Inn at Merthyr Tydfil…

Lawrence Davies

You can find out what happened next in ‘The Story of Welsh Boxing, Prize Fighters of Wales’ published by Pitch Publications, today, 1 June 2019.

An interview with the author can be read at the link below:

https://americymru.net/ceri-shaw/blog/5057/the-story-of-welsh-boxing-an-interview-with-lawrence-davies

The book can be ordered from Amazon, and is also available at branches of WH Smith, Waterstones and other bookshops. To read more about ‘The Story of Welsh Boxing’, please visit;

https://www.pitchpublishing.co.uk/shop/story-welsh-boxing

The Fighting Woman of Merthyr Tydfil

by Carolyn Jacob

A hundred years ago women of very masculine (and muscular) proportions were often summoned for assaulting other women, fighting with men and even attacking the police. Mostly the regular fights took place in a public house and in 1912 the Merthyr Tydfil Police paid 10,386 visits to public houses in 3 months to either deal with serving out of hours or to referee and sort out fights taking place there. There were certain women whose names came up frequently in the Police Courts. Such a one was Margaret Hagerty.

In April 1903 the boxer Redmond Coleman was charged before the Merthyr Tydfil Police Court with living on the prostitution of women, especially Margaret Hagerty, a dipsomaniac whose favourite drink was gin. He may have been the toughest man in the tough town of Merthyr Tydfil, but on more than one occasion it was Margaret who fought to protect him from the law.

One local legend concerning her was that she stood on the Iron Bridge stripped to the waist and challenged all comers to a fight. Maggie Hagerty is mentioned frequently in the Merthyr Police Reports for drunkenness, robbery and insulting language. After she was convicted of drunk and riotous behaviour in Riverside on a Saturday night in November 1910, Margaret Hagerty, when asked if she had anything to say she said “There’s not much good saying anything. I’ve done a lot of prison.” This was her 73^rd appearance in the Police Court.

In 1911 she tried her utmost to prevent the police taking Redmond to the station by stabbing an officer with her hat pin. She was taken in herself and managed to break nine windows in the Merthyr Police Station. Although in 1916, on her 98th court appearance, she claimed to have ‘given up fighting’, Margaret continued to be mentioned in the Merthyr Express and in November 1921 she was reported thus:-

“Margaret Hagerty a middle aged woman was arrested for insulting language at Riverside. She produced carpenter’s tools which she claimed Julie Murphy had used against her. The girl had called her a robber. Case was dismissed. The Chief Constable said she was the worst woman he had to deal with in Merthyr.”

The Gruesome Ghosts of Ynysfach – a special Halloween Tale

by Carolyn Jacob

Many tragically lost their lives while working in the Ynysfach Blast Furnaces, but a greater number died sheltering in the old Ironworks here.

In February 1866 the Merthyr Express had the following story entitled:- Two More Men Suffocated At Cyfarthfa – describing the blackened and shrivelled corpses of two men found in the Ynysfach Works. The men were probably drunk when they crept into a warm place near the boilers. They suffocated by inhaling the carbonic acid gas and then when steam was got up they were literally roasted.

Again on 23 July 1870 the headline was:- Shocking Death of Two Miners. On Monday morning when the engineer at the Ynysfach Works was going his rounds to examine the boilers, he saw two men lying in one of the gas-holes. They were perfectly roasted, and probably did not survive long after entering the place of their doom. They came from Aberdare on Saturday night, no doubt for the purpose of a spree, ‘as they were seen in China’ late on Sunday night, and having spent all their money, were glad to get a lay down anywhere. The mystery is how they got into the works, as they are surrounded by a wall several feet high. In June 1874 there was a shocking accident which resulted in the immediate death of two men and the burning of two others so severely that they were not expected to live.

At the beginning of the Twentieth century the homeless, destitute and generally disreputable elements of the town of Merthyr Tydfil made their home in the Ynysfach Coke Ovens. This was their refuge but many died here too. After the Ynysfach Works closed in 1879 this area became infamous as a ‘den of debauchery’ where the ‘wild-ones’ of Merthyr Tydfil slept rough. The police steered well clear of the place and the first Chief Constable in 1908 suggested that dynamiting this whole area would help in the ‘cleaning up’ of the town. In 1900 it was reported that as many as 50 persons were to be found living around the Coke Ovens, and fatalities were common.

Ynysfach was also the main stomping ground of Redmond Coleman, the Merthyr Tydfil legend, who would fight anyone, anywhere, anytime. It was here that Redmond had his legendary fight with Tommy Lyons one Saturday night. The ‘battle’ was reputed to have lasted over three hours. If there was a grudge to be settled then the Ynysfach Coke Ovens were the place to fight it out. There are many stories, such as the time he and Danny Hegarty punched themselves into a state of exhaustion until they lay side by side on the Coke Ovens gasping curses at each other. Redmond Coleman is reputed to have said that he would never leave Merthyr but always haunt the Coke Ovens.

However, the White Lady of Ynysfach is the best known of all the various ghosts of Ynysfach. The Merthyr Historian Volume Eight contains the story of the Ynysfach Murder by Eira Smith, and establishes the notoriety of the area around the Iron Bridge and Ynysfach. The police regarded the area as being a den of thieves, robbers and prostitutes. Such an ‘unfortunate’ was Mary Ann Rees, who was murdered by her younger lover. In 1908 after plying her trade in the town, Mary then returned to her friends by the Coke Ovens with food and drink. However, after eating his fill, her younger boyfriend, William Foy, decided to go into town by himself and, suspecting that he was chasing after a younger woman, Mary ran after him. She was later found down a disused furnace with her neck broken.

Did her boyfriend deliberately push her down the disused furnace or did she just accidently fall with or without a quick push? The local police claimed that when they came across Foy he was in a distressed state and told them that he had committed a murder and killed Mary Ann.

In May 1909 William Foy was hung in Swansea gaol for her murder. He wrote a moving letter from prison begging for forgiveness. It is still said today that Mary Ann Rees is the White Lady of Ynysfach who haunts the area around Merthyr College. There have been a number of sightings of the White Lady and there are some who strongly believe in her existence. She is imagined as a sad lady in a long white dress, but there are no stories of her causing any harm to any human being.

In the late 1980s the caretaker of Merthyr College looked back at the building from the car park after locking up and saw a distressed lady looking out of the window. He rushed back thinking she must be very anxious after being locked in an empty building and re-entered the building. However, although he searched and searched this white faced, worried looking lady was never found and did not seem to have existed. The volunteers of the Engine House have come across a number of strange incidents, especially in the basement area, where a vague female figure has been seen or someone pushing past them has been sensed or felt. Paranormal investigator Colin Hyde claims to have questioned her and discovered that she thinks that her death had accidental causes. Mary Ann Rees is therefore a sad figure, who has no thought of exacting any form of revenge.

Many thanks to Carolyn Jacob for the above article.