In 1773, Mrs Hilary Jones, a midwife of Machen, was found dead. She had drowned in a ditch, having stumbled into it in a drunken state. Soon afterwards, her ghost began appearing to a young man in order to convey the location of some hidden “treasure” - which turned out to be an iron key and a purse containing fourteen pence!
A “parade of increasingly alarming apparitions”, which comprised of a young boy that transformed into a ball of fire, a man lying dead and then a pillar of fire according to Edmund Jones, haunted the area.