GHOSTS & HAUNTINGS · UK HISTORICAL CASE
Location: Powis Castle, Welshpool, Powys, Wales
Period: Story circulating by 1780; exact encounter date unrecorded
Given an unexpectedly grand bedroom, a travelling spinner settles beside the fire with her Welsh Bible. A gentleman enters, waits by the window and leaves. When he returns, the frightened visitor finally asks what he wants. The Powis Castle story develops into a search for a hidden box—and an account of a poor working woman becoming the trusted messenger of a great household.
Work brings the woman to Red Castle
Ingram traces the account to the autobiography of Thomas Wright of Birkenshaw and the inquiries of the Methodist preacher John Hampson. By 1780, he says, people in Welshpool knew a woman who claimed to have spoken with the castle’s ghost. Hampson asked her to describe the experience as accurately as she could.
She earned her living spinning hemp and flax, travelling between households to find work. Food, lodging and a small payment were part of the arrangement. At Powis, the family were away in London and the steward’s wife employed her. When further work remained for the next day, she was invited to stay the night. This practical background explains why someone outside the family found herself alone in an important room.
An unusually comfortable bedroom
Three servants lead her downstairs to a well-furnished room, each carrying a candle. It has a boarded floor, two sash windows, a good bed and a fire already lit. A table and chair stand ready, with a large candle. The servants depart together and close the spring latch behind them.
The woman is surprised by such comfortable accommodation. She takes out the small Welsh Bible she carries and begins her usual reading before prayer and bed. In the account, the room’s reputation has been withheld from her. The servants are interested in what might happen when a notably religious woman spends the night with their troublesome visitor.
The gentleman waits for her to speak
A man enters wearing a gold-laced hat and waistcoat, with the rest of his clothes to match. He walks towards the corner, returns to a window and leans his face on his hand. She studies him because she knows the family and retainers through her work, yet cannot recognise him. When she remains silent, he leaves and pulls the door closed.
Now alarmed, she kneels beside the bed. He returns and approaches behind her, but she cannot bring herself to speak. After another departure and return, she finally asks who he is and what he wants. His response is direct: take the candle and follow him. The encounter changes from a repeated appearance into a task with a destination.
A board, a box and a key in the wall
The figure leads her along a boarded passage to a very small room or large closet. She initially stays at the doorway, then enters when reassured. The gentleman lifts a board to reveal a box with an iron handle in its lid. He points out a crevice in the wall where the key is hidden.
His instruction is that both box and key must be sent to the earl in London, whose residence he names in the narrative. She promises to do what she can. In return he says the house will no longer be troubled. Having delivered the message, he leaves her alone with the hidden objects and the responsibility of bringing the household to them.
She calls loudly from the doorway. The steward, his wife and the servants arrive together carrying lights. The steward is reluctant to touch the box, but his wife and others lift it out and find the key where the visitor had indicated. The woman judges the box heavy from the effort required. She does not see it opened, so the story leaves its contents as a family secret.
A message reaches London
The woman returns to her bedroom and, according to her account, sleeps peacefully. The box is subsequently sent to the earl with an explanation of its discovery. The narrative closes with his offer to provide for her: either a place in his household for the remainder of her life or support whenever she needs it.
Hampson’s account adds that people locally knew of assistance continuing from the family. This is a different kind of ending from a haunting resolved through punishment or a terrifying exorcism. A woman employed for her manual skill becomes the person who listens, follows instructions and brings about an apparent settlement.
The story’s route into print
The layers of telling remain worth preserving. There is the woman’s experience, Hampson’s inquiry and the account passed through Wright’s autobiography into Ingram’s collection. The date 1780 marks the story’s circulation and questioning; the actual night in the castle is not separately dated in the passage. A useful timeline keeps those roles distinct.
The narrative also protects its central secret. It offers a box, a key and a reward, while leaving the contents and the gentleman’s identity unexplained. Giving the apparition a convenient named biography or filling the box with a specified treasure would close questions the source leaves open. The lasting interest lies in the visitor’s response and the unusual trust placed in her.
The map marks Powis Castle at Welshpool. The photograph shows the historic property as a setting; the account does not securely match the described closet and bedroom to a modern visitor route. Related stories elsewhere in the library show how often ordinary workers and guests become the people through whom a household learns what its visitor wants.
Timeline
Before or by 1780 — the woman’s reported overnight experience at Powis Castle.
1780 — the account becomes known in Welshpool and is investigated by John Hampson in Ingram’s chronology.
Later source trail — Thomas Wright’s autobiography preserves the narrative.
Nineteenth century — Ingram incorporates it into Haunted Homes, pages 195–202.
Sources and further reading
John H. Ingram, Haunted Homes, “Powis Castle”, pages 195–202
Public-domain compilation identifying Wright’s autobiography and Hampson’s questioning of the unnamed spinner.
Location note
Castle location at Welshpool. The source does not establish which surviving bedroom or closet corresponds to the story.
Map location source · Checked 4 November 2026.
Related cases
Berry Pomeroy Castle: Sir Walter Farquhar’s staircase apparition and the history of the ruins
The Cauld Lad of Hylton: the kitchen spirit, Roger Skelton and the 1609 inquest