The Mystery House.

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Going back to the mid 1980's we kept goats and also, my Dad, like many people living in the UK at that time,
had a motorcycle licencegained from their youth. Few in those days could afford a car, let alone go to pass a driving test, so for my Dad, and many others, the answer came in the form of Reliant, Bond, Measureschmitte and Morgan, with Reliant coming out on top for its practicality as an everyday three wheeled car. These vehicles had to be under 400kg and had to have three wheels. Any heavier and they were classed as a car and needed a car licence. But less then 400kg and having 3 wheels it was classed as a tricycle and could be driven with a motorcycle licence.
My Dad had first bought a Reliant Regal saloon when I was 4 years old. I remember this vehicle touching 80mph when my Dad decided to see what it could do. My Dad could handle these cars. When he was on his own he did a handbrake skid while messing about and turned it through a whole 180 degrees. Not one wheel lifted.
Sadly, this car was written off during snow in about the late 1970's. The car was excellent in snow able to find grip where other cars did not, and that was the problem. A man in an Austin Maxi was completely out of control coming towards him and that was that. The man completely lied to the police so my Dad was without a car for a couple of years. My Dad was lucky he had removed his legs from the footwell of his car (One could do that in the days before seatbelts were mandatory) so at least my Dad had his legs.
The next vehicle was a Reliant Regal van which was similar but was geared lower so it could be used for commercial use. As Reliants held their price due to their high demand, they were not only hard to get, but were expensive. Typically three or four times the price of a secondhand small 4 wheeled car. This van was purchased for £400 (A lot in those days) as an MOT failure as the chassis needed welding.
A local garage mechanic who owned a garage buisiness said to my Dad that if my Dad painted his roof with waterproofing paint, he would weld his car.
It took a few months to paint the roof. My Dad went up after work every day for a few hours, and spent most of his weekends off up there. Finally the roof was done. My Dad took the van to get it's MOT from a neighbouring village. The MOT man saw the work and said "Which clown has done this?" or words to that effect and failed it straight away.
All that work for nothing.
I think my parents had to get a loan or they had to wait until they could afford to have the van welded.
We had that van going for a number of years until in 1986/7 it failed the MOT needing a new chassis.
But my story begins with a trip out in this little van.
It was identical in every way to the van on Only Fools and Horses, except theirs had a smaller engine (Ours was 750cc and theirs was around 600cc) along with a few minor tweeks Reliant had changed over the years.
It was even the same yellow colour.
We had done many trips in this van. Usually to visit my grandparents in Mid Wales where we often would get stuck behind slower cars going up the steep hills. The Reliants were actually quite nippy due to their light weight. The only small drawback to the design of the Regals were that they did not quite get enough airflow through to cool the radiators which sat in front of the low slung engine just behind the front wheel. So while they were quite stable in the right hands (Car drivers would tip them as they drove them like a 4 wheeled car. They needed a different technique) it was long journeys on hot summers days that needed careful consideration. (The later model called the Robin had this issue fixed with increased airflow, but had other issues the Regals didn't have despite similar mechanics). So my Dad would pull off every 40 or 50 miles and let the car cool down. We had a picnic and then carried on.

Now one day we decided to go for a trip heading into West Wales (In the South). We had had a lovely trip and the van was going well. On one clear section of road with a very gentle slope going down to a modern piped bridge and slightly raising up on the other side my Dad let the van go. It touched 70mph which was its max speed due to its low gearing... And then a noise was heard and the engine suddenly became all noisy.
It had just run so quiet a few seconds before as it touched its max speed. (Have you noticed how some cars get louder and louder and then go quiet as they hit top speed?)
My Dad pulled in. Started to look at the engine. Undid the internal side and back panel which were either side of the footwell and infront of the gearstick, and found the problem. The engines main coreplug had decided to let go. It was what we had heard make that noise.
Both my parents looked up and down the road. Could not be found. What could we do? We were some 45 to 50 miles away from home. We had goats to milk when we got back, so we could not spend the night anywhere.
My Dad only had a few carpentry tools in the car as he was a carpenter.
Even my brother was worried.
The only thing we could think was to call in at a house just down the road as we were going to need a lot of water to get back. My Dad hatched a plan and cut out a circle to form a new core plug from his tobacco tin. My Mum went to call on the house. It was on the right after the bridge but before a little country road came out. It was an old house and it was lived in by an elderly couple. They were soo kind. They said "Don't worry. If you can't fix your car we will get you home". Though it was as if this house and its land were on an island with the river, main road ad the side road limiting the size of their land, which had trees around it and a marshy sort of atmosphere (Willow trees etc) I don't recall seeing an entrance for a car. It was like our old house was that just had a path. (We had a blacksmiths shop which was converted to be a large garage at the bottom of our land so it looked seperate to our pathway in).

My Dad used putty and mastic around the new core plug. He left the panel off so he could watch that it was ok. We took quite a lot of water in containers to get us home as this core plug had something to do with the engines radiator water supply.

The elderly couple would not accept anything. They said to phone them if we were stuck, and we headed off home

My Mum remembered the house name as it had a distinctive name, and so she was going to write to them to thank them in the future. We stopped every 10 miles or so and my Dad refilled the radiator, as the temporary core plug was splattering out hot water onto our legs. (It was reaching me and my brother who had shorts on and oww! But we were ok).
So after quite a journey involving several stops we got home.
My Mum went down to the phone box in the village to phone them and was not successful. Was like the number didn't exist.
She decided to write to them. Her letters were returned by the local postmen who had never heard of the house name and said there were no houses there.
We thought they were mistaken, so several times my parents went back to find the house and the elderly couple. Nothing. We called in other houses who were a few miles down the road. No one had even heard of such a house in that location. It was all wierd.
A few months ago as I was driving around parts of West Wales, I happened to be driving down that very road and my Mum said "There. That's where the house was". I slowed down and looked at the land. The trees were where I had expected. But no house and no remains of a house. No foundations. Nothing. Wierd!

Often we have had miracles. We have seen angels. We have had Gods protection. Yet to this day I have never seen a house that wasn't there!

Sorry. I wasn't feeling well so my mind kept following tangents. Probably best skip the first half of it.

Interesting. We have had other similar events. I will write about one soon.

Once God sent us up to Scotland. Mum, Dad, youngest Brother and Myself.

It is a long way from here in South Wales. On the way up it was rainy and dark. We needed a place to pull in and pitch up the tent and the caravan. We had pulled in at a service station and had to park with the lorries due to the caravan. We had nipped to the service station so had come back to the car, and were puzzled where to stay. With that, a guy who I assumed to be a lorry driver turned up and started walking towards us as if he was going to go past us? He had reflective HV type clothes which were bright yellow. Ideal for the dull dark weather. My Mum asked him for a place we could camp. He told us to go back on the motorway and about four miles to turn off and we would get to a village where there was a campsite. We went to thank the mn and he had completely vanished. I checked the large towingmirrors. Nope. Nothing. I think I, or my Dad went out to look as we thought he may have fallen down an open drain or something. Nothing. He had just vanished! How come? He was in such bright visible clothes. How can he have vanished? No way could he have reached the lorry car park in that short time (We had pulled out of the car park and had stopped just before the motorway exit where we saw the man.. We had been debating where to go before we rejoined the motorway). But where was the man. There were no buildings. No nearby hedges. Was totally puzzling!
We abandoned looking for where he had gone and continued our journey, and in 4 miles time we reached the village. Greta Green.
It was funny. I saw all the tents and caravans on the road side of the camp site. I wanted a quiet sleep. I don't want to sleep right next to the main road! So i chose the opposite side and camped by this bank with a slope. There was the campsite fence and the slopw with youngish trees on it was behind. Set up the caravan and the tent in the dark... (Had a torch). Little did we realize that the main road was quiet compared to... Well.... On top of this bank was the main motorway between England and Scotland. Uhmm.
And that was a start of a crazy three days being led by God around Scotland, ad the miricles we saw there!
We did get sleep that night.