Western Mail

Llandough Bride

The wedding took place at Llandough Church of Mr. Fred Buckler, of Barry, and Miss Mary Doreen (Nancy) Williams, of Great House Farm, Llandough.

Leckwith Woods

Leckwith Woods … “bought … for a nominal sum in 1942” … “outside the boundary” …

(page 6)

… “Mrs.” M. D. BUCKLER. … Llandough. …

City wants common for play-field

Mrs. Mary Doreen Buckler, of Great House Farm, Llandough, said she did not oppose the proposal so long as it applied only to playing fields. About 130 years ago Lord Bute allowed her family “a slice of land” which was now Leckwith Common.

“It’s a Crichel Down …” woman farmer

Mrs. M D. Buckler was objecting to further industrial development in the vicinity of her farm, Ty Mawr, Penarth Road, Llandough. Land farmed by her family since 1667 had been “wrongfully appropriated.”

Mrs. Buckler [stated] that the water was cut off from her house and grounds for nearly 10 years by order of Western Ground Rents.

[Herd loss] This, she added, resulted in loss of a complete herd of Friesian cattle.

Letter: Grievous loss

From William Rees, Penarth

SIR,—The proposal for the ultimate demolition of the Great House Farm, Llandough, would unwittingly erase from memory one of the early historical sites of Glamorgan, marking, as it does, the location of the ancient Celtic monastery, a centre of first importance in the rise of Christianity in Morgannwg, comparable, indeed, in early record with the two other great Celtic monasteries of St. Cadoc at Llancarfan and of St. Illtyd at Llantwit Major.

It may be difficult for us today to envisage this one-time monastic centre of St. Dochwy, or Docunnus, in its heyday as a great collegiate institution, with its abbots — some of whose names are fully authenticated — presiding over a large community of disciples, the whole serving as an important missionising centre for the early Christianisation of our region.

This missionary movement was to continue until the Norman conquest of Glamorgan, when the monastery with its lands, church dues and other of its property was vested by the Lord of Glamorgan in the Benedictine Abbey of Tewkesbury, the church services thereafter being conducted, within the Romanised order, as the Church of the Parish of Llandough, its revenues being regularly collected for transmission to the abbey.

Llandough remained appropriated to Tewkesbury until the abbey itself, with all its property, fell into the hands of the Crown at the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in the years 1536-39. The site at Llandough, thus secularised, was sold in 1545 to Sir George Herbert, of Swansea, to form the Manor of Llandough, to remain in the possession of the Herbert family until purchased in 1793 by Lord Bute, the farmstead of Great House, or Ty Mawr, which still embodies some of its earlier features, serving as the manorhouse of Llandough.

The entire site, therefore, and the church adjoining, with its ancient Celtic cross still in situ, the sole relic of the ancient monastery, enshrines one of the most interesting of the religious sites of early Morgannwg. Its passing would imply the abandonment of another of the early monuments of Wales, signifying a grievous loss to the tradition of our Welsh heritage.

WILLIAM REES. Penarth.

Farmer fails in final eviction hearing

A FAMILY’S long and bitter battle for an historic farmhouse appeared to be over last night after a High Court decision went against them and the Welsh historic monuments organisation decided to take no action.

Farmer Billy Buckler and his wife, Branwen, had been hoping to hang on to the reputedly 800-year-old Great House Farm at Llandough and its prime 10-acre estate overlooking Cardiff Bay so that the question of ownership could be decided by the European Court.

[Destroying] But after a hearing in chambers a judge at Cardiff Crown Court dismissed an application by Mr and Mrs Buckler for an injunction to restrain BP Properties Ltd, the owners of the land, from destroying or damaging the fabric of the building.

Their solicitor, Mr Colin Jongman, said after the hearing, “There are no more steps that can be taken now that the building can be knocked down.” He added that if the building was knocked down, there was little point seeking a declaration from the European Court that they could occupy the building.

The couple then had their hopes dashed of help from Cadw. A spokesperson there told the Western Mail the house was not of sufficient architectural merit and the land on which it stands was not of sufficient archaeological interest.

Following the court hearing, Mrs Janet Harris, Mr Buckler’s sister, said the house had been in the family for four generations. “It is reputed to be 800 years old and yet it seems they can destroy it on what is a whim.” She forecast that “they will have it down as fast as they can now” and said their only hope was that Cadw would accept it as a listed building.

Judge Norman Francis giving his judgment in open court said that after the Buckleys’s unsuccessfully sought leave to appeal to the House of Lords against an Appeal Committee ruling they had exhausted the remedies available to them under the laws of England and Wales. Their case was that there was a triable issue for the Court of Human Rights to consider and that the status quo as to the building and fittings should be preserved until it had been decided.

[Relief] The judge said there seemed doubt whether the plaintiffs had acted in time for the European Commission to consider the case. The fact that somebody chooses at the eleventh hour to apply to the Commission could not set up a right to “injunctive relief”. It would be novel for a court in this country to grant an injunction to hold up the effects of a judgment until the Court of Human Rights should rule on it, said the judge.

The battle for the farmhouse and estate has been waged for 33 years by the Buckler family.