This is a story told to me by an ex-employee of the university who worked at Padarn Hall for many years. Now no longer with us, he claimed the events below happened well over 50 years ago.

At the junction of Bridge Street and Great Darkgate Street the passer-by cannot fail to notice a porch with two fine pillars. Until recently the porch covered the entrance to a Spar convenience store.

As might be expected for a building at the junction of two of the town’s main streets it has a chequered history.

Until the mid 1980s this was the entrance to Padarn Hall of Residence, owned by the university and the abode of male students only.

Prior to being bought by the university it had been the Lion Royal Hotel, once known as the Gogerddan Arms. In fact it was one of the town’s main hotels and can be traced back at least 300 years. It became an integral part of the social life for the better off of the town for most of that time. It was also a meeting place for the Smokey Face Club, an infamous 19th century Aberystwyth dining club.

Could the mists of time occasionally swirl through a building so old?

On the ground floor facing Bridge Street was once a door with an inscription on the glass panel “Duw a Fendithia’r Bar Hwn” (God Bless this Bar ). This led to a spacious and popular public bar. The doorway no longer exists, erased by the wall on the right hand side of the photo.

On the night in question it was the start of the new academic year and new students had been allocated their rooms in Padarn Hall.

The old public bar, being spacious, was to be shared by four students. Yes, in those days students shared rooms. Having familiarised themselves with their new roommates the four went to sleep in their new surroundings, only to be woken up later in the night.

What woke them was never explained, but the room was on fire! Well sort of. In what had been the fireplace could be seen the flickering of translucent orange flames but without smoke or heat and conveying no sense of danger, just a pale light.

Accompanying the flames was the clinking of glasses and the sound of hushed voices in earnest conversation, though no words were discernible.

This was apparently witnessed by all four in the room. How long it lasted and the fall-out the next day were not intimated to me.

Were these the spirits of the past welcoming the new residents? Was it a welcome from the Smokey Facers? Had consumption of spirits in the present helped ‘summon’ the spirits of the past? Was it just a ruse to get better accommodation?

The truth, if any, may never be known, unless of course you know better.