Last summer Jayne and I visited Wales

Our main idea was to take a walking holiday

But due to the ferocity of the weather

We decided to take shorter walks

And then travel by train when time allowed


The Abermule train crash happened on the 26th of January 1921

Seventeen people died in this terrible accident

It was caused by slack working practices at Abermule Railway Station

Which over-rode the safe operation of the electric tablet system

Causing two trains to collide head on near the station

Abermule not longer has a railway station which was closed in 1965

Although trains still run along along the single track Cambrian line

I had read about this ghastly accident

When reading a history of the area

And this was the reason for our visit to Abermule

As there was a faded photograph of the wreckage

But it was not this that attracted my interest

But the house and outbuildings seen in the distance

I wondered if these buildings were still standing

Which I found was still to be the case

Over the years improvements had taken place

But essentially it was the same as it had been in 1921

As we were both trespassing

I took a couple of photos

And we later retired to the Abermule Hotel

It was not long before I was told a story

About a haunting associated with the crash

Two of the seventeen fatalities on that awful day

Were both students travelling back to school

Their names were Ralph and Guilford Onslow

For some reason the unusual name of the younger brother

Was retained in the memories of the village and often recalled

There were sightings of the two schoolboys

In years after the accident

Initially there were together

But after 1940 only the younger brother was seen

It appears that Guildford

Was searching for his brother

If approached he would always ask the same question

My name is Guildford Onslow and I seem to have lost my brother

I hate being alone please would you help me to find him

He would then start walking

In the general direction of the crash site

And then fade into the stillness of the hour

I actually heard this story a number of times

Sometimes the details varied

But the distant recollections

Of grandparents both alive and dead

Always remained essentially the same