This Paranormal Life - #311 HELLFIRE FARM - The Welsh House of Nightmares

Episode Date: April 18, 2023

When a young couple moved into a remote Welsh farmhouse, they were expecting a life of blissful tranquility... but they couldn't have been more WRONG. For they had just moved into 'Heol Fanog', also known as HELLFIRE FARM, a location riddled with ghosts, poltergeists, an Egyptian God and even a pig that went insane. If you enjoyed they story, you can also check out Danny Robins' annoyingly great series right here- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0d508t8Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can ghosts smoke cigarettes? Is it possible to hate at first sight? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! My voice is stuck up here. Welcome to This Paranormal Life. This is the weekly comedy podcast where every Tuesday we dive into a different paranormal case and try to get to the bottom of it by the end of the episode. Decide whether it's truly paranormal or not. As always, you're joined by me, Kit Greer-Mulverna, and this guy sitting across from me, Mr. Rory Powers. How are you doing today, Rory? Is it possible to hate at first sight? Yes. I know this from firsthand experiences. Many parents, when they have a child, they say that from the moment they look into its eyes they

realize that their life has changed forever and that their their their whole existence on the earth becomes about protecting nurturing and looking after your priorities just switch switch my mother said she felt nothing why did they tell you this why did they tell you because it was my birthday i guess they felt like they should say something. Yeah. That's the opposite of when they should have told you. There's no time to tell you, but certainly not your birthday. How are you doing, bud?

Quite good. How are you doing? Yeah. Excited to dive in to a brand new paranormal case. I mean, we've got, I would say, quite a big, quite chunky little investigation on our hands today. Ooh. I was researching today's case, Rory, and it got me thinking,

what is the worst thing that can happen to a paranormal investigator in the middle of a case? Wow, that's a good question. I guess right off the bat, shit yourself. That's pretty up there. Because I did, when I was trying to brainstorm, the first thing I came up with was food poisoning from a... In the life of a paranormal investigator, there is a lot of 4 a.m. burritos on the late night research sessions. But I dug deeper and I found that actually the reality is... Is it pissing?

It's finding out that Danny Robbins has already made a 12-part series about your case. Yeah, which has already happened once before when we investigated the Battersea Poltergeist. For those of you who don't know, Danny Robbins is kind of the BBC's resident paranormal investigator. Don't know how he got that title

because he's a fraud and a charlatan. Well, I wouldn't go that far. I mean, he seems to be a good reporter and he makes engaging content. And I think it's kind of the BBC see it as kind of like more entertainment maybe than journalism. My dad once said I was an alien grey because he didn't believe in me. Yeah. Okay. So I think I know a little bit more about the paranormal than some guy called Danny Robbins, some stranger. Yeah. Listeners will know. As Rory says,

we recently covered the Battersea Poltergeist. Sure, a case that Danny popularized long before the rest of the public or us knew about it. Sure, he covered it first, but our investigation was more groundbreaking. It was. I mean, I think he got some of the actual people from the case and some witnesses to actually guest on the podcast and tell their side of the story. But we found some pretty cool theories from Reddit

that I think really rivaled some of his evidence uh and sure he might have the money he might have the production team behind him the marketing budget of the bbc but you know what we've got that he doesn't have heart gumption no researcher amy ah and that's why sure he might have got to this one first but over here we do things tpl style so even though this case took him 12 episodes we're gonna get to the bottom of this in about 45 minutes rory are you ready oh yeah sorry yeah i thought that was gonna i thought that was a string on sentence no i am yeah we're gonna get right into it after some words from today's sponsors uh and a reminder

you can get ad free episodes episodes of This Paranormal Life on patreon.com forward slash thisparanormallife. It was 1969, and a young plumber was on his way to a farmhouse in South Wales. He had his apprentice with him, and together they wound their way through the Brecon Beacons National Park

to the remote house high in the mountains. Ooh, the sign on the gate read Hail Farnagh. Oh, this is the place, boyo. Out you get and do the gate, will you? Went a bit Irish there. Mrs. Horburn, hi, I'm Stuart. I'm here to put in your new radiators. We'll get right to work if you don't mind. It's a big job and I'm sure you won't want us back here tomorrow. The men got to work plumbing in a whole new system. It was a big job, the most strenuous part of which

was getting the radiators on the wall. These things are big, heavy, bulky as all hell. Takes two men. What year did you say this was? 1969. Summer of love, baby! Oh, so we're talking about radiators from the 70s these things are probably like relics from a war they're not the slick modern day radiators we have these days

right at this point they're they're borderline still decommissioning german tanks hacking them apart and turning them into radiators they're made of steel got bullet holes in them that kind of thing wow i'm sweating like a pig. Listen, I need to get an extra length of pipe, so I'll have to drive back into town. While I'm gone, I need you to... No! The young apprentice suddenly looked terrified. Please don't leave me here alone. The plumber chuckled. Don't worry, I'm coming back. Anyway, you won't be on your own. Mrs. Holborn is only in the sitting room i'll be back in two hours maybe no i mean it take me with you you can just leave me in town if you want i

don't care i just can't stay here getting a little bit irish there shut the f**k off shut off i told you i can't do a welsh accent neither of us can god damn it it. God damn it. I think actually at this point in the story, the apprentice was pretty quiet. I think that was actually the last thing he said, bud. No, he actually says the alphabet and then sings super-cajafragilistic expeliducious after that. The apprentice had felt something in the house, something dark.

He didn't like it, and he didn't think he'd be able to fight it off by himself. Stuart, on the other hand, wasn't much of a believer in the house, something dark. He didn't like it, and he didn't think he'd be able to fight it off by himself. Stuart, on the other hand, wasn't much of a believer in the supernatural, so it didn't really bother him. Once they got back, they flew into action and worked non-stop until the job was finished. There, that's the last screw in place now. Yep, that's all the manual labor done. Yep, that's the end of a hard day's work. The men slept well that night, on account of all the backbreaking manual labour. But a phone call came at the crack of dawn that made him realise he was about to have another

hard day. Hello, this is Stuart. Oh, Mrs. Oban, is something wrong? What? How is that possible? Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can. When he got there, he couldn't believe it. Every single one of those radiators had been wrenched off the wall. There was dust and splintered wood scattered everywhere. Whoa. It didn't make any sense. It took two men to lift these things. One frail pensioner couldn't have pulled it out of place. And even if she could, why on earth would she do that? Yeah, I don't know a lot about construction or electronics or plumbing or radiators or houses. Can that even happen naturally if it was badly installed? Could a

radiator be blown off the walls? That seems impractical, right? Because it's just water in there. I think so. And I think, you know know it could fall off if it wasn't attached properly but it's not gonna smash to pieces yeah strewn across the room if you if you incorrectly set up a bookcase right it doesn't mean it can explode right the worst thing that happens is maybe a shell goes a little wonky yeah yeah yeah you don't you don't hang a pic hang a picture the worst that can happen is probably slightly angled the wrong way. It doesn't burst into flames. No, yeah. So the fact that this installation has gone this wrong is a bit suspicious.

So Stuart and his assistant spend the morning cleaning up, reattaching the radiators, putting an extra screw here and there to really anchor them in place. But the next morning, the same thing had happened again. And then it happened again and again for days, weeks. Needless to say, they need to make some more money. So this is hurting the bottom line. I would at this point be starting to think, Mrs. Holborn is enjoying having a couple of hard-working hunky beefcakes

hanging out at the house, bending over, showing their builder's butts. Every night she just takes out a crowbar smashes the place a bit oh no you'll have to come back mr stewart bring the body oil boys yeah because because this is what 1970s so i'm assuming these beefcakes are straight out of a diet coke ad you know they got the tight white tank top on, soda exploding all over them, installing radiators in the hot Welsh sun. Those were horny ads. I really forgot about those.

Super horny, yeah. Didn't someone, like, throw a Diet Coke into a lawnmower so it would explode and, like, soak a dude in Diet Coke? That's borderline terrorism. I wonder, yeah, I never questioned why I in Diet Coke. That's borderline terrorism. I wonder, yeah, I never questioned why I like Diet Coke so much. Am I having an awakening? You're in the theater like 16 years old

watching Magic Mike being like, damn, I'm thirsty. God, I could go for a Coke right now. It's me just at any restaurant or dining experience. I just take that first sip of Diet Coke. Ah, I need to go to the bathroom. I'll be back. I'll be back at 15, 20.

It's just you drinking an ice cold Diet Coke. Ah, that hits the spot. I wonder what kissing a dude is like. It's like, okay. He said that quite a bit out loud. It definitely did have an impact on you. So Stuart can't believe he's doing it, but he's calling up his apprentice again.

And he says, Mrs. Holborn's expecting us again. Load up the tools in the van and grab a new bag of binding head screws while you're at it. Now, I assume being an apprentice in the world of plumbing is quite similar to being an apprentice

in the world of the Jedi. You cannot say no to your master. No, not it's part of the job punishable under death yeah by screwdriver because just like the jedi the carpenters had to bring balance to the floors yeah dude we could stay on on topic because it's just it just felt like it just wasn't that funny it came into my head and i felt like it was a good time to get me in a bad mood and like that's detrimental to the podcast so like it just seemed like what did i even mean i mean i don't i don't think we need to like dissect the joke but it was kind of like we should because i think we you you had an outburst i think you had an emotional outburst and i think we need to understand where it's coming from so it's the idea sorry the idea is kind of like a carpenter who works with wood

and is sometimes maybe hired to put down some flooring, some wood panels. So it's bringing balance to the floors instead of the force from Star Wars. So we can move on.

You're right, it was silly. Oh, balance to the floors. Oh, that's good. Are you back on board? Let's go back, if we can move on it was you're right it was silly balance to the floors yeah it was like oh that's good alright are you back on board alright f*** it let's go back if we can get it again

well I don't remember how I quite teed it up is the only thing now and I'm a little nervous don't waste my time come on because you came up with a funny line

but if you don't if you aren't ready so similar to a plumber a carpenter would have to bring balance to the floors to the floors you can't even this guy is this amateur art this guy can't even deliver a line how are we supposed to A carpenter would have to bring balance to the floors.

Is this amateur art? This guy can't even deliver a line. If he's low on supplies, he can always head down to the Darth Maul to do some shopping. We labored it so much to get the one line, and then you butcher the line, and then you try and do a new one. I didn't even get the second one, but I plumb a fat is that something plumb a fat it's pretty good stuff actually it is pretty

good stuff jar jar sinks last one that was the last one i promise i'm done that's the last one rory glazed over his eyes going blank for 30 minutes before he said that. The apprentice replies to Stuart. Stuart! Alright. Stuart! Stuart! Stuart!

Don't f***ing laugh! You gave this to me! I'm laughing at myself! Stuart! Don't shout. Stuart! Am I not shouting shout it. Don't shout. Stuart! Am I not shouting?

No. We're just talking on the telephone about a job. Oh. Alright. Stuart. Stuart! What's this f***ing sound? Why are you doing this to me?

I like to watch you s*** worm, basically. I can't say that name again. You've got to just take it from one of the ones we've got already. Just say, can I make a suggestion? Can I make a suggestion? Do you think we could try using Phillips head screws this time? If you want, but what's the difference? The young lad's reply was quiet.

They've got crosses on them. It's worth a shot. I don't think those kind of crosses count. I think to be, to have some sort of impact in the world of the paranormal, they pretty much have to be biblical crosses. That's how desperate they are. Right. They're this desperate. But it is true, a Phillips head screw,

you don't even know if that's a regular cross or an upside down cross. Because if it's an upside down cross, we might have another kettle of fish. There you go, Mrs. Holborn. Again! Hopefully this'll be it now, and you won't see us tomorrow. Maybe. Would be nice, wouldn't it?

The next morning, Stuart startled awake, realizing for the first time in weeks he woke up naturally, without a call from Mrs. Holborn. The screws with crosses on them seemed to be doing the trick. What?

Stuart never forgot what happened at the house, which was handy because 20 years later, he received a phone call. Hi, I'm Liz. Liz Rich. Are you sure? Maybe. Is this a prank phone call? No, it's been a long night. My family have just moved into this house and we've got a problem.

When do you think you'll be able to get out to Hail Fanong? Hail Fanong. Hail Fanong. Don't correct me. I know where I live, bitch. Hail Fanong. Hello? Hello?

Are you still there? Yes, Mrs. Rich. What's the exact nature of your problem? Radiators! Just a no. I assume. Just bring all of your tools. I'll explain when you get here. When?

But specifically, the radiators! Alright. I assume. It's not radiators. What do you mean you assume? Rory assumes, not Liz. Sorry, yeah, I should have changed my voice there. I assume.

It's the same house, the same location. She's calling a plumber. I assume it's the radiators acting up again. I'm about to describe it, but it's nothing. Nothing like what you're thinking. Liz explained that the toilet was falling apart. Okay. She said it had been shoved up through the floor, scattered about the place.

But when he went to take a look at it, it was fine. The toilet was scattered? The toilet was smashed to bits. It had been shoved up through the floor. Oh, right. Beaten up, bandaged. But it was fine. She was so embarrassed. She was like, I don't know what's going on. Okay,. But it was fine. She was so embarrassed.

She was like, I don't know what's going on. Okay, I guess it's fine. You can go. And he left. But as soon as he did, she went back into the toilet and it was destroyed. Smashed to bits. What? So she called him back.

And the same thing happened again. She thought she was losing her mind at this point. Yeah, God, you would. Sidebar at this point. We need to see a photo of Stuart. He must look like f***ing Harry Styles. The way these ladies are calling him back to the house time and time again. He's like, oh, that's so crazy. I swear it was.

I guess you could stay for a cup of coffee now that you're here though, right? Diet Coke, Diet Coke. Thankfully, in this instance, Stuart was able to make her feel a bit less insane you know this isn't my first time here yes i know you were here this morning oh no this was 20 years ago but i remember it like it was yesterday he explained everything from his apprentice's fears to the radiators the screws with crosses on them that had won the battle in the end. Liz was dumbfounded. So we're not the only ones.

As it happens, a dodgy toilet wasn't the only bad thing to happen to Liz's family. Loads have been going on since they moved in. In the middle of the night, they would hear loud banging footsteps coming from upstairs. But when they would run up to see what was happening, there was nothing there. Which, we say a lot on this show, but it's easy for me to just say that out loud but if that was happening in my house i'm out i'm out i'm done i mean it's hard as well using the screws on the radiators with the crosses on them that seemed to fix the problem you can't really do the same thing with a haunted toilet what are you supposed to do with a haunted toilet flush a bible down it

that seems like it would make the devil happy so that's not gonna work is it yeah any protection the good lord was giving you is out the window at that point right yeah i don't know what you do fill it with holy water that you're just pooping into holy water that seems bad but it wasn't only that the house would fill with the acrid smell of sulfur. The electrics in the house started going haywire. And they weren't just imagining it. Because whatever was messing with the house's electricity was drawing so much electricity, their bills shot into thousands of pounds.

It wasn't long until they figured out where the electricity was going, by the way. Liz and her husband soon saw blue laser beams shooting through the house. What the f**k? And Rory, if you thought everything I've mentioned so far is pretty standard kind of poltergeist shit, it was getting worse and fast. They started seeing dark figures at the bottom of their beds. The children reported seeing an old lady sitting on a chair in the living room, which started happening so often they just locked the door to the living room and never went in it again you know things are bad when we don't even

have the time to deal with the blue laser beams shooting through the house i don't think i've ever heard of that one before it's pretty interesting like yeah you know definitely standard paranormal or standard poltergeist rather behavior is like orbs um sure lights sometimes ball lightning things like that like light electricity these do happen we might have had something that sounds similar but i don't know about laser beams exactly and people don't report hearing darude's sandstorm coming from the basement and smoking lasers blasting in the living room lying in bed lying in bed at night just an aisle outside the the wind going through the trees and you're like good night sweetie yeah hopefully tomorrow will be a bit quieter and we can put all this behind us and move on with our

lives good night what was that did you hear that? It must have been a bird. Just getting louder and louder as you go to the attic. You're just like in a horror movie, taking one step slower and slower. Open the door to the attic. Ghost rave. We've all heard about the bro ghost before, but the EDM ghost, the party ghost. That's a new type of... Yeah, not like a surf bro, but like an EDM bro.

Yeah. And it's about to get even darker. They had a bunch of animals at the house. That is, until all their goats turned up dead one morning then their pig went insane and had to be put down what do you mean the pig went insane it's not just like like just just running around snuffling going nuts trying to bite you you know what i mean at no point do i look have i ever looked at a pig and thought he is sane he has his mental faculties he's sane and he's doing

normal pig activities quietly snuffling and eating things so what's what's insane for a pig that kind of like did he grab a child and say you gotta get out of here they came for the goats then they're coming for me uh the pig what insane rory i think you're just showing your city boy uh your city boy ways because a country boy like me i've seen a few insane pigs in my time i ain't talking about the nypd i'm talking talking about country living hogs. I just don't know. I don't understand how insane a pig can be. What could a pig do that would be, that you'd be like,

hmm, that's a bit weird. Backflips, mate. Was this pig backflipping? No. I don't think it has the joints to make that physically possible. Do you think Liz and Bill wanted to put down their pig?

If they put down their pig, along with all the other animals, I think the pig was quite insane. I don't want you to be gaslighting these people saying, what could the pig possibly have been doing? They shot it in the head. That's how insane it was. I just think, if someone is like, where'd the pig go? It's like, we had to kill

it because it went mad. That just seems like not a good reason to kill the animal. I don't know. I'm not a farmer. Well, there isn't a mental institution for pigs so it's it's either you quietly snuffle around in the dirt or you get a bullet in your head that's set it free that's the life of a pig set him free that shouldn't be the choices he's insane we have to welcome to the real world how many how many free roaming what do you think the countryside looks like you just drive through the countryside and you just We have to kill them. Welcome to the real world. How many free roaming?

What do you think the countryside looks like? You just drive through the countryside and you just see some insane wild pigs and you're like, it's nice that they let them go. It's nice that they let them roam free. That's never happened. You make it sound like this pig was in the shining, taking a wall down with the axes. Okay. I don't want you to get hung up on it because there were blue laser beams and then all the goats died in mysterious circumstances. Okay. Rory, what is happening?

I don't know. Put the pig out of your mind. Focus on everything else. I can't move past the pig. Genuinely. I can't move past the pig. Blue laser beams, goats, Darude sandstorm rave happening in the attic. Okay. Old lady in the attic. Okay.

Old lady in the living room. This is a smorgasbord of paranormal activity. I mean, old lady in the living room is a real right angle as well. That alone is enough of a paranormal investigation. We've done entire cases on just old ladies in living rooms, in old rocking chairs, cackling, let alone getting a pig involved and goats and ghosts and footsteps and exploding radiators we have had this happen before in paranormal cases where what we're possibly dealing with is just an area of land that is prone to paranormal activity through something

whether that's something that happened in this location in the past whether that's uh what's the theory some people have about like spirit earth fault lines and ley lines and all of that where paranormal activity can kind of gather in one spot. That could be what we're talking about because this is so scattered. I'm struggling to see a link

between these different things. Yeah, I mean, I would say for the most part, I categorize this as a paranormal investigator. I categorize this as a paranormal investigator. I categorize this largely still as poltergeist activity between the lights, the lasers, the strange electricity going on, the bills going crazy and the ghosts in the house. This is all ghost behavior. The only thing that really makes us think is the animals.

Why are they dead? That's that's definitely.'s definitely you know why one of them's dead yeah because because he lost it he he friggin his his mental went to a bad place someone should have been protect that pig should have been put in the witness protection program i think he knew what was going on and someone shut him down i assume one of the kids went up to the pig at one point and the pig is like listen to me there's a book in the basement it contains ancient spells and it's been down there for thousands of years the only way to get rid of the shotgun noise off screen the father's just got a rifle he was going insane it's like he i think he knew what he was he was saying it seemed like he was saying i said the piggy was squealing too much. That was lucky I came upon you and saved you at such a precise moment there, son.

You were close to getting hurt. No, I wasn't. You were close to getting hurt. And now we know what happens when little piggies squeal. Dad, you're acting weird rory we've barely scratched the surface of this strange case so we're gonna have to figure out properly what's going on right after some quick words from today's sponsors all right rory we're back and we're talking about hail fanog the hellfire Farm of Wales.

As I said, crazy stuff going on here. The family might have been able to handle some of this paranormal phenomena, but it was now becoming too much to bear. One day, a neighbour dropped into the farm with some old photos of the property from back when Mrs. Hoburn lived there. Smart, smart, this is good. Looking into the past to explain the present. Liz's heart leapt into her throat upon seeing the old lady's face there in the photo, because she'd seen it countless times sitting in a chair in her front room.

It was the ghost. It was the same, it was the woman from the start? The same woman. I've seen her. She haunts my house. The old lady chuckled. I don't doubt that she does. She had a devil of a time here when she was alive.

It's only fitting she'd be trapped here for eternity. Keep an eye on that old woman as well. Because she's haunting a couple houses by the sounds of it. Liz couldn't believe her ears the haunted had become the haunty she had a hideous flash forward seeing herself as a gnarled old lady still battling the old house trapped inside forever we haven't even talked about bill liz's husband he was an artist uh he up to this point had been making a great living selling his lovely and happy paintings uh to collectors and galleries that is until he moved into the house suddenly

the commissions gone i assumed the vibes changed kind of a vibe shift landscapes and uh flowers and vases to more dead pigs. Dead pigs everywhere. He went full shining mode. The stress of the paranormal destroyed his psyche. He would lock himself in his studio for hours. And when he did paint, it was now grotesque and dark images. Warped depictions of corpses floating.

Oh my god! Warped depictions of corpses floating in the air. Brides with blood gushing underneath their veils. Is this real? He started doing this? It really is. Liz has done a ton of interviews over the years and she talks in very sad terms, obviously,

about how Bill seemed to mentally get it the worst. He took everything that was happening extremely badly and it pretty much destroyed their relationship. Oh took everything that was happening extremely badly and it pretty much destroyed their relationship. Oh man, that's brutal. Enough was enough. They had to do something. So they hired a priest to exercise the house. It did nothing. Okay, never mind. They got a Baptist minister. Who knows? Maybe the demon is Protestant, but nothing. Zip. They got every type of medium or holy man possible but nothing stopped the hauntings they didn't just think about moving out moving to a new place

couldn't afford to geez not to put you on the spot but um just to kind of illustrate what a tricky situation they're in even as a paranormal investigator what would you even recommend someone do once they've tried every world religion to exercise the house yeah what is even that next step i guess if you want to find a poltergeist or a spirit's weakness a smart thing is to learn more about the origins of the creature unfortunately the process of learning more is also opening up a gateway for it to get a lot freakier. So, for example, Ouija boards where you can communicate with the spirit, doing some sort of seance. Again, it's kind of the equivalent of marching at an enemy with a sword, but no clothes on. You might be able to find something and you might be able to kill it or you might be butt naked exposed

right in front of the thing and it will just wreak havoc on you i never uh saw it this way naturally because that's an insane metaphor but i probably could have picked a better one that was the first one that came to mind but i see what you're saying it's almost like you know to to get a swing at this thing you need to be able to see the whites of its eyes which is yeah too close yeah too close yeah too close for comfort 100 yeah it's kind of like imagine you're in a gunfight with this spirit if you want to take a good shot at it you got to lean around the corner that means it's gonna got a good shot at you too so so both of you are gonna take a couple swings so we basically need liz and bill

here to kind of stranger things style go into the spirit realm. If that's what it takes. With a spirit gun. Yeah. I mean, because this is it. If you find out a little bit more about why this is happening, then you maybe find out how to stop it from happening or to shut it down. Unfortunately, a lot of the times it is kind of beyond the control or the power of the humans. So I would go with option number two, burn it down and move on uh that is kind of

i won't even say plan z that is plan b sometimes a when i'm investigating the paranormal is uh burn it down the house the building the graveyard the church the orphanage whatever burn it down and move on and as i i did mention you know they're kind of hard for cash here. They don't have the financial ability or freedom to move. So we'll add in that extra step, which is burn it down, claim the insurance fraudulently. Sure.

And move on. Yeah. Sometimes even moving on with nothing is better than being declared insane and shot in the field. Like the pig was. So did I mention it's getting worse? If you thought the ghost of an old lady was bad,

get ready for the curveball of a lifetime. One day, Liz saw a figure walking through the house. Normally, fine. She's used to it. Figures walking through the house. She sees like six of these f***ers before breakfast. Except this time, it had the head of a bird. Rory, as far as I'm aware,

I can only think of one paranormal being with the head of a bird. You might even say they're a recurring guest on this paranormal life. What? Who? Rah! I hated how you said that, but you are right.

Yeah, Rah, of course. The ancient Egyptian god. But no, surely... Rah! Surely that's crazy. Ghosts are one thing, but an Egyptian god? That's where she draws the line, and she put it out of her mind completely. That is, until one day she was walking through the living room

when she spotted something shiny on the floor. It was underneath the coffee table in her living room, so she bent down to pick it up it was an ancient egyptian pendant shut the f**k was an egyptian amulet laying on the floor why is she just running a paranormal hostel now where ancient gods and demons are just hanging out like cooking breakfast together yeah yeah what's up i'm gonna be here for a few days what are you oh the owl man cool i'm the jersey devil what's up? I'm going to be here for a few days. What are you? Oh, the Owlman? Cool. I'm the Jersey Devil. What's up, dude?

Oh, shit, you dropped your pendant. Oh, I'll just leave it. It's fine. Oh, cool, yeah. It's a kind of, and I know we've been talking about John Wick lately, it's a kind of John Wick, Assassin's Hotel style arrangement

but for paranormal creatures. I don't think a medium or a priest can actually help her anymore. That's beyond anyone's expertise. What, are you going to get an Egyptologist now to come to f***ing Wales?

You just have to do like in the mummy, you know, whenever... How did they beat the mummy in the mummy? I don't remember. I don't actually remember. I think it was guns in the end.

They just shot it a bunch or made it bleed. But do you remember when the guy becomes Imhotep's servant? It's like, that's all Liz can do to survive right now. It's just pledge her allegiance, bend the knee,

and become this Egyptian god's servant. Yeah. I realize what I'm saying is insane. This is wild. But it turns out that not long before they moved into Hail Phanag, the whole family went on a holiday to Egypt. It had always been her son's dream to go inside a pyramid. But whenever they did, they all felt too terrified to stay inside. They felt a dark

presence, as if they were angering a spirit by staying there. Is it possible that whenever they boarded that EasyJet Plus flight fromro to london that they didn't come back alone that something followed them home all the way to the farm in wales you're making it sound like they weren't even brought there by a guide they just went walked into a pyramid that they found presumably this was part of like a holiday trip thing like very very like tourist friendly kind of going it's 1969 man i think you could do whatever you want yeah you might actually have a point they gave you a pistol and a whip and told you and a camel and said good luck that is an insane theory i don't what so so what maybe they

brought a spirit back and it wasn't until they went to this place where apparently it's it's no man's land and spirits and humans can just chill with each other. That's when the spirit decided to kind of pop out and start making himself known. I mean, it might have happened anywhere. You know, I think the idea was that this was quite soon after they came back from Egypt that they moved. Right. Oh, so straight afterwards. I mean, we have talked about ancient Egyptian curses before. Yeah.

I guess it's possible. Yeah. have talked about ancient egyptian curses before yeah i guess it's possible yeah i mean from our experience with ancient egyptian curses though like uh the curse of tutankhamen and carter discovering it it was a subtle a very subtle discrete curse that would affect people in different ways uh over the course of many years whether whether it was, you know, somebody just nicking themselves, shaving, and then dying from a blood disease months later. Yes, quite subtle.

Or someone falling dead from a mysterious illness. Yeah, they're hard to stop. No one can explain it. Oh my gosh. Now you're saying there's a nine-foot bird man walking in the kitchen

eating cocoa puffs. That's pretty hardcore. He's making himself coffee walking around without a towel, walking around after the shower without a towel. Look, we're not going to dwell on it because unbelievably,

and thankfully, there are other possible explanations for what's happening. You know, this area apparently has quite a rich history of witchcraft. Allegedly, you know, England had a lot more witches that were actually accused and killed but in wales less were actually tried so it didn't mean that there weren't any they just

maybe actually were allowed to live more often that's interesting that in wales they were just they just didn't care as much yeah they were like yeah i don't know the full extent of that but apparently there is a bit of a difference in how it was treated i think i'd be pretty chill with witches if someone right now was like it's like yo witchcraft is super real and can do a bunch of crazy crazy shit i'd be like can we use it can we use it to do a bunch of cool stuff this sounds great i think it's weird to just be like, shut it down, you know, and burn witches.

That seems like a bad idea. You see, what you've got to put your mindset back to, Rory, is, you know, in kind of 15th century England, they didn't want women to do anything.

Right, of course. If you think a woman playing football is punishable by death you're going to be pretty pissed when you find out they can fly right yeah it's more it's less about the actual paranormal or the whatever it's more just like i just don't like them being able to do whatever they want i think that was kind of the vibe right okay it's more of like an underlining i think a lot of these people just hate women. Some misogynistic sort of legal system. Yeah, I think so.

Sure, okay. I understand. But you make an excellent point. If witches existed today, if I found out that my wife was a witch, I'm going to be extremely progressive about the whole thing. Not only am I not going to be mad,

I'm going to be like, what the hell am I doing over here working? Can you just magic up some cash? Hell yeah. I'm so ready to be uh i want to i want a sugar witch i'll just be a boy toy to a sugar witch i've seen kiki's delivery service let's just fly about on a broom i'll be the cat you can be the witch we'll just eat bread and shit it's gonna be great that little homie was a gold digger he he he saw what kiki could do and

he was like i'm gonna win her over with bicycles i think was the point of that yeah um yeah i'm here for it i'm here i'm definitely here for it but i've left maybe the most believable solid tangible theory about what's going on here till the end. There is a local legend about a grisly axe murder of a young man, a farmer, who lived on this property. Could it be he was haunting the house to this present day? Needless to say, they're at breaking point. And this is when they find their lucky break. There's an article in the newspaper about a famous British medium, Eddie Burks, who had successfully banished ghosts and demons from all over the UK. They got in touch and he came to hail Fennog. When he arrived,

he began quietly walking around the house. Leaving the living room, he moved to the stairs. Oh, right here. I feel something. It was a relief that he stopped in the exact spot that the horrible smells and sound of footsteps had been coming from. There's a lot of energy just here. Hold on, I need to listen. Alright, I've got the young man here who was killed with an axe, and he's got quite the story to tell. Eddie began repeating the words of the ghost, whispered to him from beyond the veil. I'm James Griffiths. I was killed by my friend Thomas Edwards,

but it's not what you think. I witnessed a murder here. I saw the rich landowner kill his wife, and he blackmailed Thomas into silencing me. He didn't want to do it, but they said they'd kill his family. He sobbed as he killed me, I mean, if ghosts come from unfinished business, that's going to do the trick. Yeah, that's a pretty complicated story

to kind of throw into the mix about this bizarre axe murder yeah real life's complicated rory get with it it's cool though like you know we kind of it's like they already had this loose story the legend of a murder that took place pretty cool that and i know that this is open to skepticism but this is what mediums do. But it's cool to allegedly get the scoop, get the real story from the person who was killed. Yeah. I mean, I do love the idea of this medium coming in and being, it's because of this story all those years ago,

the unfinished business, the betrayal. That is why these paranormal events have taken hold of this house and the dad is like so that's why the pig went crazy huh he's like what yeah the pig went nuts i had to blast blow his brains out it's like what the f**k are you talking about you shot a pig in the head why the f**k he said it was an axe it's like uh yeah, yeah, I thought that was kind of part of the whole thing. He wasn't really acting that weird. He kind of just snarled a bit. And I thought he was part of the whole thing.

You're saying he's just saying hello. I thought you were going to say the medium explains all this. And it's because Thomas Edwards all those years ago was betrayed by those who loved him. And he took the secret to the grave. Ra walks in, still eating a bowl of cereal. That's not why I'm here. I'm just chilling. You do your thing, though.

You do your thing, though. But I'm just letting you know, if he exercises the highest, I'm still going to be here. I've never even heard of that dude. Don't mind me. Do you got any more milk, by the way? I think we're out of milk. I don't even know who any of those guys are that sucks though for them seriously yeah but i'm still gonna be here yeah i'm happy for you or sorry to hear that whatever it was i

wasn't really listening he opens the door to his bedroom this is the thing about mediums though the proof The proof of the pudding is going to be in the eating of the pudding. Eddie Burks left shortly afterwards, promising that he'd come back if there was more trouble. But that was pretty much it. The electricity bills came back down. The ancient Egyptian gods stopped making sandwiches in the kitchen in the middle of the night. And I will say, for the sake of getting us into one episode, there is more to this case. I've had to cut, you know, a certain amount of information.

So if you've enjoyed this, by all means, check out, I guess, Danny Robbins' series Hellfire Farm for more detail. There's a ton going on. Like at one point, the husband, Bill, it turns out he's a witch or something. I didn't fully follow. But I will say as we circle the end here that sometimes on tpl we like to highlight the motives of people who have experienced the paranormal yes well i can say that this family really i would say didn't gain anything to be honest it seems like it started off as i said a really hard time for bill they ended up separating as a family he died recently actually

of health complications he wasn't that old um my knowledge, there was no kind of book deal or whatever. Liz has always stood by the same story. She's given dozens of interviews over the years. There was a Channel 4 doc, I think in 2018 or so.

And then, of course, the recent BBC series by Danny Robbins. Now, interestingly, the BBC did contact the current owners of this house and they claim that nothing

has ever really happened while they've been there so maybe the final exorcism worked I mean was it even an exorcism it sounds like they just got a medium involved to talk to the restless spirit and even just hearing the story was enough to chill things out yeah I think that's the point yeah yeah okay well I don't know how that stopped everything because it seemed like there was a lot of weird shit going down in that house but glad to hear that it has chilled out now and people can kind of reside there relatively peacefully again this is rah like sitting on the sofa i just don't i don't follow like so james i can't even make sense head or tails of this um i guess the one kind of flaw in all of this is you know you said this was pretty much

the beginning of the 70s 1970s no 1969 well that's what i'm yeah it's pretty much the beginning of the 70s it is one year away from that 1969 fine we should have some photos some videos like this isn't a thousand years ago it isn't even a hundred years ago uh i will say when i was looking into this i dug and i dug and there was i was like man if you're saying there's an amulet i gotta see that amulet i kind of looked around myself and i even uh emailed uh researcher amy and i was like i was like amy before i go on the record to say that there's no evidence can you confirm and she was like there's there's nothing i've looked we both looked there's okay there's nothing uh yeah there is there is a total lack now of course as you say what would there be photos of uh i think there is things there is

the amulet there is maybe could have been able to to capture um some of the light phenomena. As we know, ghost pics are kind of non-existent, even in the whole ghost world. You never really get those. But there's so much that happened here. Surely something would be coming up as physical evidence. I'm going to put on my skeptic hat for a second here and also pick up on a little detail you mentioned earlier in the case,

which is you said that the family prior to moving to this house went on a trip to egypt and went into a pyramid and went on their way back from the pyramid they felt like there was something with them uh no i think they uh they felt a creepy vibe in the pyramid right and then i think i was extrapolating saying what if something came back with okay i was just trying to essentially figure out what were their beliefs in the paranormal before moving into the house yeah because if they're already coming in fully loaded believing in all this stuff and then you just hear some creaky noises because it's an old house immediately that is ghosts upstairs tap dancing in our attic um so i'm just trying

to understand the the where the family are and what their relation is to the to the paranormal it's a really it's a really tough one you know we're at the conclusions portion uh you know i i think i do feel quite conflicted about this case i think it's disappointing there's no physical evidence yeah but it is you know whenever you you know see any interviews with liz and the fact that this has been turned into a couple of different kind of real kind of prestige features between channel 4 and bbc you see there's the people are not old they're alive they're telling always telling the same story and they take it bloody seriously so you feel a bit conflicted it's easy to say that it's silly, but it's not silly to them. So in the case, Rory, of Hail Fanog

and the Hellfire Farm, what do you think with what you've seen today? Is this a yes or a no? Is it paranormal or not? I think with this case, I think I've had a great time hearing about the stories, but for me, there's too many red flags in this investigation for me to fully commit when i

said bill's a witch god damn it i knew i shouldn't have said that i mean look it's like all these paranormal poltergeist stories what we like to have is a good solid explanation behind the events that can kind of justify why they're taking place that sometimes in lieu of evidence is enough to give a case a yes uh but in today's that's the only thing we do have no we don't the murder the murder didn't even explain a single thing that happened in the house that was like an extra thing we heard about that wasn't even happening well i wouldn't explain it's that's why there's a ghost because the guy was murdered what do we mean that's why there's a ghost because a guy got his head chopped off that's why there's an old woman in the chair that's why there's lasers blasting downstairs that's why an ancient egyptian god is walking

around the kitchen and a pig went insane i shouldn't have mentioned the god the goats all died by the way just randomly died because a guy got his head cut off. That doesn't link up in any way. You can't just say something traumatic happened in the past. So now everything is happening now. But I do think that's pretty much how poltergeist cases work is it's like, like poltergeists aren't like my family abused me. So I'm going to rattle cupboards. There's not usually like a black and white, like this is why i'm throwing a kettle across the room it's just like bad vibes equal ghostly activities but usually that's the vagueness of it like any if you're whatever happened to you in the past you uh being angry about it in the future

means just rattling shit and throw it around but if a guy had his head cut off by an axe and you see a spirit in your kitchen that spirit better have no head otherwise that's a whole nother bag of chips that's a whole nother other thing you got to figure out real quick uh so i'm not entirely sure that the alleged events of the past which we also don't really have any evidence of except for a voice in a wall telling a dude it happened they don't really explain anything that happened in the future so i think it's going to be a no from me this week i think we've got a double no on our hands uh for this particular case um but one that we've enjoyed looking into nonetheless and yet another case that danny robbins has got his grubby little bbc mitts all over before we even got to it just joking love you danny come on the podcast um but um i want us to actually have a moment for the pig i feel like he got

wrapped up in all of this and i feel like he didn't even know what was going on and i'm actually he caught a stray he caught a stray for real he i mean like he's imagine just being like he's just like vibing he doesn't know what's going on by the. He doesn't know what's going on, by the way. He doesn't know what ghosts are. He doesn't know what day it is. And a dude just walked up and shot him in the head. He didn't deserve this. I think, Rory, I think we've got to, I think when the time comes and we do, hopefully this year, an on location investigation of our own, we've got to do a ghost. Because we need to end this dry spell for ghost cases.

a ghost because we need to end this dry spell for ghost cases uh well as i said we had one or two at least one ghost case in the last 20 or 30 episodes that was a yes because i remember being so psyched we actually got a double yes on a poltergeist story or whatever it was but just by nature they're harder to prove we do know this and i'm not going to turn down my skepticism dials uh just because it's a different type of case i'm just saying i think we would think differently if we went and did ourselves i think that's the problem is that right we're watching these videos and this i'm literally got a woman i've got a video of liz in front of me crying on camera about yeah i didn't see that i didn't see that video and uh you probably should have played that at some point

in the episode before i came down so swiftly on a no uh that would have been good to see i'm like putting in your face it's like oh look what you've done look what you've done she's upset um but i just think we might think differently if it happened to us one day yeah hey i'd be down for that i'm always uh excited to expose myself to the paranormal. And I think, you know, our ghost hunting equipment can be, yes, EMF readers, night vision goggles. Yes, yes. Also, let's bring a piglet. And if he starts going a little crazy, we know something maybe is going on here.

Hope you've enjoyed this investigation into Hale Fanag and the Hellfire Farm. What a case. Well done, Kate. And well done, Amy. Thank you to researcher Amy for researching that one. Thank you to Philip Shacklady for editing. Of course, if you've got any of your own submissions,

you know where to send them. ThisParanormalLifePodcast at gmail.com. We've got cameras in front of our beautiful faces right now getting videos. So if you want to see some of the best clips of recent This Paranormal Life episodes, even clips from this very episode, they are live on our social media right now on YouTube. So head over to the links that are in the description of this podcast. It's really fun to see our beautiful

new studio in glorious HD and hang out in the comments section. And let's be honest, see how much people are roasting us for our appearance our opinions and our voices yeah you know when people listen to podcasts and they haven't seen what the people actually look like the hosts look like they like to build images in their heads yeah so it's kind of funny with with me it's like huh from the way that you sound, I assumed you were like six foot five, not six foot three. You're not six foot three. And it's like in my heelies. In my heelies, I'm getting close to six foot three.

And they're like, damn, I thought you, like I knew you were jacked because of the voice and stuff, but like, damn. You just lowered your voice. You're straight out of a Diet Coke ad, motherfucker, you know, you sheesh. I've studied the ads and I would know that you're not.

So, because they're on a different level and I'm getting hot and heavy just thinking about it. You're like, you're straight out of an ad for Capri Sun. You look like a prepubescent. Underdeveloped. High pitched voice. You look like you're in an ad for Sunny Delight. I simply wish we were joking but i've said on the podcast before um several people when we went on tour said wow i'm surprised uh judging by your voice i assumed you were both short uh which i

took as of course unbelievably offensive that's a compliment though isn't it that we're it's i think short voices i think described i think you would describe that as a backhanded compliment right um as in you sound extremely short and you're actually normal height yeah like like uh like when you say like oh like kit that's a really uh nice shirt uh i'm not i wouldn't be brave enough to wear something like that yeah you're you're really brave. Yeah, yeah. Thank you, I guess. Should we do a shout out for the wall? Do you want to do it? Yeah, we haven't done it yet.

So if you're seeing the video of this right now, behind Rory is a beautiful wall of paranormal evidence. The TPL conspiracy wall. Basically what we have is I tried to replicate Mulder's office from the X-Files as part of our set for the podcast. So we have a huge wall behind me filled with declassified artifacts, pictures of UFOs, articles from UFOs, and a bunch of other cool little references from this paranormal life episodes in the past. But we want to fill this wall out with a bunch of cool posters and pictures so if you are a fan of the podcast and you have ever made any fan art or you'd like to draw something or print us out something to for us to stick on the wall and possibly be

immortalized in uh in the tpl background then send it us. We'll do a post on patreon.com where we can list our mailing address, where you can send in some cool stuff for us to put on the wall. So keep an eye out and head on over to patreon.com forward slash This Paranormal Life. Where, of course, there's lots of other great shit,

including bonus episodes monthly and weekly after-party episodes. Don't call it shit, including bonus episodes monthly and weekly after party episodes. Don't call it shit. That makes it sound like it's not good. I'm just trying to be hip and down with the kids. So this f***ing garbage over at Patreon. I think they can tell you're trying a bit hard. There's a ton of shiz.

F***ing shit. I'm not swearing anymore. There's a bunch of shiz f***ing shit I'm not swearing anymore There's a bunch of shiz over there and don't don't look at me

as if I'm doing something wrong Don't look at you You're just stunning right across from me Look we've got to get through this Go to patreon.com forward slash let's put it on there

because at the end of every episode we like to shout out some of those patrons right here on the podcast. Some of those f***ers. Let's get, yeah. Some of those f***ing s***s. We like to shout out. Let's go.

Thank you to Patrick McAlpin. Well, if it isn't Patrick Scalpin McAlpin. You'll generally find Patrick outside popular concerts, scalping tickets. Right. Okay, that's a lot nicer than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be cutting the head off of living creatures.

Yeah, well, you'll want to see what he does to the people who can't afford the tickets. Oh, God. My God. Patrick, stop it. You're ruining the music industry. It's not fair. But that being said, the killers are coming to town and i wasn't able to get tickets so patrick hit me up i've got cash ready for you ready for you please please

thanks to jennifer stang jennifer stang actually must have been inspired uh by the story we were talking about today because uh she actually has a band called the insane piglets wow that's that's a cool name for a band try and guess what type of music they play. Just based on the name alone. Punk rock. Country music. Oh, that's pretty good. The Insane Piglets.

Is there three of them? And like one of them is in a house made of like, hey, one of them's in a house made of rocks. I don't remember what the other ones were. Sand? Did someone make sand? No, there's six and they dress up as pigs and run around doing backflips. But the music, it's Roots Country. It is extremely tasteful.

I'm here for it. Thanks also to Garrett Richards. Come on down to Garrett's Parrots. We've got every type of parrot you could dream of. Blue parrot, red parrot. How many types of parrots are there? Green parrot. These are just colors, by the way way i don't think these are like species no no they're species i just don't have the f***ing the little the little card that tells me they're they've all got name badges but they don't stay on the wings so the name badges fall off and then

i can't remember which one is which but like we got loads so it's fine. That's a pigeon. That one's a pigeon. No, he talks. That's grey parrot. Tony, talk. You hear that? He's saying, cool, cool, cool, cool. I think that's a squirrel for sure. He doesn't even have wings. No, it's a parrot. That's a grey parrot. That's a nut parrot.

I call him. We are low on parrots. So if we can interest you in a squirrel, that would be really great to keep the bottom line moving uh thanks lastly today to andres andres we're very paranoid with kind of outside contamination coming into the paranormal commune uh so if you could before you go through the gates uh just andres whoa and go into one of the decontamination showers very briefly i don't know we will incinerate your clothes once you've undressed can we get them a robe at least we

have sacks we have we have sacks you can choose your color choice burlap potato yeah coffee or rice those are those are the kind of options uh whichever, it's kind of like f***ing Hunger Games. Whatever brand of sack you choose, that will kind of be your house name. You will be fighting in the wars. This weekend, Team Rice versus Team Coffee. Come on down. It's going to be great. You're going to have a great time.

Thank you to everyone who shouted out today. Thank you, Andres. Thank you to everyone else. We will have more shout outs from next week um thank you for listening to this episode um not a yes this week but we live in hope that next week will will bring us that glorious delicious yes and hopefully we won't see any more insane piglets i think we've actually possibly got a few guests on next week's episode. Is that right? Yeah, I think we do actually have a few guests that are going to be joining us.

A couple. That's crazy. The most guests we've ever had on the show before. So it's going to be a rowdy one. They're mouthy little f***ers. They really are. So you'll need to tune into that on Tuesday. We'll see you then.

Bye-bye.