Woodland & Land-Transfer Assessment 1902–2005 (parcel identity)
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Thesis tested
A place name is not a parcel identity. “Leckwith Woods”, “Cwm Cydfin”, “Tŷ Mawr”, “the farm” and “the woods” may cover different ground or different interests. Separate parcels may have passed by separate instruments. No two records below are treated as the same land until their plans are overlaid.
Result so far: not one plan in the chain is held. Every link between these records is therefore unproven. The thesis stands as a method, not a finding.
Records, one row each
| Record | Page | Held / pending | What it could establish | What it cannot establish alone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Nov 1902 — Bute coppice woods auction incl. “Cwm Cydfin Wood (Leckwith and Llandough)” | EV-0219 | HELD (catalogue only) | Whether Cwm Cydfin Wood was sold; soil or only timber/coppice rights; buyer; terms. | That the lot is Parcel A. No boundary plan seen. |
| 25 Dec 1938 — Conveyance on sale, Bute to Western Ground Rents (WGR) | EV-0019; root recited in EV-0216 | PENDING (deed); recital HELD | What WGR acquired, with plan. | Who owned land left out of it. Omission shows only that it was not conveyed by that deed. |
| 1940–42 — Leckwith Woods gift, WGR to Cardiff Corporation | EV-0220 | SECONDARY + PRESS (deed and plan PENDING) | The exact land given, with plan and covenant. | The link to Parcel A: see the working theories below this table. Press: “110 acres of wooded land at Leckwith”. Measured outline: 0 ha in Llandough, 1.25 km from the farmstead. Cardiff held 176 acres by 1955. |
| Oct 1944 — DBDT121/3, WGR–William Samuel Coles tenancy of farm land in Leckwith parish, with plan | EV-0222 | PENDING (catalogue verified) | Extent of the farm land WGR let in Leckwith in 1944. | Anything about Llandough or Tŷ Mawr. Catalogue names Leckwith parish only; no acreage or field names. |
| 1955 Order 14 possession order; 11 Dec 1962 county court possession order | EV-0032; EV-0041 | PENDING (neither held) | Which land the court ordered possession of, against whom, on what claim. | The extent of title on its own; the schedule or plan fixes the land. |
| 31 Dec 1969 — Conveyance with plan, WGR to BP Pension Trust | EV-0043 | PENDING | What BP took and the title recited. | Whether WGR held good title to every parcel in it. |
| 16 Jun 1970 — VG41 village-green registration | EV-0044 | PENDING | Green boundary; any owner registered; objections; date it became final; any s.8 referral and Commons Commissioner decision. | That registration alone vested the green in anyone, or how Llandough Community Council came to own it. |
| 10 Nov 1994 — Transfer to Forest of Cardiff, title WA735527 | EV-0136 | PENDING (deed and plan) | The woodland transferred. Reported chain: WGR → BP → Ideal Homes (3 Dec 1993) → Forest of Cardiff. | Any link to the 1942 gift; the reported chain runs through BP, not Cardiff. |
| 2005 — Forest of Cardiff to Goldsworthy Homes, excision from WA735527 | EV-0139; accounts EV-0217 | PENDING (transfer); accounts HELD | What land left WA735527, with plan. Accounts: land at Leckwith Road sold for £20k. | Earlier title to that land. |
Working theories (evidence pending): the 1940–42 woods gift and Parcel A. This is our case, prospective, and not a finding. Each theory is stated as a theory, with its support and the record that would test it. Each rests on the dated records named and on Sion Buckler’s reading of them; evidence being added.
- T1 (theory): the woods gift to Cardiff took in the woodland third of Parcel A. Support: the gift was “110 acres of wooded land at Leckwith” (Western Mail, 14 Sep 1940, p.5; press search snippet), about 109 acres in the council’s own history (Cardiff Parks; EV-0220); Parcel A’s woods are “practically Leckwith” and are now held by the Forest of Cardiff charity (Sion Buckler, 20 Oct 2026; charity 1002867; woodland title WA735527, transferred 10 Nov 1994: EV-0136, GHF-E149). Test: the April 1942 WGR → Cardiff conveyance and its plan, laid over the c.1841 tithe parcel 266 “Wood” and the WA735527 plan; Cardiff’s Parks Committee minutes of 15 Oct 1940 to 15 Apr 1942 (Glamorgan Archives BC/C/6/78–80). The plan will show whether the gift’s ground reaches the woods beside the farm, some of which straddle the Llandough–Leckwith line, or lies higher on Leckwith Hill.
- T2 (theory): Parcel A went to the Williams family in 1928, so it was not in the 1938 Bute → Western Ground Rents conveyance. That would explain why WGR never let Parcel A to Williams. Support: Mary (Nancy) Williams’s statement (c.1974) that rent was last paid in 1928 (statement; EV-0016); the May 1939 WGR–John Williams tenancy plan shows Parcel B only (EV-0023). Point made by Sion Buckler (20 Oct 2026). Test: the conveyance of 25 Dec 1938 with its parcels and plan (EV-0019; root recited in EV-0216), and any 1928 receipt or instrument (EV-0016).
- T3 (alternative theory): Parcel A did pass to WGR, and WGR gave part of its woods to Cardiff. On this reading the givers held Parcel A, or acted as if they did, while Mary (Nancy) Williams asserted that she owned it (Sion Buckler, 20 Oct 2026). Support: WGR let land at Llandough from 1939 to 1963 (Glamorgan Archives DBDT123/7–13; Woodland & Land-Transfer Assessment). Test: the same 1938 conveyance and 1942 plan.
- Possible connection: the 1949 attempt to make Mary’s Parcel-A occupation appear permissive (2 Feb 1949; SOURCE PENDING) and the 29 Mar 1961 deed between WGR, South Western Brick & Tile and “Cardiff City”, recited on the Forest of Cardiff woodland title WA735527, pink strand (GHF-E129; EV-0040), may relate to this gift (Sion Buckler, 20 Oct 2026). Test: the 1961 deed and its plan, from the HM Land Registry title files.
Also relevant: EV-0023 (May 1939, WGR–John Williams tenancy of land at Llandough; the held plan page shows Parcel B only) and EV-0218 (Cwm Cydfin SSSI, about 220 m from the farmhouse parcel; overlap with WA735527 not established).
VG41 and the Commons Registration Act 1965
Verified on legislation.gov.uk (Act as enacted). Registration did not by itself vest a green in a local authority. s.1(3): a green with no registered owner was to “be vested in accordance with the following provisions of this Act”. s.8(1): once the registration “has become final but no person is registered … as the owner”, then “unless the land is registered under the Land Registration Acts”, the authority “shall refer the question of the ownership of the land to a Commons Commissioner”. s.8(2)–(3): the Commissioner registers a proven owner; if not satisfied, he directs registration of the local authority. s.8(4): the land vests only “on the registration under this section”. s.8(5)(a): in an urban district, the vesting body is the urban district council. A registration became final under s.7 if no objection stood at the end of the objection period. Section 8 was repealed in Wales from 6 Sep 2007 (current text).
What the original VG41 file should hold (by the Act; not yet seen): the application and map; the land section; the ownership section, showing whether any owner was registered; any objections and the date the entry became final; and, only if no owner was registered and the land was unregistered at HM Land Registry, the s.8 referral and the Commons Commissioner’s decision. In 1970 Llandough lay in Penarth Urban District, so an s.8 vesting would have been in Penarth UDC, not Llandough Community Council (formed 1974). How the Community Council came to own the green (it states it “owns and maintains the village green”) is not established. If an owner was registered, no Commissioner referral would exist. The registers are open to public inspection (s.3(2)).
What cuts against the family’s case
- The 1876 rate book (provisional reading, EV-0212) shows the farm (about 76 acres) owned by Bute, and 32 acres of woods in Bute’s own hands.
- The 1940–42 gift is placed “at Leckwith” in every record found; the mapped wood has 0 ha in Llandough (EV-0220).
- The Glamorgan Archives catalogue (DBDT123/7–13) lists WGR letting land at Llandough from 1939 to 1963. WGR treated land at Llandough as its own; EV-0023’s held plan shows Parcel B.
- DBDT121/2–3 show WGR succeeding to a Bute (Mountjoy) farm tenancy in Leckwith, so the 1938 sale was not urban ground rents only.
- If an owner was entered in VG41’s ownership section, the s.8 route never ran.
- The Forest of Cardiff chain runs through BP, the title the court accepted in 1987.
The family’s case is that Parcel A was not conveyed to WGR in 1938, so later transfers of it could not pass good title. Not proven by any record above. It is testable only against the 1938 plan.
Free next steps
- Vale of Glamorgan (commons registration authority): ask for the VG41 register entry, map and ownership section, and any Commons Commissioner reference (EIR request already drafted).
- Ask Glamorgan Archives by email (free) whether the Cardiff Parks Committee minutes for 15 Oct 1940 – 15 Apr 1942 and the Penarth UDC deed registers (UDPE) are catalogued at item level.
- Cardiff Council (EIR): the 1942 Leckwith Woods conveyance and plan.
- In-house overlay, no cost: georeference the 1824 plan (EV-0211) and tithe parcels against today’s woods, SSSI and INSPIRE outlines.
- Deferred (costs or a visit): DBDT121/3 and DBDT123/7 page 1 at Glamorgan Archives; HM Land Registry title plan for WA735527.
Sources checked 18 Oct 2026: Glamorgan Archives catalogue (DBDT121/3; GB 0214 DBDT PDF); Commons Registration Act 1965 as enacted. Research support, not legal advice.