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 THE
ABERBEEG GHOST?
The
tree-canopied lonely stretch of road between Aberbeeg and Cwm is the
sort of place that can fire people's darker imaginings. I
have received quite a few posts since this site started regarding the presence
of a ghost of a cloaked, tall-hatted man that is supposed to haunt the
area nearer where the old Brondeg Filling Station was at the bottom of
Cwm Big.
It is said that this is the ghost of PC Hosea Pope who met his death
violently back in 1911. Another such post arrived some weeks back fully
convinced of the existence of this spirit and, as a result, I have
looked further into the story of the unfortunate, untimely demise of PC Pope.
The
story certainly captured the local imagination in its day with the
headlines of the newspapers especially the Abertillery-based South Wales
Gazette dominated by the story. So who was Hosea Pope and how did he meet his
death? Was it murder or something else?
Hosea
Pope was a 34-year-old man who had been married for just eight months
and was in charge of Aberbeeg Police Station.
He had been brought up in the village of Llanmartin, a few miles to the
east of
Newport
before his transfer to Aberbeeg, just south of the fast-growing thriving
coalopolis of Abertillery, which had just become the second biggest town
in Monmouthshire. The change in scenery must have been dramatic for
Llanmartin was and still remains an open rural place, whilst Aberbeeg
was a busy industrial village hemmed in by steep mountainsides with a
train junction serving both Ebbw Valleys and the dominating presence of
the Webb's brewery.
At
about 11
o’clock
on the night of 14th
July 1911,
in the course of his duty, Pope tried to detain a man called James Wise
on the Aberbeeg-Abertillery Road.
This occurred at a spot on the
opposite side of the road to the then newish Arael
School. Wise it appears had been throwing stones.
A
scuffle ensued between the two men, witnessed by a passer-by called
Stephen Brown, who Pope asked for help in subduing Wise. Within
moments of their grappling, Pope had dropped to the ground, dead, whilst Wise ran off in the
direction of Abertillery, cutting down past Griffin Street and Arael
Street.
Like
Pope, Wise was 34 years of age. He had been born just up the road in
Blaina but moved to Abertillery as a youngster. He was well-known in the
locality, especially to the local constabulary, having been involved in
several scrapes with them previously.
"Wilful
Murder at Abertillery" screamed the headlines in the Gazette the
following week and Wise was arrested and charged as such. However, Dr.
Kemp had attended the scene and pronounced that the cause of death was
heart failure. So was it murder?
The
date for the hearing was set but the drama continued as Wise escaped
from custody as he was being transferred on a train and tried to make
his way back to Abertillery. He was subsequently rearrested and the
trial went ahead in November.
Wise pleased not guilty and the jury within five minutes returned a
verdict of manslaughter for which the defendant was sentenced to five
years' penal servitude,
a term of imprisonment that usually
included hard labour and which had been introduced
just over forty years earlier to replace transportation.
So what about stories
of a ghost? Naturally such views will depend on whether you believe in
such phenomena. The people of the Aberystruth judging by the Reverend
Edmund Jones's account in the late 1770s had long held a belief in
apparitions and the area has long traditions of stories of fairies such
as the tylwyth teg and other such creatures. If you
believe in ghosts and the like however, the story of a tall hat might
rule out that it is that of Hosea Pope since by Edwardian times, the
police uniform did not apparently contain such a helmet.
As a postscript to the
story, the Gwent Police along with their national colleagues held a
special day of remembrance in October 2004 for those officers who have
died in the course of their duty.
A roll of honour can be
found at:
www.policememorial.org.uk/Forces/Gwent/GwentRoll.htm
This includes Hosea
Pope, which stated:
Hosea Pope
Police Constable
Monmouthshire Constabulary
Died 14
July 1911, aged 33
While moving on a drunk late at night at Aberbeeg, he was attacked
and struck with a stone, a violent arrest ensued during which the
officer secured one handcuff
before he was knocked to the ground and
died soon after.
TYLERI TALES
Contents:
 THE
HORROR OF 1921 - THE HAROLD JONES MURDERS
THE
FOUNDING FATHER OF DRUG METABOLISM - the story of Professor RT Williams,
FRS
THE
BLAINA RIOTS OF 1935 - Desperation and unrest in the Ebbw Fach valley
(by Martyn Thomas)
THE
MODEST, HARD MAN - Jim Webb, Wales rugby star of the Golden era
THE
MAN WHO BOWLED W. G. GRACE FOR A DUCK - Abertillery cricket memories of
the 1890s
THE
WAR HERO WHO TESTED THE BRITISH H-BOMB - Air Vice Marshall Wilfred
Oulton
THE
MARIE STOPES CONNECTION - Britain's first-ever hospital birth control
clinic opens at Abertillery
THE
REDOUBTABLE DAGGARS - A remarkable tale of an extraordinary Abertillery
family (by David Daggar)
THE
ABERBEEG GHOST
HEROES
OF WORLD WAR ONE
THE "LIB" CLUB
- BRITAIN'S BEST SNOOKER TEAM
(by Graham Bennett)
CAMERA'S GREATEST MAGICIAN - the humble beginnings of Angus McBean
Coming soon:
THE
TRAGEDY OF SIX BELLS - the terrible pit disaster of 1960
A
CHARITABLE ACCIDENT - Eddie Price, founder of the Tenovus charity
THREE LIONS IN THE
SHIRT -
Pask, Morgan, and Lewis, stars of the Green & Whites
THE
MEN WHO BECAME SAINTS
THE
MAN IN THE MIDDLE
AHEAD
OF HER TIME - The extraordinary story of Beatrice Green
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