HEOL FANOG: A TIMELINE OF ANOMALOUS EXPERIENCES
1989 MAY
The Rich Family first view Heol Fanog. A last drink in the pub before they move house – the bar bill is £6.66. The first supermarket bill after they move in is £66.60.
SEPTEMBER
Bill and Liz marry on 28 September.
OCTOBER
Ben is born on 23 October.
NOVEMBER
Bill hears the first footsteps on the landing (thinks it is Laurence). The Haunting begins. The next day an electricity bill arrives for £750 for a quarter. Laurence starts behaving oddly. Bill and Liz hear banging noises; they think it’s a door slamming, but it isn’t. They also hear footsteps descending stairs; footsteps continue at 6.15pm every day.
DECEMBER
Bill smells sulphurous odour in kitchen – calls plumbers, but smell has vanished. Liz smells incense in kitchen. Sulphur/incense smells continue for next few days. Hot and cold spots in house. Laurence paints his room deep red. Bill’s work dries up.
1990 JANUARY – FEBRUARY
Problems with animals: goat crushed; pig gets disease and is shot; Laurence’s guinea pig dies; cat goes mad. Financial worries begin, so they sell car; car batteries drain outside house. Piano plays by itself. Laurence tells Bill’s mother to “fuck off” in demonic voice and smashes up his room.
MARCH
Liz contacts former resident Bridget Buscombe, who reports only one incident in her entire time there. Liz contacts a local Catholic priest who performs a blessing on the house. There are four days of calm, then Liz sees a sad woman in window of nursery. Bill and Liz research history of house. Bill writes to Brecon and Radnor Express and asks for information. The toilet becomes loose and a plumber is called who tells a story that in the 1960s he had installed radiators, but they were all ripped off the walls by some unseen force. A builder gets in touch, having read a local newspaper story, and tells Bill that gravestones were used to build house. Liz sees the old woman sitting in the nursery. Bill and Liz go to local council and ask to be rehoused. Their request is turned down. Bill’s fingers go “weird” and he can’t paint. Liz speaks to a medium in Cardiff who puts her in touch with Ray Williams, Head of the Christian Spiritualist Church in Cardiff. He tells her that Laurence should be sent away.
APRIL
Liz realises she is pregnant. Ray Williams, Larry Harry and a third person from the Christian Spiritualist Church arrive at the house, where Bill and Liz have their auras cleansed. Bill and Liz move out for three weeks to stay with Liz’s mother in Cowbridge.
MAY
Larry Harry returns to house a few weeks later. He claims to find four spirits: an old lady; a mischievous young man; another young man; something that claims to be a Presbyterian and is attached to Bill.
JULY
Three French exorcists arrive and look around. The phone is cut off. Bill’s fingers get temporarily better so he resumes painting. Larry Harry and some Dutch Spiritualist mediums arrive and claim to see seven witches. They also claim that Heol Fanog is on a confluence of ley lines and was built on a Celtic burial ground. Larry’s group erect a “psychic wall” and draw a pentangle on the floor. Things improve temporarily. Bill gets a commission from neighbours to paint their horse. Bill sends Laurence away to boarding school in Brecon. Another blight descends on the area, with lambs and calves born blind or deformed. Bill finishes the commissioned painting of the horse. The horse dies in same field portrayed in painting. The neighbours burn the painting
AUGUST
A “storm” breaks the psychic wall and hauntings start again. Rev Bryn Jones and Roy Matthews visit house and find three spirits and one demon. They claim they’ve removed them and calm follows for a few days. Liz sees a figure standing in trees several times.
DECEMBER
Rebecca born on 19 December. There is reported friction in the house between family members. The old woman keeps appearing in the house. Liz recognises her as Marion Holbourn, the owner’s mother (who was interested in spiritual and paranormal matters). After Christmas Liz sees a sevenfoot silhouette inside the house. She thinks evil has broken through. The family flee the house and go to stay with Liz’s mother.
1991 JANUARY
In Cowbridge, Liz and Bill meet the local vicar and pray together. They turn to Christianity. Liz calls the Evangelist Rev Arthur Neil in Bridgend, who passes her onto Baptist minister David Holmwood. Holmwood agrees to visit and begins fasting in preparation. In Cowbridge, Liz’s mother finds an Egyptian pendant. It gives Bill an electric shock when he touches it. He smashes it. Pools of water appear in the Cowbridge house.
JUNE
Bill and Liz return to Heol Fanog. Holmwood visits with reformed Satanist Anita Dick. An owl smashes into their car windscreen.
JULY
Holmwood and Dick return. They appear to be attacked in car again. They cleanse the house and tell Bill to clear it of anything evil. Holmwood identifies objects to destroy: paintings, books, incense burners.
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER
Holmwood continues to visit. Bill and Liz decide to become Baptists. Bill starts painting his “masterpiece”.
DECEMBER
Liz hears an animal snoring/breathing heavily under the bed in her room.
1992
Nothing happens 1993 SPRING
Liz discovers she’s pregnant again. Bill sees a “breathtakingly beautiful young woman” in the kitchen. David Holmwood claims it was a “spirit of seduction”.
JUNE-JULY
Nightmares about Egypt. Bill sees “Horus” in the kitchen. Liz realises it’s the same silhouette she saw in late 1990. Holmwood manages to expel it over the phone, after which follows a period of calm. Bill finishes his masterpiece, a painting called ‘Testimony’. Dispute with Swalec over electricity bill continues, with local solicitor Glyn Maddocks fighting the case. Liz calls Christian World Revival and asks for an exorcist. They put her in touch with Dr John Aston. Liz gets a Doberman called Beau. It acts strangely when in the house.
LATE JULY
After three months of prayer, Aston visits with three assistants. Liz is possessed. Brief period of calm, then things get worse.
NOVEMBER
Another story in Brecon and Radnor Express. The newspaper puts Bill in touch with psychic and exorcist Eddie Burks. Burks exorcises a bank in London.
1994
“SOMETHING HAS BEEN GIVEN PERMISSION TO BE HERE. IT DOESN’T SEE WHY IT SHOULD GO” EDDIE BURKS
JANUARY
Third child, Tomas, is born on 2 January.
FEBRUARY
Bill reports strange incident with kitchen knife, which reappears on table after he put in a drawer.
MARCH
Eddie Burks visits with Captain FergussonCuninghame, a North American Indian spirit guide and a TV crew. Following the visit, things calm down, but then Liz sees a disfigured man in the kitchen who walks into the garden.
1995
Throughout the year Bill and Liz see apparitions passing through house into garden.
JUNE
Eddie Burks returns with Ralph Noyes, Maurice Grosse and Montague Keen from the Society for Psychical Research. He exorcises the house, claiming an evil Celtic pagan force is at work.
1996 JULY
From 9 June, no further phenomena occur. The electricity bill has reduced to a normal amount. Bill’s work picks up and an agent offers to represent him. The children’s behaviour improves and Laurence visits regularly. The Rich Family move out of Heol Fanog on 9 July.
2005
Bill and Liz divorce on 5 April 2005.