Former chapel's haunting makeover

Robert Harries visited a museum of possessed dolls and Amityville Horror house relics in an actual haunted chapel. Here's what he found...

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CARMARTHEN is a town full of history, ancient myths and legends. Home to a castle once captured by Owain Glyndwr, fabled figure Merlin and the famous Black Book, it's fair to say that Wales's oldest town is able to conjure up mystery and historical intrigue in equal measure.

Halfway along Priory Street near the town centre, set back slightly from the road, I came across Penuel Chapel. From the outside, it looks just like any other former chapel or church, of which there are many in towns up and down the country.

However, inside I immediately found more than just a disused chapel. This is a museum full of spooky tales and artefacts which provided something of a chill as soon as I entered the building.

This is Rowtons' Museum of the Paranormal and Spirituality, run by married couple Laura and Erik Rowton. The chapel was first built in 1786, rebuilt in 1851 and then renovated in 1909. According to Laura, it was renovated in order to be able to accommodate more people around 800 because something special and peculiar was taking place here.

"In the end of the 19th century, in 1897, a new reverend arrived from the States, WC Jones, and en route to Carmarthen, he had what is recorded as a baptism of power," said Laura.

"So the Holy Spirit is said to have come into him, in this very divine and inspirational thing that actually led to him supposedly receiving a miracle healing for some medical condition he had.