The Whole Story — Great House Farm (Tŷ Mawr), Llandough, in date order

“My family have lived and farmed at Great House Farm since 1667.”Mary (Nancy) Williams, witness statement, typed c.1974 · GHF-E196-01

“The freehold of the greater part of the farm consisting of the farmhouse and buildings and about 10 acres which I still occupy was sold by the Bute Estate to Daniel Thomas and another portion consisting of about 9 acres up on the top was retained by the Bute Estate … so that he remained in possession of the farm but with two landlords in respect of different portions of the farm.”same statement, page 1

“It was also provided that when the quarrying ceased the freehold should belong to my grandfather.”same statement, page 1, on the agreement with Daniel Thomas

Parcel A: the farmhouse, buildings, yard, garden, the woodland to the north and the ground to the south-east (the Daniel Thomas holding). Parcel B: about 9 acres of fields “up on the top”, kept by the Bute estate. The 1877 instrument is a missing record (GHF-E115 · EV-0006). The first mention of Tŷ Mawr found in any record is the 1824 David Stewart survey. In 1895 the lime works of D. Thomas & Son and “Williams John, farmer” are listed as separate holdings (EV-0280).

“in February 1916 the Marquis granted a yearly agricultural tenancy of the whole of the farm to a Mr John Williams”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987, Dillon LJ · EV-0080 · GHF-E141

The 1916 agreement and its plan are missing records (GHF-E118 · EV-0014). Our reading: with Parcel A held from Daniel Thomas since 1877, a Bute tenancy could only reach the Bute land, Parcel B. “The whole of the farm” is a description, not a plan, and every later step repeats it (see “the whole farm”, every use).

• 27 Feb 1922: Mountjoy Limited incorporated, company number 00179977; dissolved 31 Jan 2001 (Companies House dissolved-company index). Press, May 1922: it “takes over Lord Bute’s life interest in S. Wales and Scotland estates” (title chain).
• Oct 1923: Mountjoy acting as landlord: “From Mountjoy Limited, licence to assign (duplicate) … Oct 1923” (Glamorgan Archives DBDT53/2).
• 1926: “In 1926, the remaining Bute property was incorporated under a private family company called Mountjoy Ltd. In 1938 Mountjoy sold its leasehold interests to the Western Ground Rents Company” (Glamorgan Archives, Bute (DB) fonds, administrative history).
• 14 Dec 1927: Alfred Thomas, 1st Baron Pontypridd: “He died, unmarried, 14 December 1927” (Dictionary of Welsh Biography; EV-0284). Probate, Llandaff, 8 Mar 1928, effects £37,022 8s 4d (GOV.UK probate calendar, 1928). A press report of 27 Dec 1927 described “the bulk of his property” as left “unconditionally to the corporation” of Cardiff; the will is not held, so that report is not checked.

The title chain reaches Alfred Thomas. What is not held from there is listed under root title: the missing records.

“there was still machinery at the quarry until 1928 when the machinery was removed and the last payment of rent was made to Alfred Thomas the son of Daniel Thomas … the rent was then about £4 per annum. I saw the receipt for this last payment of rent. After this my father regarded the farm as his own”Mary (Nancy) Williams, statement, page 2 · EV-0016 · GHF-E120

“I have never had any doubt that I was entitled to do so nor have I ever paid rent to or acknowledged the title of anyone as landlord.”same statement, page 2

The 1928 receipt is a missing record (GHF-E120). Alfred Thomas had died on 14 December 1927, so a 1928 payment in his name went to his estate or account. Our reading: from 1928 the Williams household held Parcel A as its own and paid no one. Twelve years from 1928 is 1940: by then any paper title of the Thomas side, or of anyone claiming through it, was barred (Real Property Limitation Acts 1833 and 1874; Limitation Act 1939 s.16 from 1940).

“a Conveyance on sale dated 25th December 1938”1965 school-site contract, Special Condition F · EV-0216

“In 1938 the reversion on that tenancy was conveyed to a company called Western Ground Rents Ltd.”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987 (the court’s description; the deed was not before it)

Completion was reported on Friday 23 December 1938 (Western Mail, 24 Dec 1938, p.8). The deed, its parties and its plan are missing records (EV-0019); copies were asked of HM Land Registry, Cardiff Council and Glamorgan Archives between 29 and 31 October 2026. Our reading: Mountjoy could sell only what the Bute side still held in 1938: Parcel B. The deed’s plan would show it.

Glamorgan Archives DBDT/123/7: agreement dated 18 May 1939, commencing 1 March 1939, 5.30 acres coloured pink. The archivist’s description of the plan: it “does not make any mention of the farmhouse or other structures” (DBDT123 · EV-0023).

This is the first arrangement on any record that could be called permission, and it concerns Parcel B only. Even that is open to question: the signature attributed to John Williams has not been compared with his known signatures, and the copy seen is a photograph.

“There is a letter from the landlords’ agents to their solicitors of October 10 1952 stating that they did not propose to proceed with the letting to Mr Frederick Buckler.”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987 · EV-0080

No written agreement of 1949 is held (GHF-E122). Nothing in the record shows the 1949 re-grant including the farmhouse, or any offer to Mary. Our reading: 1949 is the first attempt to put a tenancy label over the whole holding, nine years after the 1940 date on Parcel A.

1950–52: the papers kept in the blanket box at the farmhouse, “including the agreement relating to the farm”, were taken (Mary Williams, statement, page 3; GHF-E123). The documents the courts later recorded as “never produced” went then.

“Western Ground Rents then brought proceedings for possession against Mr Frederick Buckler in the High Court and obtained a possession order, under Order 14, in respect of the whole of the farm.”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987 · EV-0080

“possession was taken in respect of all parts of the farm except the farmhouse and garden”same judgment · GHF-E126 · EV-0034

Order 14 is summary judgment: an order made on affidavit, without a trial. The affidavit, the order, its date, the officer who made it and any plan are missing records (GHF-E125). The woodland (A1) and the south-eastern ground (C) went with the fields; the house and garden stayed because Mary Williams refused to leave.

Our reading: an order for “the whole of the farm”, made against the tenant of the fields, with the owner-occupier of Parcel A not joined, is where Parcel A was first folded into Parcel B’s history.

“She was offered a tenancy of the farmhouse and garden by Western Ground Rents but refused to accept it.”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987 · EV-0080

“at one stage in March 1965 when Western Ground Rents’ agents offered Mrs Buckler a tenancy”same judgment

The court’s own finding on her state of mind was her “obvious animus possidendi”: an intention to hold the house as owner. The 1959 and 1965 offer letters are missing records.

“The land tinted pink on the filed plan is subject to the rights contained in a Deed dated 29 March 1961 made between (1) Western Ground Rents Limited (2) The South Western Brick & Tile Company Limited and (3) Cardiff City Corporation.”title WA735527, Charges entry 3 · GHF-E163 · GHF-E129 · EV-0040

The deed has not been read. WGR had been in possession of the woodland (A1) for 5 years 8 months. The woodland title WA735527 was first registered only in 1994, to Forest of Cardiff, “No price recorded”.

“nothing was done before 1974 to enforce the 1962 possession order”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987 · EV-0080 · GHF-E130 · EV-0041

The plaint file is a missing record. County court jurisdiction over land in December 1962 was limited to property of £100 net annual value (raised to £400 in 1963); the 1956 and 1963 valuation lists, not yet read, would show whether the farmhouse was within it. Frederick Buckler died in 1967; Mary stayed in the house.

• 31 Dec 1969: conveyance WGR → BP Pension Trust, known only from a later recital (GHF-E131 · EV-0043).
• 16 Jun 1970: VG41 registered under the Commons Registration Act 1965 (GHF-E133 · EV-0044). The applicant, the ownership section and any objections are unread; it is a commons registration, not a Land Registry title.
• 1971: an abstract of title prepared for BP Pension Trust (GHF-E132). Its starting document has never been shown.

“a defence was filed asserting that BP Pension Trust’s claim was barred by adverse possession under the Limitation Act 1939 … That action has never been finally heard.”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987 · EV-0049 · GHF-E135

“On October 30 1974 Mrs Buckler’s solicitors issued a notice of appeal to this court against the order of Judge Watkin Powell (on the ground that Mrs Buckler had had insufficient notice of the application and therefore had had no opportunity of presenting her case)”same judgment

“both were in fact sent not to her but to her solicitor, who seems to have received them on the morning of November 4, immediately before he made his application to Judge Watkin Powell in the Cardiff County Court … he stayed execution on the warrant for possession pending Mrs Buckler’s agreement to the proposals in the letters. Her solicitor then telephoned Mrs Buckler, told her of the letters and sought her instructions. Before she had given any instructions, however, the landlords’ solicitors themselves wrote to the county court, at some date prior to November 25 1974 and withdrew the warrant for possession. Mrs Buckler therefore never expressly accepted or rejected the terms of the two letters.”same judgment · EV-0050 · GHF-E136

“BP Properties Ltd neither sought nor waited for her acceptance.”same judgment

Not BP’s permission to give. On 31 October 1974 BP Properties Ltd did not hold even the paper title: BP Pension Trust conveyed to it only on 23 May 1975 (GHF-E138 · EV-0052). The court called this point “rather technical”: BP Properties had “agreed to buy” and so was “prima facie in a position to grant a licence”.

Our reading: Mary Williams was given no fair opportunity to answer. The letters reached her solicitor on the morning of the stay hearing, which BP’s solicitors did not attend; the judge stayed execution pending her agreement; and BP’s side withdrew the warrant before she had given any instructions. The sequence the court relied on was complete before any answer of hers could arrive, so whatever she wrote afterwards was inconsequential to it.

• 30 Nov 1982: first registration of WA231076, the fields (Parcel B), applied for by Linklaters & Paines; documents lodged include the 1961 deed and the 1971 abstract (EV-0059 · FC-001 · GHF-E158).
• 23 Feb 1983: first registration of WA240304, the farmhouse (A2), Form 1C (EV-0065 · FC-002 · EV-0063). HM Land Registry, letter of 19 Apr 2026: the root offered was “a conveyance dated the thirty first day of December” 1969, and the Registry “had sight of a copy of a 1971 abstract of title”. The Registry’s own standard in the same letter: “a good root of title that is at least 15 years old”. The 1969 root was 13 years 1 month 23 days old.
• The solicitors certified that they knew of no question or doubt affecting the title (HM Land Registry’s description of the file). The schedule of the file lists no notice to the occupier.
• 26 Mar 1983: Mary (Nancy) Williams died (GHF-E108 · EV-0067). The Registry’s correspondence on the application ran on 8 Apr, 12 Apr and 12 May 1983, after her death.

Two titles registered three months apart, one for the fields and one for the farmhouse, are the Registry’s own record of two parcels. Our reading: the 1983 application presented the house as undisputed while the person living in it had pleaded the opposite, and her plea had never been heard.

“a decision of Hollis J given on July 24 1986 when he was sitting as a judge of the Queen’s Bench Division in Cardiff”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987, opening words · GHF-E140 · EV-0074 · EV-0080

The defence was a possessory title by adverse possession. The title BP relied on was not examined at any stage of this action.

• 2 Feb 1987: WA240304 amalgamated into WA231076 (EV-0078 · FC-004): 193 days after the trial judgment and 179 days before the appeal was decided. Who applied is not recorded on anything produced.

“The plaintiffs, BP Properties Ltd, have the paper title to the farm, and indeed since November 1982 they have been the registered proprietors of it at HM Land Registry following first registration.”Court of Appeal, 31 Jul 1987, Dillon LJ · EV-0080 · GHF-E141

“For my part, I would hold without hesitation on the facts that Mr and Mrs Frederick Buckler were jointly in adverse possession of the farmhouse and garden from the expiration on February 2 1955 of his previous tenancy.”same judgment

The farmhouse was not registered in November 1982: it was registered on 23 February 1983 and joined to the 1982 title only in February 1987. The court’s “since November 1982” matches the merged register, not the record of two registrations. The court found Mary in adverse possession, not there by permission, from 1955 to 1974; the appeal turned on the 1974 letters alone. Our reading: the merits, who owned Parcel A, were never judged in any court: the case was heard as a possession action in which BP’s paper title was the starting point, not the question.

The application was lodged on 3 May 1988 and registered on 12 December 1988 (GHF-E145 · EV-0122 · GHF-E144). As catalogued, the Commission treated the loss of the home as justified to protect BP’s rights as owner, and held there was no “possession” in law because the domestic courts had held the property belonged to another. The decision text is to be quoted in full here once held; the Strasbourg case file is reported destroyed.

Our reading: the Commission called BP the owner because the English courts had; the English courts had taken BP’s paper title as given. No court and no commission ever examined it.