EV-0089 — Press cutting: “Chainsaw farmer vows to fight on” (Andrew Penman), eviction attempt
| EV ID | EV-0089 |
|---|---|
| Title | Press cutting: “Chainsaw farmer vows to fight on” (Andrew Penman), eviction attempt |
| Date of document | c. 30 April 1988 |
| Type | press |
| Evidence label | PRESS REPORT |
| Repository / reference | Buckler family evidence repository; Datro repository, pinned commit 2e514c59; Wayback images 2026-02-09_consortium-newspaper_bpvsbuckler__en_v0-0-1_001.jpg and …_005.jpg; Transcribed Press Archive transcripts page (N07). |
| Status | PUBLISHED — open the scan (image) |
| Provenance | Image of a cutting in the Buckler family repository (datro, commit 2e514c59), transcribed on Press Archive page N07; Newspaper and date unidentified. |
| Wiki catalogue page | GHF-E090-N07 |
| Claims that rely on this | 1988: Possession and Demolition, Court of Appeal — Forensic Assessment, Event Nomenclature Register — 1988 Great House Farm removal, seizure and occupat, Home Office — Forensic Assessment, House of Lords — Forensic Assessment, Llandough Community Council — 22 October 2026, Item 10: Great House Farm / Tŷ Ma, Media Gallery, Media Wales / Reach plc (South Wales Echo, Western Mail) — Forensic Assessment, National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) — Forensic Assessment, Press Archive — Newspaper Transcripts, Press Articles Index — every newspaper cutting and press extract, one page each, South Wales Police — Forensic Assessment (+4 more) |
About this page type → Read the Docs
Quotation: “Then they started smashing the doors with poleaxes. My children were right behind the door when the axe came through. That’s when I started my chainsaw and pushed it through the door. They backed off then.”
Proves: Reports an eviction attempt at Great House Farm, Llandough, involving bailiffs and police, resisted over four hours, with competing accounts from Mr Buckler and a BP spokesman.
Does not prove: Does not establish farm ownership or confirm bailiffs’ conduct beyond Mr Buckler’s account; Newspaper, exact date, and BP’s procedural claims remain unconfirmed.
Files in the wayback archive: 1988-04-30_wp1200_c-30-april-1988-chainsaw-farmer-vows-to-fighton.jpg · 1988-04-30_press_chainsaw-farmer-vows-to-fight-on-copy-2.jpg · 1988-04-30_press_chainsaw-farmer-vows-to-fight-on-copy-3.jpg (EV-0089 in the artifact index).
Interpretation: working hypotheses
Working hypotheses, kept apart from the record above. The record text on this page is unchanged. None of these is a finding: each line is labelled as inference, theory, a reading that cuts against the case, or a discarded theory, and names the evidence it rests on and what would confirm or refute it, so the reader can test it. Updated 25 Oct 2026 (v2: ingredients wording).
Why 1983
INFERENCE · W-01Two records bear on the timing of the 1984 action. BP's letter of 31 Oct 1974 promised that "no proceedings will be commenced until you personally no longer live there" (EV-0050). A BP spokesman quoted in the 1988 press cutting "Chainsaw farmer vows to fight on" (EV-0089; our working note places it in the South Wales Echo of 29 Apr 1988; the catalogue records the newspaper as not yet identified) gave her ill health as the reason she lived there rent-free, and added: "When Mrs Buckler died in 1983 it became clear her son was not going to leave … in May 1984 we started court proceedings." Working hypothesis: her death, rather than any new fact about title, set the time of the 1984 action. W-02 sets out the reading that the same timing simply kept the 1974 promise.
Rests on: EV-0089 (this page) · EV-0050 · EV-0080 · EV-0073
Would be confirmed by: BP's internal file for 1983–84 (BP Archive request, reply due by 16 Nov 2026) recording a decision to wait for her death; identification of the newspaper and full page for the cutting.
Would be refuted by: Evidence that BP planned or began proceedings against her during her lifetime, or that the 1984 writ had a different documented trigger.
Status: Open (the main working hypothesis on "why 1983")
CUTS AGAINST THE CASE · W-02Cuts against the case: the same timing is fully consistent with BP simply keeping its 1974 promise not to evict her in her lifetime. Waiting for her death is, on this reading, the conduct the letters promised, not concealment. The Court of Appeal itself described the device: a unilateral licence lets an owner who is "not prepared to incur the obloquy of bringing proceedings" keep "his title alive for very many years until it suits him to evict" — a criticism of the device, not a finding of bad faith.
Rests on: EV-0050 · EV-0080 · research log E132
Would be confirmed by: BP correspondence showing the delay was kept for a reason beyond the promise (for example, to let a registration settle before anyone could contest it).
Would be refuted by: BP correspondence showing the delay was only the promise being kept.
Status: Open (cuts against)
Catalogue record
| EV ID | EV-0089 |
|---|---|
| Source | Press cutting, by Andrew Penman |
| Date | Not shown on the copy (register: c. 30 April 1988) |
| Publisher | Not shown on the copy |
| Reference | Headline: “Chainsaw farmer vows to fight on” |
| Duplicate | Duplicate check, 27 October 2026: a further copy of this item was received and is filed under this record. No new ID was issued. |
Transcript
Transcription note: A full transcript of this cutting, with the names of private individuals replaced by [family member] or [resident], is in preparation and will be added here. The cutting names private individuals, so the image and full text are not reproduced on this page. Short dated quotations from the paper appear above.
Destination
- Where the original is held: The newspaper’s archive (paper and date to be confirmed). Cutting held by the family.
- On this site: this artifact page; cited from the 1988: Possession and Demolition page.
Interpretation
A report of an eviction attempt attended by five bailiffs and about 15 police officers, ending in a four-hour stand-off. The paper printed a BP Properties spokesman’s account of a rent-free licence to the late Mrs Buckler and of court proceedings begun in “May 1984”, and a South Wales Police statement that officers were present to prevent a breach of the peace, not to assist the bailiffs.
Related records
- Related record: EV-0086
Cited on
20 pages link here.
- EV-0050 — Licence letters from BP Pension Trust and BP Properties to Mrs Buckler (Mrs Williams)
- EV-0067 — Death index entry for Mary Doreen (Nancy) Williams, South Glamorgan, March 1983
- EV-0073 — Family / solicitors’ litigation file, 1984–87 proceedings
- EV-0080 — Court of Appeal judgment: BP Properties Ltd v Buckler [1987] EWCA Civ 2
- EV-0086 — Newspaper photograph captioned “Police wait outside the farmhouse”
- EV-0088 — South Wales Echo, 29 April 1988: background to Buckler family dispute
- Evidence Register
- Wayback artifact index
- 1000 Cuts · a dated chronology of the Williams family at Great House Farm, 1870s–1988
- 1000 Cuts: a dated chronology of the Williams family at Great House Farm (1870s–1988) — Great House Farm Wiki
- 1988: Possession and Demolition
- Andrew Penman · Public faces · The Wayback Vault
- El caso de la familia · Argentina
- EV-0089 — Press cutting: “Chainsaw farmer vows to fight on” (Andrew Penman), eviction attempt
- FC-005 — Family / Solicitors’ 1984–87 Litigation File
- GHF-E090-N07 — “Chainsaw farmer vows to fight on” (c. 30 April 1988)
- GHF-E090-N15-01 — Friday 29 April 1988: South Wales Echo (British Newspaper Archive extract)
- GHF-E108 — Mary Doreen (Nancy) Williams death index, March 1983
- GHF-E136 — 31 October 1974 licence letters (BP Pension Trust and BP Properties)
- GHF-E141 — 31 July 1987 Court of Appeal judgment: BP Properties Ltd v Buckler [1987] EWCA Civ 2