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South Wales Gazette, July 14, 1911

The tree-canopied lonely stretch of road between Aberbeeg and Cwm is the sort of place that can fire people's darker imaginings.

I 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 on the evening of July 14th, 1911. Here we reveal the truth behind the ‘murder’ of the constable who was carrying out his duty that fateful Friday evening.

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 very busy 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.

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PC Hosea Pope

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" proclaimed the headlines in the Gazette the following week indciating the spot with an X at which Pope's body was found (see left) and Wise was charged accordingly.

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.

In a postscript to this part of the story, the Gwent Police along with their national colleagues held a special day of remembrance in October 2004 for those officers who died in the course of their duty.

The roll of honour can be found at: www.policememorial.org.uk/Forces/Gwent/Gwent_roll.htm r to replace transportation.

TYLERI TALES: THE ABERBEEG GHOST AND THE DEATH OF PC POPE

This includes Hosea Pope, whose entry states:
 

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.

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 would seem to rule out that it is that of Hosea Pope since by Edwardian times, the police uniform did not contain such a helmet.