Merthyr Mawr is a small estate village of thatched cottages beside the River Ogmore, south-west of Bridgend, with the great dune system of Merthyr Mawr Warren beyond it. The Ogmore and its tributaries can rise fast, and the old crossings here have taken lives.
The Great British Ghost Tour, drawing on Richard Holland's Haunted Wales, tells of a phantom wagon, complete with its team of three horses, that has been seen crossing Merthyr Mawr. The explanation offered is an old accident: during a thunderstorm a man riding on a wagon was swept away into the swollen river and drowned. The wagon is said to go on crossing where he was lost.
Seeing it was not just frightening but unlucky, and the tradition adds a detail that ties it to Welsh death omens: a light, something like a corpse candle, was said to lead the way in front of the wagon.
No date, name or exact crossing point is given in the source, so the location here is the village generally.
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