The Gower Peninsula 's reputation as being one of the most haunted regions in Britain is exemplified by the case of the multiple hauntings associated with the Gower Heritage Centre in Parkmill. Now one of the areas major tourist attractions, the Centre is designed around a watermill that has been worked for over eight hundred years.
Built during Norman Rule, the Mill was designed to serve the Parc le breos Estate and surrounding farms. The le Breos Estate held quite a tyrannical rule over the area and forced local farmers to use their mill rather than others, fining those who failed to do so. They also forced the farmers to pay the running costs of the mill and carry out any necessary repairs to it.
The Davies family took over the running of the mill in the 17th Century and continued to run the mill for a further five generations. In order to keep the mill profitable, they had to develop further skills such as smithying, woodturning, constructing cartwheels, farm gates, saw milling and even undertaking.
“Will the Mill,” the last of the millers at Parkmill was one of Gower's truly great characters. As well as being a miller, wheelright and carpenter, he also held office as local mayor. His name is now synonymous with the mill, so much so that an effigy of him can still be seen at the Gower Heritage Centre today, sat at his table as a recorded interview, held by Wynford Vaughan Thomas, plays from the radio at his side.
Many people also believe that his spirit also continues to reside at the mill and there have been numerous reports of his ghosts having been seen at the Centre, always at either 7a.m. or 7p.m. near the watermill.
His is not the only ghost said to haunt the old mill, however. The spirit of a young girl has also been spotted racing along the Mill Leat, the channel that leads water from the adjacent stream at a high level to drop down and operate the large waterwheel. When seen, the ghost of the youngest girl is being chased by a man wielding a heavy medieval sword. Whilst the identity of the girl is not known, she is believed to have belonged to the entourage of Lady Malephant—wife of Sir Thomas Malephant of Pembroke.
Lady Malephant was visiting her sister's at Parkmill when she and her group met an ambush. Engineered by Lewes Leyshon - who wanted Lady Malephant as his wife, he directed and paid Sir Gilbert de Turbeville to wait behind the Mill with his gang of thugs. Unbeknown to Lady Malephant, news had reached Leyshon that Lady Malephant's husband had just died and he saw this ambush as an ideal way to force her hand into marriage.
The struggle between Sir Gilbert de Turberville's men and Lady Malephant's servants was bloody. One of Lady Malephant's maidservants, Agnes, had her arm amputated by a swordsman during the struggle and at least one of the entourage was killed. The injured, left behind after lady Malephant's abduction, took refuge within the mill, where they were duly charged for their care by the miller.
Lady Malephant was imprisoned in a castle and held in degrading circumstances until she was finally forced into marrying Lewes Leyshon. It was at this stage that she managed to send word to the king of what had taken place. An investigation found Leyshon guilty of murder and other crimes related to the ambush and also the illegal imprisonment of Lady Malephant. Lewes Leyshon was duly executed.
As if two ghosts associated with one property were not enough, there is a third apparition that has been seen on several occasions at the Centre. This third ghost is believed to be that of one of the Davies Family children who fell from the will window onto the waterwheel, where he was crushed to death sometime in the 19th Century. The window has now been bricked up but the ghost of the child has continued to be seen above the Mill wheel as if the window was still in existence.
With the waterwheel unable to complete with modern flour production techniques, sawmill activity kept the mill open longer that any other of Gower's grist mills. When this too closed, however, in 1983, it seemed that an end to an era had arrived. Within six years, however, the Gower Heritage Centre took over the property, bringing the waterwheel and its adjacent smithy back to life. Thanks to this tourist attraction, not to mention the mill's three resident ghosts, it appears that this most special slice of Gower's history will never be forgotten.
Gower Heritage Centre Ghosts
