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Ghosts in the A.A

South Wales Echo
14/10/65

At least five ghosts were said to haunt the headquarters of the Automobile Association in Cathedral Road, Cardiff. Employees wouldn`t speak of it and the acting manager denied emphatically that there weren`t any ghosts. Unfortunately for the manager and employees I had related to me the weird happenings by someone who knew what was going on.

The stories persisted too long for them to be dismissed as rumours and were too bizarre to be hoaxes.

Ghost No:1    Was named Alice by the employees and was sighted several times. She was described as "a young woman with hair parted in the middle and drawn into a tight bun at the back". On her head she wore a pair of old-fashioned earphones and seemed to wear an old dress.   There was nothing wispy about her, she looked very lifelike and substantial. She stood in front of the desk of an employee, smiled and gradually faded away.
   On another occasion Alice smiled at this same employee from a darkened landing. But this second time, her smile was described as being "perfectly horrible, showing all her teeth, rather frightening".
A peculiarity about Alice was that her appearances were always preceded by a foul, evil smell that permeated the entire atmosphere.

Ghost No: 2    Was a white nun who was glimpsed frequently on the top floor. Apparently, at one time the A.A building was a nun`s house.

Ghost No: 3     Was a poltergeist. Furniture and ornaments were moved and doors slammed. At one time, the employees heard a terrible racket coming from above them, racing upstairs, they found all the chairs thrown about.
The wife of an area road manager who occupied the flat next door(part of the AA building), became so frightened by the strange occurrences that she and her husband actually moved away from Cardiff.

Ghost No: 4     In the above mentioned flat there was a mysterious white cat that could walk through closed doors. One night, the wife was left alone whilst her husband was away on duty, feeling chilly, she reached out to switch on the heater, on doing this another hand appeared beside hers, that of ghost number five. Almost in hysterics she ran from the flat into the main office where the radio patrol officers were on night duty. The men managed to calm her down but she was so terrified that she refused to enter the flat alone.

After speaking to the acting manager, he replied, "I can assure you, theres nothing in it. No substance at all, these rumours keep coming up and then they die away again. The fact is, this is an old house with a few creaks in it. There are trees in the fields at the back so, being here on a cold winter`s night can give rise to such rumours. But there are no facts I can give you. Nothing at all".

The area secretary of the A.A, felt the same way. "Its a lot of nonsense", he said. He said that the men who had reported ghosts were all on night duty. "In the early hours of the morning, people`s imagination plays tricks with them".
One of the people who had seen a ghost was a writer of childrens stories, the secretary claimed that, "After thinking up so many fanciful stories all day, I think the writer thought up another one at night. Anyway, I have looked into the stories and there is no substance to them".