GHF-E090-N02 — “Wireless Telegraphy. Marconi Invention Tested at Lavernock” (May 1897)

page · Updated 2026-10-12T00:51:51 · Original source

Newspaper cutting headed Wireless Telegraphy, Marconi Invention Tested at Lavernock, May 1897

Wiki catalogue reference: GHF-E090-N02 · Custodian / source URL: Buckler family evidence repository

Evidence preview

Catalogue UID: GHF-E090-N02 · Custodian/source copy: open source object. Preview and provenance status as at 10-10-2026.

Description

4. Provenance and where to check it

DOCUMENTED (press report) — context only. Catalogue no. GHF-E090-N02. This cutting does not mention Great House Farm. It is catalogued because the family says a Williams relative was involved in the Marconi experiments. Sections 1 to 4 record what the cutting is and says. Section 5 is the Wiki’s reading and is open to challenge. Jump to: Evidence · Transcript · Description · Provenance · Interpretation. ^🕒

What it is: a news paragraph on wireless telegraphy trials. No photograph.
Publication and date: neither is printed on the clipping. The Wiki catalogues it as May 1897.
People named: M. Marconi; Mr Preece (engineer-in-chief, General Post Office); Mr Gavey (formerly of Cardiff, then second engineer in London); Mr Fardo (Cardiff postmaster); Mr Williams, “of the engineering department, Cardiff”.
What is reported: trials between Lavernock Point and the Flat Holm; a 120-foot pole with a zinc cylinder at its top, fixed by Mr Williams; weak results on Tuesday and good results on Wednesday and Thursday; a semi-public demonstration on Friday afternoon.
Not in the text: any mention of Great House Farm, Llandough, or the Williams family of the farm. Mr Williams’s first name is not given.

Image file: 2026-02-07_consortium-formal_notice_bpvsbuckler__en_v0-0-1_003.jpg in the datro repository wayback images folder. Transcribed on the Press Archive page (N02).
Original newspaper: an unidentified Cardiff newspaper. Welsh Newspapers Online (National Library of Wales) is a free searchable archive of Welsh newspapers and is the first place to search for the dated page. No page link is given because it has not been located. ^🕒

Transcription

Open transcription

2. Verbatim transcript

The postal authorities of the country have evidently faith in the possibilities of the Marconi system of telegraphing without wires, and the Italian inventor (M. Marconi) has reason to feel proud of the success of the demonstrations, so far as they have yet been carried out. M. Marconi, as was reported the other day, successfully carried out on Salisbury Plain a series of experiments with a couple of balloons attached by wires to the ground. For several days past he has been engaged in conducting experiments at Lavernock Point, near Cardiff, in testing the effective working of his system of telegraphing without wires between the mainland and the Flat Holm, and the trials have been witnessed by Mr. Preece, engineer-in-chief of the General Post Office; Mr. Gavey (late of Cardiff), now second engineer in London; Mr. Fardo, Cardiff postmaster, and other officials of the department. For the purposes of the experiments, Mr. Williams (of the engineering department, Cardiff) fixed upon Lavernock Point a pole 120 feet high, with a zinc cylinder at the summit, 5ft. 6in. by 4ft., insulated from the Flat Holm and Brean Down. The experiments on Tuesday were not so successful as might have been desired, but on Wednesday and Thursday the results were most satisfactory. On Friday afternoon there was a semi-public demonstration, when the system was explained in miniature, a transmitter facing a receiver at a distance of some twenty yards.

Interpretation and wider context

FAMILY EVIDENCE / UNRESOLVED. The family’s account, set out on the Williams / Buckler family page, is that the Williams family had a connection with the Marconi experiments of 1897. This cutting is independent contemporary evidence that the experiments took place at Lavernock Point and that a Mr Williams of the Post Office engineering department in Cardiff worked on them. It does not link that Mr Williams to Great House Farm. The two facts stay separate until a record joins them. ^🕒

The Media Gallery also lists a c. 1897 photograph described as Marconi apparatus at Great House Farm. That photograph is a separate item with its own provenance (Media Gallery) and is not corroborated by this cutting. ^🕒

Identify the newspaper, date and page.
Establish Mr Williams’s full name and whether he was a member of the farm’s family.

Interpretive assessment date: 10-10-2026.