The 36 parcels

Correction, 27 October 2026

Our research pages and infographic showed Parcel A as including the village green registered by the council in 1970. The record shows the Parcel A line ends before the green begins. We have corrected those pages; the details are in Disproven theories.

What the record shows

The tithe apportionment for Landough, Cogan and Leckwith, made about 1841, lists John Williams as the occupier of 36 parcels: about 119 acres.

The parcels were the farm itself and its fields: a courtyard (tithe no. 209), a cottage and garden (no. 196), an orchard, meadows, pasture, arable land and two woods. By the sum of the indexed areas the holding was 119 acres, 2 roods and 30 perches.

Six of the 36 parcels are noted “Leckwith” in the index (14 acres, 3 roods, 12 perches). The others lie in the Llandough part of the tithe district.

Source: National Library of Wales, tithe apportionment and map, parishes of Landough, Cogan and Leckwith, c.1841 (catalogue EV-0215). Every parcel row, with its number, use and area, is listed on that evidence page.

The Williams family and the land

The Williams family acquired Tŷ Mawr (Great House Farm), Llandough, in 1667 and occupied it until 1988.

The 1667 acquisition was reported in the 1974 newspapers (Mary Williams’ statement) and on ITV News in 1988. In December 1988 the house came down.

Tŷ Mawr is first named in the records found so far in David Stewart’s 1824 survey, plan 19, “Cedfin or Ty Mawr Farm” (Glamorgan Archives DB/E/1–2, catalogue EV-0211). Seventeen years later the tithe apportionment lists John Williams on the 36 parcels.

The concern being raised

The family is raising a concern about the title chain on these parcels in Llandough and Leckwith.

The apportionment’s landowner column names the Marquess of Bute for 33 of the parcels and the glebe of the Revd James Evans for 3. How title to these parcels passed, then and since, is what the family is asking to have examined.

Bute estate papers and other third-party documents are tested against the records here, not repeated as fact, and the Bute freeholds are under forensic examination for validity. The method is set out in How we treat outside records.

Raising a concern is not a finding. Nothing on this page states that any present owner or occupier holds land unlawfully, and the family invites everyone with an interest in these parcels to look at the records for themselves.

What the record does not show

The apportionment records who occupied the land in about 1841. It does not record a lease, its term or its rent.

The parcel-by-parcel match between this holding and the 1824 plan 19 farm has not yet been made, and the index has not yet been checked line by line against the original image. Later boundaries, and the smaller acreage of the 1870s (about 76 acres, catalogue EV-0212, provisional), are separate questions.

Do your own research

Start with the evidence page for the tithe apportionment, EV-0215, where each parcel links to the National Library of Wales image of the apportionment and the map.

Then read the 1824 survey (EV-0211), the dated chronology in 1000 Cuts, and search every artifact in the catalogue.

Cedwyn is pronounced “Ked-win”. It is one of the names of Tŷ Mawr; every form of the name, with its date and source, is in Enwau: the names of Tŷ Mawr.

Read the whole story

The first edition of the Great House Farm e-book is free. The full edition, with every source from 1667 to today, is £4.99.

Both are on the e-books page.

Edition

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