The Ghost of Blaen Bran Woodland

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 Blaen Bran is an area in Upper Cwmbran consisting of two parts.  Blaen Bran and Gwaun-y-fferiad, which is Welsh for the Priest's Moor.  This is land that once belonged to Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.  She was married to the first Tudor king, Henry VII and owned the land around the 1480's.  Before this time the only earlier reference to land by the Bran Brook is a deed of 1452 when it belonged to the Edlogan estate.

The area is said to be haunted by a priest who upset Elizabeth and was hanged on the moor.  But why would a priest have upset Elizabeth so much that she had him executed?  To try and answer this we must look back to the time of Edward IV.  He was married to Elizabeth Woodville.  They had ten children including Edward V, Elizabeth of York and Richard, Duke of York.  When Edward IV died in 1483, his son Edward succeeded him to the throne at the age of thirteen.  Edward V's coronation was due to be held on 22nd June but because he was a minor he was appointed a Protector, his uncle the Duke of Gloucester,  The young prince never made it to his coronation, he was instead escorted to the Tower of London along with his younger brother Richard and both were never seen or heard of again.

On 25th June 1483, the children of Elizabeth Woodville and Edward IV were declared illegitimate by Parliament.  The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Robert Stillington presented evidence that Edward IV, a known womaniser, was already married to Lady Eleanor Talbot.  She was still alive when he married Elizabeth making the marriage invalid.  It was even suggested that Elizabeth Woodville had waited for Edward under an oak tree with her sons and bewitched him into marrying her!  All this had a very positive outcome for the uncle of the two princes though.  On 6th July 1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester became Richard III.

Richard III reigned until 1485 when he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field.  He was succeeded by Henry Tudor who the married Elizabeth of York to begin the Tudor dynasty.  Their marriage also brought an end to the Wars of the Roses and was supported by Parliament and also by Elizabeth Woodville, whose marriage to Edward IV was thus proclaimed legitimate by Henry Tudor.

The fate of the princes in the tower is not really known, though the bodies ft two children were discovered there.  The fact that Elizabeth Woodville worked to secure the marriage of her daughter  to Henry Tudor may suggest the two princes were already dead and the family knew this.  The marriage and reign began in a turbulent time, many believed the princes were alive and the rightful heirs to the throne.  Pretenders to the throne appeared, with much support from both home and abroad from high ranking people.  Perkin Warbeck, for example, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York and even began calling himself Richard IV, King of England.  He and his followers posed a huge threat to Henry VII.  If the family knew that the two princes were indeed dead, they risked losing the throne to an imposter but on a more personal level, a total stranger was impersonating Elizabeth's dead brother.  Was our priest a supporter of Richard IV?  Did Elizabeth have him hanged for that reason?  Whatever it was, his ghostly footsteps are said to be walking around the woodland.

I visited Blaen Bran on 11 September 2021 just to have a look around.  I took my camera and took around forty pictures.  All of them came back normal with just trees and scenery as expected, except for one.  

photo by carol ann lewis 11 September 2021

This one photo shows a large bluish orb hanging from one of the trees and to the left slightly lower down on the dark tree trunk another blue orb.  None of the other photos I took that day have anything like this on them.  It was also a cloudy day, no sunlight reflecting and no rain.  Sunlight would not reflect off the tree trunk anyway.  Some believe orbs are spirit .This area did feel a little eerie. Have I captured a spirit here? Who knows :) But I love a good, spooky story :)


Taken from my book Cwmbran History and Mystery, available from Amazon.co.uk

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