# Chronology spine

A reading aid, not the record. The record is the research catalogue (EV- IDs) and the title chain at /title-chain/. Every line here points to where the evidence lives. Where a point is not checked against a primary source, it is marked "not checked".

Naming (from 29 Oct 2026): the John Williams of Great House Farm who died on 17 July 1908 is "John Williams Sr"; the John Williams who succeeded him (the 1916 tenancy, the 1939 signature; died in the 1950s, father of Nancy) is "John Williams Jr". Use these labels everywhere so the two are never merged.

| When | What | Record |
|---|---|---|
| 1667 | The Williams family acquire Tŷ Mawr | Mary Williams' statement in the 1974 newspaper reports; ITV News, 1988 |
| 1824 | First record mention of Tŷ Mawr found so far: the David Stewart survey | EV-0211 |
| 10–11 May 1897 | Guglielmo Marconi at Great House Farm: Marconi stayed at the farmhouse, sleeping in a four-poster bed, while working on his wireless telegraphy experiments between Lavernock Point and Flat Holm; on the eve of 11 May 1897, close on midnight, Marconi and the Cardiff Post Office engineer George Kemp called at the farm and John Williams Sr ("Farmer Williams") lent them his horse and trap to carry the apparatus to Lavernock Point; the experiment succeeded the next day. Timeline: /research/timeline/#marconi-1897| EV-0645 (/research/evidence/ev-0645-local-history-book-llandough-penarth-pp64-65/); EV-0085 (/research/evidence/ev-0085-glamorgan-village-book-demolition-page/); EV-0646 (/research/evidence/ev-0646-the-post-cardiff-1995-09-14-p24-marconi-great-house-farm/) |
| Dec 1938 | Sale of the Bute (Mountjoy) Cardiff estate interests to Western Ground Rents; handover agreed for Christmas Day 1938 | Belfast Telegraph, 24 Dec 1938; a 1944 Labour Research Department study lists Mountjoy among the lenders to Western Ground Rents |
| 1946 | Western Ground Rents raises £2m secured on about 12,000 freeholds | The Economist, 1946 (whether Llandough was among them: not checked) |
| 1968–69 | Western Ground Rents passes to the BP Pension Fund after an open three-way contest; cleared 7 Mar 1969 | Board of Trade notices; press of the period |
| Sept 1974 | BP's enforcement request; Mary Williams' statement reported in the newspapers | Court file (sworn statement not yet obtained); 1974 newspapers |
| 1982/83 | BP becomes registered proprietor (title WA240304, 1983) | HM Land Registry |
| 1987 | BP Properties Ltd v Buckler [1987] EWCA Civ 2; also (1988) 55 P & CR 337 and [1987] 2 EGLR 168 | Court of Appeal judgment |
| 1988 | Listing and demolition of the house; ITV News report | Cadw / council records; ITV News |
| 1990 | Death of William Buckler (1990 — not 1992) | Family papers; exact day open |
| 2026 | Disclosure programme: information requests to public bodies, tracked on /dartboard/ and /email/ | Dartboard lanes; email archive |
| 26 Oct 2026 | Wales Office internal review IR/26/16 upholds "not held"; it searched its digital records only and states it holds no physical records from before devolution in 1999 | Internal review response, 26 Oct 2026 |

## Corrections every agent must apply
- No Bute or other third-party paper is a record of Tŷ Mawr dated before 1824. Where such a paper appears it is described as an outside catalogue entry whose application and dating are under forensic examination.
- The NLW Bute catalogue entry D 219 is a catalogue heading, never a dated Tŷ Mawr mention.
- The Mansion of Llandough is not Tŷ Mawr.
- The farm's hill at Llandough is inland. It overlooks the Ely, the marshes and the estuary; never describe it as by the sea or on the coast.
- The house was demolished on 6 December 1988 (RCAHMW NA/GL/88/49). NA/GL/89/208 is typed "House demolished Nov. 1988"; the difference is an open question, not a finding.
- The 1806 and 1807 exchange papers are catalogued with the words "Ty Mawr Farm"; those are catalogue words, the deeds themselves are unread, and they are shown as under forensic examination.
- Never infer a document's date or origin from a filename, a media title or a neighbouring item.

## Against the case (kept honestly)
- The 1938 reports describe farmland and villages around Penarth changing hands as well as Cardiff leases (none names the farm).
- The 1968 contest and its clearances were public and routine.
- The reopen-the-case scoring has not yet reached the court-readiness bar.