EVERY village and town has its share of ghost stories.

Llandysilio is no different and perhaps its oldest and darkest is that of Jack Cap Coch which was recorded in the 19th century.

The tale begins with a family feud between the Penrhyn family of Rhysnant Common and the Kynaston family who lived in a small tower in a field on Rhysnant Farm known as Cae Kynas.

The feud escalated and the last male heir of the Penrhyn family was said to have been killed at the instigation of the Kynaston family while on his way home from attending school in Deytheur.

The dead body was discovered in a hay stack where crows had begun to feed.

Ever since the meadow has been known as Gwerglodd y brain of ‘meadow of the crows.’

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County Times: Llandysilio Churchyard.Llandysilio Churchyard. Picture: Geograph.

The ghost of the murdered child haunted the old family mansion at Rhysnant and witnessed all around the village and even standing on the weathercock of a barn, spinning flax and throwing refuse at villagers.

The ghost was always witnessed wearing a red cap and became known as Jack y Cap Coch.

However such had been the dismay the ghost wrought locally that villagers were said to have secured the services of a ‘procession of 40 parsons’ to capture and imprison it in a bottle.

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The bottle was hastily deposited in a well which became known as Jack Cap Coch’s Well’ which contained water of the purest qualities and would be decorated with an arched roof and sculpted stone.

Jack Cap Coch was still said to be seen on his well at the start of the 20th century.

Another similar local legend claims an evil spirit was captured in the village church and shrunk to the size of a fly by a ‘ghost layer’ who had succeeded only after the spirit had cracked the building’s beams and then trapped in a bottle and thrown into the nearby river Vyrnwy.