Heol Fanog - Hellfire Farm, Brecon Beacons - Haunted History

Heol Fanog - Hellfire Farm, Brecon Beacons, Wales

Brecon, Powys

Heol Fanog is a farmhouse in the Welsh countryside that for six years from 1989 was the epicentre of a disturbing haunting and underwent more exorcisms than any other in British history, which resulted in the house being dubbed "Hellfire Farm."

The full story of the haunting is told by best-selling author, Mark Chadbourn in his 2014 book, 'Testimony', which is still available to buy as an eBook from Amazon.

The remote farmhouse in the Brecon Beacons was built in the 1950s in an area which is said to have a history of witchcraft. It was home to Bill and Liz Rich.

Liz was pregnant with her first child when she moved into the idyllic hillside farm in 1989 with her husband Bill, and his teenage son from a previous relationship, Laurence. To start with the lonely farmhouse on the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park seemed like the perfect home for the couple. It was the ideal setting to raise a family and Bill, who was a successful artist, had room for a studio and all the inspiration he needed from the Welsh countryside.

Within weeks of moving into the farmhouse, the unsettling activity began. The first incident occurred shortly after their baby, Ben, was born. Liz got up to feed Ben in the night and Bill who was now awake went downstairs to use the bathroom. While downstairs he heard heavy-booted footsteps coming from above him, despite the fact Liz hadn't been moving around.

The next clue that something wasn't right at the farmhouse was the exorbitant electricity bill that arrived. They were being charged vastly higher for power than they ever had been in their previous home and no matter what they tried, they couldn't reduce their soaring electricity bills. After working with their energy provider to rule out rational causes, such as electrical faults, they concluded that their high energy usage was due to unexplained power surges. They believed the epicentre of this power drain was in the barn, where Liz had seen laser-like blue and white flashes.

Over the next year, Liz and Bill welcome their second child together, Rebecca, into their home as the paranormal activity continued to escalate. The occurrences included objects moving around the house, farm animals mysteriously dying, unexplained putrid smells, doors slamming in empty rooms, and sudden temperature drops. The family also reported hearing banging and thumping all over the house, as well as what they described as loud snoring.

Bill, who apparently had an interest in the unexplained prior to the case, seemed to be affected by the haunting the most. His art, which was decreasing in sales, started to become much darker and more sinister. He began spending more and more time alone in his studio obsessively painting. Later bill would scrawl strange symbols on walls around the house and entered into frequent trance-like states.

Perhaps most disturbing of all were the apparitions that Liz, Bill and the kids reported witnessing. These included dark shadowy figures, a hooded figure seen standing at the foot of their beds, a man with injuries who looked like he'd been involved in an accident, and an old woman with a hooked nose, who Liz later identified in a photo as the landlord's mother who had died in the property.

There was also said to be the ghost of a beautiful woman who constantly tried to seduce Bill. Could this have been a succubus, a female demon that is said to seduce men through sexual activity? There were other claims that demons were at work in the farmhouse, including those made by a local baptist minister, who was convinces that the family were being stalked by a demon.

With so much negative activity taking place in the house over a period of six years, you might be wondering why the family didn't simply move out. Well, at the time the UK was struggling through a recession and one of the worst property slumps in the country's history. This made it impossible for the Rich family to move out of the house. They had no other option than to stay and try to deal with it. They called in a local priest and a team of parapsychologists. It was thanks to an exorcism by Eddie Burks that the haunting came to an end. He concluded that they house has a "pre-Christian presence" lurking within it. He attempted to move this presence on, which seems to have worked and the activity died down.

Soon after the family finally left the farmhouse, but Liz and Bill's marriage didn't survive the ordeal and they were divorced soon after. Bill passed away some years later.

Please note, this building is a private residence, the current owner's privacy should be respected. The photo included on this page is for illustrative purposes only and is not a true depiction of the actual location or property.

Heol Fanog Farm Map

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