Archaeology and Heritage

Cadw’s 2026 disclosure record says the farmhouse was visited and assessed for listing in 1988. The surviving Cadw search found two photographs dated 29 July 1988. Cadw’s 2 July 2026 internal review widened the search across relevant 1980s–90s listing/spot-listing files but found no further information relating to a possible listing of Great House Farm. The surviving record supports documented listing consideration; it does not establish that the farmhouse was formally listed. ^🕒

Witness statement (19 Oct 2026): Branwen, who lived at the farm until 1988, states that Cadw officers came into the house in 1988, carried out a survey/report and remarked on the roof beams being high (EV-0255). Cadw’s Casework Team Leader wrote on 21 May 2026 that the farmhouse and barn “were assessed and rejected for listing in the 1988 community survey of Llandough” and that he could “find no record (as-yet)” of the December 1988 visit reported by the South Wales Echo of 3 December 1988. The date of the inspection Branwen describes is SOURCE PENDING; our case (prospective) is that it took place in the days before Cadw’s decision of 5 December 1988 not to spot-list.

Primary records: Welsh Government/Cadw ATISN 27021 disclosure and 2 July 2026 internal review. The GitHub archive is retained as a research copy rather than treated as the authority where later official disclosure supersedes it.

The Heneb/GGAT HER record GGAT02038s contains a note written by R. F. Suggett in December 1988: it records a report that “armour” was found under the floor of the rear wing at Great House c.1880, and suggests that this might be the medieval ironwork then held at the National Museum. The HER therefore proves that the story was recorded by 1988; it does not prove that the reported c.1880 discovery occurred. ^🕒

The story is older than 1988. RCAHMW holds a note that the house “was reputed to be the stable of a Castle, which could be verified by the finding of the remains of a soldier in armour, his horse, lance and small shield under the dining room floor” (NMR 6048942), and a Daily Telegraph article of 16 April 1974 dating the find “about 1870” (NMR 6048944). RCAHMW confirmed on 29 September 2026 (RC26-0375) that Suggett’s 1988 account itself does not mention the find. ^🕒

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales has subsequently clarified the collection evidence. Its reply states: “It is stated that these objects were found at Church Farm, Llandough, in 1858.” The Museum said that nothing of a similar nature from Great House Farm is in its collection and that no matching find appears in the archaeological literature. It considered that the 1858 Church Farm objects could well be the basis for the local story/tradition that prompted the enquiry.

DOCUMENT — the Church Farm records, released 5 October 2026. Under FOI 2026-036 (GHF-E106-R33) the Museum supplied the documents behind that statement, each now on its own evidence page: the letter headed Cogan Pill, 22 November 1931, annotated “File 63.24” (GHF-E106-R33-A1), and the collections records for a medieval iron rowel spur, 63.24/1 (GHF-E106-R33-A2), and a medieval iron spearhead, 63.24/2 (GHF-E106-R33-A3), donated in 1963. The letter says the spearhead and spur were found at Llandough Church Farm when digging foundations for new buildings about 1858, with about six skeletons that were reburied near the stile on the south side of the church. It does not mention Great House. The Museum’s grid reference for the find (ST168733) is a 100-metre square beside the church: it contains the Museum’s own 1994 Great House Farm site reference (ST 1681 7331) but not the HER point for the farmhouse (ST 1670 7335), so it neither places the find at the farmhouse nor rules out the farm’s land. Where Church Farm and its 1858 buildings stood is still to be established. ^🕒

Wiki status: the 1858 Church Farm attribution is the Museum’s stated provenance for the relevant objects, resting on the 1931 letter (A1). The c.1880 Great House “armour” account is retained only as a documented later report/tradition. The Wiki does not state that a soldier, horse, visor, lance or armour was found beneath Great House Farm unless an independent primary source is located.

DOCUMENT. The current Heneb/GGAT Historic Environment Record GGAT02038s is headed and classified as “POST MEDIEVAL – Farm” for Great House Farm, Llandough. The same record describes an historic site beside the parish church and records reported medieval pottery/ironwork and a suggestion in its 1988 note that the farmhouse may have had a medieval core. Open the current HER record → ^🕒

OPEN COMPLAINT / FAMILY CASE. The family has made a formal complaint to Heneb on 27 September 2026 concerning the HER identifiers and the way the archaeological character of the site is classified, including the treatment of the early-medieval cemetery evidence in the wider Llandough record. Heneb acknowledged it on 29 September 2026 and appointed an investigating officer. The complaint is unresolved. This page does not state that the classification is unlawful or erroneous, and it does not treat the classification as proof that archaeological material was destroyed in the 1983 GGAT warehouse fire. ^🕒

SEPARATE LINE OF ENQUIRY. The reported 1983 GGAT warehouse fire is a distinct records-loss enquiry. It must not be merged with the question of how GGAT02038s currently classifies Great House Farm.

LEGAL CONTEXT. The family has also referred the heritage issue to the portfolio minister under the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023, sections 194–196. No outcome is asserted here.

DOCUMENT. The Historic Environment Record uses separate site and event records. Different reference numbers are different record types, not contradictory versions.

DOCUMENT — national record. Coflein NPRN 20182 gives Site Type “Dwelling”, Period “Post Medieval”, and describes the cemetery as “excavated, on land adjacent to Great House Farm” (Coflein, checked 30 September 2026).

OPEN QUESTION. Does the HER’s structure make clear that the post-medieval farm and the early-medieval cemetery overlap on the same ground, and does it carry both burial figures with their dates? This is raised with Heneb as a record question, not as an allegation of deliberate misclassification.

STATUS — FAMILY REVIEW, UNDER INVESTIGATION. In September 2026 the family reviewed GGAT’s role as curator, advisor, contractor and record-holder, and prepared that review for Heneb’s investigating officer alongside its formal complaint. What follows summarises what the documents show. It is not a finding by Heneb or any other body. ^🕒

Concessions. GGAT did not demolish the farmhouse, did not advise that it be demolished, and had no part in the decision not to list it. Its documented conduct from December 1993 to December 1994 was in defence of the archaeological resource. In 1990 GGAT recommended watching briefs, recording of surviving parts of the farm, protection or excavation of the sensitive area east of the churchyard wall, and legal advice on the human remains.

Kept separate. GGAT’s 1978–79 excavation was of the Llandough Roman Villa site south of the church, not Great House Farm. It has not been shown that the 1994 burials lay on the family’s Parcel A; the archaeology and the title questions are tested separately.

Primary records: GGAT consultee report (1989); GGAT, Land at Great House Farm, Llandough: An Archaeological Assessment (1990); Vale of Glamorgan planning files 89/01396/OUT and 92/00671/RES; Cotswold Archaeological Trust Report 94213 (1994); Holbrook and Thomas, Medieval Archaeology 49 (2005). Issue register: A-042 to A-051, PL-004 to PL-010.

DOCUMENT. The August 1990 GGAT assessment is catalogued as GHF-E029-01 — dedicated evidence page. That page is the citation point for this item. The supplied 16-page scanned PDF is currently recorded as not yet attached; the page contains an explicit evidence placeholder. The report is also identified in the official Wales HER route (NMR 6524751), which is provided there as an independent checking/access route. ^🕒

The 1994 archaeological work is relevant to the historic setting around Great House Farm. Amgueddfa Cymru’s Collections Online records early medieval human remains and other material under the site name Great House Farm, Llandough, NGR ST 1681 7331, from 1994 (accession 95.56H, donated 28 July 1994 by Ideal Homes Wales). The 1979 Llandough Roman Villa excavation is a separate accession (82.44H).

BURIAL FIGURES. 858 inhumations and 152 disarticulated groups is the 1994 preliminary count (Cotswold Archaeological Trust Report 94213, §4.2). 1,026 burials (814 articulated inhumations and 212 disarticulated groups; 801 skeletons analysed) is the 2005 published total (Medieval Archaeology 49). Both are correct for their date; they are the same excavation counted at two stages.

DOCUMENT — ADS helpdesk response. On 2 October 2026 the Archaeology Data Service reported that its Data Catalogue review identified five resources relating to the archaeological works and publications connected with Great House Farm / Llandough.

• Ty Mawr;Great House Farm — deposited by RCAHMW as part of the Coflein database of sites and monuments in Wales.
• Great House Farm — deposited by Glamorgan-Gwent HER (as was).
• GREAT HOUSE FARM, LLANDOUGH — deposited by Glamorgan-Gwent HER (as was).
• An Early-medieval Monastic Cemetery at Llandough, Glamorgan: Excavations in 1994 — eprint of the Medieval Archaeology publication, deposited by the Society for Medieval Archaeology.
• The Early Medieval Monastic Cemetery at Llandough, Glamorgan — datasets from the 1994 excavations, covering the medieval remains encountered, deposited by Cotswold Archaeology.

Scope note: these links provide direct public routes into ADS’s preserved catalogue resources. The ADS response does not say that it holds additional unpublished or underlying material beyond the resources it identified. ADS also states that data held by it are preserved in perpetuity and made accessible under open licences.

The HER record GGAT02038s records an October 1982 GGAT assessment/consultation concerning Tŷ Mawr Farm (H2.1) and archaeological investigation before development. The surviving official HER record is preferable to stronger retrospective GitHub wording about what officials “knew” or intended. ^🕒