Bryncethin is a village a few miles north of Bridgend, and in the early nineteenth century its fields held the ruins of an old house. Marie Trevelyan's story is one of several from lower Glamorgan in which a restless spirit needs hidden treasure thrown into the Ogmore.
A girl used to go to fetch water from a clear spring well in a pasture near the ruins. One evening, at the well, she found herself surrounded by what looked like forked lightning, and ran home in fright. The following evening it happened again, but this time she looked across the well and saw, among the wild rose bushes, a lady in curiously old-fashioned dress, with high heeled "peaked" shoes and enormous silver buckles.
Retellings based on Richard Holland's collection say that the elders of the village told her she must speak to the spirit in the Lord's name and ask what it wanted. She did. The lady told her that a bag of money and precious stones lay hidden under the hearthstone of the ruined house close by, and that it must be taken out and thrown into the River Ogmore, with the current and not against it. The girl told her friends, they helped her lift the hearthstone and found the treasure, and she carried it to the river and threw it in as instructed. The lady was not seen again.
The Great British Ghost Tour places the events in the 1830s. Neither source names the girl or the house.
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