It’s 1989, rural Wales, a lonely old farmhouse in the shadow of the imposing Brecon Beacons mountains. Young, pregnant Liz Rich and her artist husband Bill rent an isolated farmhouse in the Welsh countryside, with Bill’s teenage son Laurence. They’re hoping for a fresh start, but the house holds dark secrets, and the family’s new life becomes a terrifying ordeal that will change them forever.

Their dream home has become a haunted nightmare – but what is real and what is in their minds?

Written and presented by Danny Robins, creator of The Battersea Poltergeist, Uncanny and West End hit 2:22 – A Ghost Story, The Witch Farm stars Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Alexandra Roach (No Offence), with original theme music by Mercury Prize-nominated Gwenno. This 8-part series interweaves a terrifying supernatural thriller set in the wild Welsh countryside with a fascinating modern-day investigation into the real-life mystery behind what has been called Britain’s most haunted house.

My Review

During the third coronavirus lockdown, the store where I worked had to close, but instead of being furloughed again, I volunteered to help man the staff testing centre for Covid at Waitrose. Some days we were insanely busy, while others we were so quiet we would chat, read or listen to the radio. One of my colleagues asked me if I ever listened to Podcasts to while away the time and she recommended The Battersea Poltergeist. I was hooked.

So when I heard about The Witch Farm I was intrigued. It’s far scarier and more sophisticated than The Battersea Poltergeist. Just a quick recap first:

“Back in 1989, it all started innocently enough for the couple. Bill, an artist from England and his Welsh wife Liz who was pregnant with their first child, moved into the old stone property (Heol Fanog), converted from an even older barn, with Bill’s son from his first marriage, Laurence. They spent a blissful first summer organising and renovating the remote farmhouse and gardens that lie behind a bank of trees, completely cut off from the rest of the world. No neighbours, no other houses in sight, but no witnesses and no one to ask for help when you are in trouble…”

But then it all started. Loud footsteps running through the house. Doors slamming. Hot and cold spots in the house. Disgusting smells. And the electricity meter going wild, with massive surges and an enormous bill at the end of the quarter.

So were these paranormal events? Unexplained but not necessarily supernatural. And only the start. Animals would get sick and die. Apparitions would appear and there would be more strange sounds.

I’m sure sceptics would find rational explanations for all these phenomena. During each episode, Danny speaks to two people – Ciaran O’Keeffe and Evelyn Hollow – one a sceptic, the other a believer. The discussions are very interesting. Personally I don’t believe that ghosts are the spirits of the departed who cannot rest and want us to help them pass over to the other side. I do, however, believe that traumatic events of the past can leave a ‘timestamp’ which plays over and over and some of us can see.

On the other hand, could one of the family be more sensitive and create a kind of mass hysteria amongst the others? Or as expert Ciaran O’Keeffe suggests a ‘fantasy prone personality’ ie ‘a disposition or personality trait in which a person experiences a lifelong, extensive, and deep involvement in fantasy.’

I’ll tell you a little story about something that happened when my son was on a stage combat course at St Donats Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan some years ago, coincidentally also in Wales. Legend has it that the ghost of Lady Anne Stradling walks around the castle looking for her dead husband who was supposedly killed in battle. When she is about, you can smell lavender. On the first night, one of the tutors said, ‘I can smell lavender,’ on the staircase leading to the bedrooms. Suddenly everyone else could smell it as well. Suffice to say no-one slept up there for the rest of the course. A ghost? Or just lavender air freshener? And once one person said they could smell it everyone else was subject to the phenomena above.

But what about the incident of the painted horse? That goes beyond apparitions and footsteps in the night. That is no timestamp or hysteria. Or did someone else know about the painting and injure the horse to scare the family away once and for all.

Throughout the eight episodes, the family tries everything. Priests, druids, mediums, ghosthunters, ley line experts, dowsers. You name it they have been there. And the theories are diverse and never ending. At one stage they are told that the spirit is drawn to Laurence and that he should move out. I wouldn’t need to be asked. I’d have gone long ago. Then there is the murder that occurred on the land over a hundred years ago. That explains at least one of the apparitions.

The exorcisms are the most terrifying. The priest asks them to ‘cover this house in the blood of Jesus’. It’s like something out of a horror film, very dramatic.

“A number of ley line experts visited Heol Fanog over the years and detected streams of “dark energy” beneath the structure. Danny Robins visited the site with a dowser named Laurence who also felt that any ley lines in the area were malevolent.”

Or could black magic be to blame for the strange occurrences? When Bill wakes up with his hands painful and bleeding, could that be caused by the dark forces? My husband’s aunt suffers similarly, but hers is an extreme form of eczema caused by an allergy to certain plants. Could his be caused by the toxicity of some of the paints and cleaners he uses?

Finally Bill confesses to something that happened many years previously that may have opened a gateway to ‘evil’. He believes he is cursed. The darkness never leaves him.

So has Danny got to the bottom of the ‘hauntings’? As he says any ghost story is a detective story. For a believer it’s a whodunnit. For a sceptic it’s a whydunnit. Listen and make up your own minds. One of the most asked questions is why they didn’t leave, especially after the first child is born and then again when they have a second one. I know it would have ruined them financially and it was their dream home, but was it worth putting their lives and health at risk? I don’t think so.

It’s a fantastic podcast, so if you are into all things spooky and paranormal, you can tune in on BBC Sounds.

About Danny Robins

“Two years ago, I made a podcast about a real-life haunting at a very ordinary house in London: The Battersea Poltergeist. The series became something of a sensation – attracting interest round the world, but on a personal level, it had an even more profound effect, taking me to the brink of something I’d never thought possible. Believing that ghosts could exist.

“Ever since, I’ve wondered if there was another case out there that could tip me over the edge. One that contained unquestionable evidence of paranormal activity. And then I heard about ‘The Witch Farm’ – the true story of truly bizarre and frightening events that took place three decades ago in the Brecon Beacons mountains of Wales, where I’m driving now.

“In 1989, a young couple named Liz and Bill Rich moved their family into a remote farmhouse at the foot of a mountain. It felt like their dream home, a rural idyll to raise their family in. What followed though, was utterly horrifying. They experienced poltergeist activity, apparitions, alleged possessions and even physical injury. Their home would have more exorcisms than any other house in British history. The whole ordeal lasted seven years. It changed them forever and affected the entire community around them.

“Now I’m following the same route that Bill and Liz Rich took, back in May 1989, in a car loaded with all their possessions, along this precarious road, headed to a house with the Welsh name ‘Heol Fanog’, meaning ‘Road to the Peaks’. The area is steeped in ancient history brimming with stories about faeries, hags, witches and the devil himself. Local rumours circulate about sorcery, murder, ancient Celtic rituals, ley lines and malevolent spirits, all situated in this remote, bleak mountainous landscape pitted with eerie woodland and desolate terrain. I’m conscious I need to sort myth from fact here if I’m to get to the bottom of what genuinely happened.”