The Restoration Campaign
The restoration campaign is the Williams /… … read more
The restoration campaign is the Williams / Buckler family‘s effort to establish what happened to Great House Farm, correct the public record, and obtain redress.
Aims
- Regain possession of the woodland half of the land (title WA735527).
- Have ownership of the house parcel (Parcel A) recognised in the family’s favour.
- Seek reparations, not possession, for the homes built on the land.
- Give every party involved the chance to offer a remedy before any court action, consistent with principles of peace before conflict, truthfulness, good faith, fairness and justice tempered with mercy.
RESTORATION PROJECT. The campaign includes a… … read more
RESTORATION PROJECT. The campaign includes a proposed Welsh heritage replica / interpretive museum project in Puerto Madryn, Patagonia, connected with the Welsh settlement history there. This is a live restoration and interpretation project. It is not presented as restitution already achieved, and no transfer of property or heritage has been completed on this page.
Evidence, in date order
1988 – 2025: Early work
Location: Family archive / privately held material
Evidence description: a campaign website (bpvsbuckler.bucklerfamily.estate, formerly bpvsbuckler.datro.xyz) and a documentary video project on BP v Buckler; collection of photographs of the farm; genealogical research.
Location: Repository not yet established from the present record
Evidence description: a tree planting at Great House Farm. The date of the photograph is not known.
2026: Land Registry
Open the document →
Location: HM Land Registry historic/title file
Evidence description: the registration history of titles WA231076 and WA240304 and the conveyances relied on. It states there is “no evidence of a mistake in the register”. 🕒
Open the document →
Location: HM Land Registry historic/title file
Evidence description: the family’s complaint was not upheld at stage two: the land was “registered correctly”, with no rectification or indemnity.
Open the document →
Location: HM Land Registry historic/title file
Evidence description: all 43 documents held on the first-registration files for WA231076 and WA240304. The 31 December 1969 conveyance recited as the root of title is not among them.
2026: Member of Parliament
Location: Family archive / privately held material
Evidence description: a nine-page letter to Stephen Doughty MP (Cardiff South and Penarth) on 18 September 2026, and a follow-up narrowing the request to the missing documents. 🕒
2026: Cadw, GGAT and the Vale of Glamorgan
Location: Cadw / Welsh Government records
Evidence description: a complaint to Cadw about its 1988 listing consideration, setting out ten matters. The 1988 press records Cadw considering spot-listing on 3 December 1988 and then declining, saying the house was “not of sufficient architectural merit” (N08, N10).
Location: Vale of Glamorgan Council records
Evidence description: requests and a complaint about the planning file and Community Council records.
Open the document →
Location: Heneb / GGAT records
Evidence description: the records the family has asked Heneb to provide for the site.
Legal routes being examined
- Land Registration Act 2002, Schedule 4: alteration of the register for mistake.
- Land Registration Act 2002, Schedule 8: indemnity from the Land Registry.
- Limitation Act 1980, section 32: postponement of limitation for concealment.
- Challenges to the 1962 order, a Senedd route and an ombudsman referral.
All face the binding 1987 judgment and depend heavily on recovering the 1877 papers.
Earlier preservation campaign — the open day of 15 April 1974
DOCUMENTED FACT (press). On 15 April 1974 Mary Williams, then 60, opened Great House Farm to the public “to show what the nation is losing”. Godfrey Francis reported in the Daily Telegraph next day that hundreds attended. He described the ten-roomed house, its oak beams and old furniture, and Mary’s refusal to move because the house was “part of the nation’s heritage”. He also reported a petition of about 1,000 signatures, planning permission for about 13 houses, and an ownership dispute of 25 years. Full transcript: GHF-E090-N03.
DOCUMENTED FACT (press). A letter headed… … read more
DOCUMENTED FACT (press). A letter headed “Grievous loss”, from William Rees, appeared in the Western Mail, dated in the copy “19/11/7?” with the last digit unclear. It argues that destroying the site would damage Glamorgan’s historic and religious heritage, and it outlines the manorial descent: Tewkesbury, then the Crown, then Herbert, then Bute. Full transcript: GHF-E090-N04.
Change control, 3 October 2026: this section… … read more
Change control, 3 October 2026: this section was headed “Additional preservation evidence — 19 November 1977” and treated the Telegraph report and the Rees letter as one Western Mail page of 19/11/77. On re-examination the cutting carries the handwritten note “D. Telegraph 16 April 74”. Mary’s age of 60 fits 1974, and RCAHMW (NMR 6048944) catalogues a Daily Telegraph article of 16 April 1974. The open-day report is therefore re-dated to 16 April 1974. The Rees letter is a separate Western Mail cutting whose year is unresolved (1974, 1977 or another year of the 1970s). 🕒
See also: Records Access Chronology (every… … read more
See also: Records Access Chronology (every request and response, 2025–26) · Evidence Library · Press Archive — Newspaper Transcripts · Sources and archives · Master timeline · Main Page
Planning records recovery priority — added 28 September 2026
The next records request should not be… … read more
The next records request should not be limited to “S106”. For the 13 March 1990 permission, request the complete legal/planning trail for any agreement or undertaking regulating development or use of the land, including any historical section 52 Town and Country Planning Act 1971 agreement, deed, covenant, undertaking, legal-agreement register entry or local-land-charge entry, together with any document showing variation or discharge.
The same request should expressly identify… … read more
The same request should expressly identify Appendix B (GGAT further comments of 8 February 1990), Appendix C (Barry Preservation Society and Civic Trust representation), Appendix D (County Councillor / GGAT-member representation), Appendix E (applicants’ agents’ response to GGAT), the complete East Vale Local Plan H.2 supporting text, and the complete 1972 planning file.
Research rule: no theory of collusion, bad… … read more
Research rule: no theory of collusion, bad faith or unlawful demolition is to be promoted from these gaps alone. The purpose of the request is to recover the missing primary documents and then test the competing explanations against them. 🕒
Expanded planning recovery: request the… … read more
Expanded planning recovery: request the complete historic planning-register entries and indexes for 89/01396/OUT and 92/00671/RES; any environmental-assessment screening or decision under the 1988 environmental-assessment regulations; the October 1989 application form and Council receipt record; and the documentary basis for Ideal Homes Wales appearing as the 1992 reserved-matters applicant before the recorded 3 December 1993 BP→Ideal Homes transfer.
Central legal and remedy roadmap
See the Family Reparations & Remedy Roadmap… … read more
See the Family Reparations & Remedy Roadmap for the current campaign stage and the separate tracks for ownership, litigation, records access, heritage, family harm, public law and potential remedies.
Woodland: the woodland/title question is now… … read more
Woodland: the woodland/title question is now tracked separately on the Woodland page, including the 1975 WA240304 conveyance, the 1994 WA735527 transfer and the 2005 extent-changing transaction. The page distinguishes the historic Parcel A woodland from the later title extent and records what remains to be proved.
Name/location reference: Great House Farm … … read more
Name/location reference: Great House Farm — Name & Location Variations (historical spellings and Llandough-juxta-Penarth location forms).