Media Gallery

Transcript status: The MP4 is an externally hosted compiled film. The archive currently contains an accompanying production/rundown text for this film, but the available WordPress/GitHub connector cannot decode the MP4 audio itself. The text below is therefore preserved as the production transcript / narration record, not represented as a word-for-word audio verification.

Great House Farm (Tŷ Mawr), Llandough — historical and legal record.

Great House Farm stands beside St Dochdwy’s Church at Llandough, within a landscape with a long archaeological history. The archive records the early-sixteenth-century farmhouse traditionally associated with Sir Mathew Cradock, while the wider lordship passed through medieval and later estate interests including Tewkesbury Abbey, the Herbert/Pembroke interests and, subsequently, the Bute estate.

From at least 1667, the Williams family’s long occupation is recorded in Mary Williams’s c.1974 statement (Mary Williams testimony) and later press accounts. The archive distinguishes this claim of acquisition and ownership from a surviving documentary freehold conveyance: the evidence currently establishes a longstanding family claim and occupation, while the underlying historic title requires further archival verification.

The nineteenth century brought changes to the estate and its description. Records concerning Llandough include Bute estate leases, rentals, surveys and land transactions. The archive also records Mary Williams’s c.1974 statement of the quarrying arrangements (Mary Williams testimony), a reported but unsourced (SOURCE PENDING) discovery of a Roman burial or soldier beneath the farmhouse, and the family’s association with the historic landscape. These matters are separately graded on the evidence presently available.

In the early twentieth century the dispute became increasingly documentary. A yearly agricultural tenancy to John Williams commenced in February 1916. Later records and court proceedings describe the tenancy, subsequent arrears, the 1938 conveyance of the reversion to Western Ground Rents Ltd, and the new yearly tenancy granted to Frederick Buckler from 2 February 1949.

The later proceedings concerned possession and occupation of Great House Farm. Mary Williams pleaded in 1974 that she owned the house (EV-0049), and her c.1974 statement says she never paid rent to or acknowledged anyone as landlord (Mary Williams testimony). Possession proceedings occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1974 correspondence concerning a licence became important in the later litigation.

The dispute ultimately reached the Court of Appeal in BP Properties Ltd v Buckler (1987). The court determined the legal issues before it, including the effect of the licence correspondence on the family’s possession claim. The archive distinguishes that judicial determination from the separate historical question of whether earlier Williams interests or documents existed and whether those matters were fully investigated.

During the 1980s the dispute continued through registration, possession and enforcement proceedings. In 1988 bailiffs attended the farm, possession was obtained, and the buildings were demolished. Contemporary newspaper reports, broadcast material, court records and family photographs are catalogued separately in the Wiki’s evidence library.

The demolition removed the farmhouse, but subsequent archaeological work demonstrated the exceptional historical significance of the surrounding landscape. Investigations identified Roman and later remains and an early medieval cemetery comprising 1,026 recorded burial-related remains. The archive therefore treats Great House Farm both as a family-history and property-dispute record and as part of a wider archaeological and heritage landscape.

Editorial status: This transcript record is retained with the video so that the film’s accompanying narrative remains discoverable and citable. Claims within the production text are not automatically treated as established facts; the Wiki’s evidence catalogue and source pages distinguish primary evidence, reported family history, court findings, interpretation and unresolved research questions. ^🕒

Video (placeholder): Great House Farm film, Part 1 — original file not yet uploaded.

Showing every fifth frame (27 of 133); consecutive frames are near-identical. The full sequence is in the archive folder on GitHub.

Video (placeholder): Great House Farm film, Part 2 — original file not yet uploaded.

Showing every fifth frame (25 of 123); consecutive frames are near-identical. The full sequence is in the archive folder on GitHub.

Video (placeholder): Great House Farm film, Part 3 — original file not yet uploaded.

Showing every fifth frame (8 of 37); consecutive frames are near-identical. The full sequence is in the archive folder on GitHub.

Duplicate and non-evidence images removed. Each retained evidence image has a dedicated catalogue page.

• GHF-E090-N13 — From farm to a bus
• GHF-E090-N11 — Tears flow as farm house is razed
• GHF-E090-N10 — Final eviction hearing
• GHF-E090-N15-02 — 30 April 1988
• GHF-E090-N02 — Marconi wireless telegraphy
• GHF-E090-N15-15 — 23 March 1989
• GHF-E090-N15-16 — 24 March 1989
• GHF-E090-N15-11 — 13 December 1988
• GHF-E090-N15-10 — 10 December 1988
• GHF-E090-N01 — 1891 farmyard theft
• GHF-E090-N12 — Charge against evicted farmer dropped
• GHF-E090-N07 — Chainsaw farmer + companion photo
• GHF-E090-N08 — History fight to save farm
• GHF-E090-N03 — Open day to save ancient Welsh house
• GHF-E090-N04 — Grievous loss
• GHF-E107 — Oath of Allegiance
• GHF-E108 — Mary Doreen (Nancy) Williams death index
• GHF-E109 — Royal Signals Association card
• GHF-E110-A1 — Village Book presentation
• GHF-E110-A2 — Village Book cover
• GHF-E110-A3 — Village Book library reference
• GHF-E110-A4 — Village Book back cover
• GHF-E110-A5 — Village Book Llandough
• GHF-E110-A6 — Village Book demolition
• GHF-E110-A7 — Village Book archaeology
• GHF-E111 — 26 February 2026 land-registry image