Press reports of the 1938 Bute sale to Western Ground Rents
Seventeen reports, May 1938 to March 1955, on the sale of the Bute (Mountjoy) estate at Cardiff and Penarth to Western Ground Rents Ltd. Conveyance: 25 December 1938.
How the reports compare
27 October 2026
Farmland
Four reports put rural land in the sale: Newsweek (“some farm lands”), Life (“several surrounding villages”), the Belfast Telegraph (“very large fertile areas around the city and neighbouring villages”) and the Canadian Press (“extensive agricultural lands near the city”). None names a farm, a village or a parish.
The Associated Press wire, The Economist (“all ground rents”), The Times index (“Bute freeholds in Cardiff and Penarth”) and both Commons debates describe urban ground rents only.
Manorial rights
Only the New Statesman addresses them: excluded from the 1938 sale, with the mineral rights and five castles. No free press source found covers Mountjoy Ltd’s later disposal of the Glamorgan manors (1950–57).
Acreage
The Associated Press: not disclosed. The Hong Kong Daily Press: 10044, unit unclear in the scan, for “practically the whole of the Mountjoy estate”. No other report gives a figure.
What stayed with Bute
Mineral rights, manorial rights and five castles (New Statesman); Cardiff Castle and Caerphilly Castle (Associated Press); and in October 1940 the chief interest in the Cardiff–Penarth toll road (PR-0013, PR-0014).
How exact the reports are
Four prices appear (£4m, £5m, £20m and $100m). The 1938 count of 20,000 houses was corrected to 11,000 in the Commons in 1955.
Concerns that cut against the case for Tŷ Mawr
- Four reports place agricultural land and villages near Cardiff in the sale. That makes it more plausible that Llandough farmland passed to Western Ground Rents in 1938.
- “Practically the whole of the Mountjoy estate” (Hong Kong Daily Press) reads wider than the New Statesman’s list of exclusions.
- “They take over the property on Christmas Day” (Belfast Telegraph): 25 December was the agreed takeover day, so the date of the conveyance carries no weight on its own.
Points that sit with the case
- No report names Llandough, Leckwith, Cogan or any farm there.
- The financial press and The Times index frame the purchase as ground rents and freeholds in Cardiff and Penarth.
- Bute interests near Penarth (the manorial rights; the toll road in 1940) remained after 1938, so the Bute estate did not pass whole.
What decides it
Press reports are not the deed. What passed is set by the conveyance of 25 December 1938, its schedule of parcels and its plan (EV-0019). These have not been inspected.
The reports
PR-0001 · 17 May 1938 · Associated Press (Atlanta Constitution)
“Neither the purchaser nor the actual price was disclosed” … “the Marquess did not disclose the acreage of the land involved.”
PR-0002 · 19 May 1938 · Associated Press (Edmonton Bulletin)
“Practically half a city changed hands Tuesday when the immensely wealthy Marquess of Bute sold part of this world port of 200,000 population for a price understood to be about £20,000,000” … “[the sale] included residential sub[urbs], [shop]ping centres and the … docks from which South Wales exports most of its coal” … “The Marquess retained his two historic residences here, the famed Cardiff castle … and Caerphilly castle”.
PR-0003 · 21 May 1938 · New Statesman and Nation
“His mineral rights and properties, his manorial rights, and five of his castles are excluded from the sale, which nevertheless includes half of Cardiff and a portion of the neighbouring town of Penarth.”
PR-0004 · 30 May 1938 · Newsweek
The sale “included the docks, shipping exchange, 20,000 houses, 1,000 shops, 250 ‘pubs,’ several theatres, neighboring villages, and some farm lands”.
PR-0005 · 30 May 1938 · Life
“several surrounding villages”
PR-0006 · 28 June 1938 · Hong Kong Daily Press
“The Marquess of Bute has sold practically the whole of the Mountjoy estate of 10044 [unit unclear in the scan, probably acres] in South Wales. It includes half the city of Cardiff. Although capital value … including docks and buildings, is estimated at £20,000,000, the price is stated to be £5,000,000. The name of the purchaser is not disclosed.”
PR-0007 · 5 July – 24 December 1938 · The Times, Official Index
“WESTERN Ground Rents, Ltd.—registration, July 5, 14g”; “CARDIFF—… Bute estates: new co.: see WESTERN Ground Rents, Ltd.” (7 July, 22e); “WESTERN Ground Rents, Ltd.—purchase Bute freeholds in Cardiff and Penarth, Dec. 24, 10f”; “Bute, Lord—estates in Cardiff and Penarth: sale completed, Dec. 24, 10f”; also indexed under PENARTH—“Bute estate: sale completed, Dec. 24, 10f”.
PR-0008 · 24 December 1938 · Belfast Telegraph
“Property valued at approximately £5,000,000, owned by the Marquis of Bute, in Cardiff and Penarth, changed hands on Friday …” “They take over the property on Christmas Day.” The property includes “very large fertile areas around the city and neighbouring villages”.
PR-0009 · 24 December 1938 · Associated Press (Chicago Daily Tribune)
The Marquess “signed a great stack of documents while a representative of Western Ground Rents Ltd. watched.”
PR-0010 · 27 December 1938 · Canadian Press (Victoria Daily Times)
“In addition to the property in Cardiff, extensive agricultural lands near the city, and a number of villages also changed hands.”
PR-0011 · 31 December 1938 · The Economist
“Western Ground Rents Purchase.—Property valued at about £5,000,000 owned by the Marquess of Bute in Cardiff and [place name illegible in the scan] changed hands on December 23, 1938. … The chairman of the company is Lord Kennet. The properties include the Cardiff [word illegible] Exchange, the works of Guest, Keen, Baldwins, and the … Dry Docks—all ground rents.”
PR-0012 · 14 April 1939 · The Spectator
“The Equity and Law has acquired at slightly under par 50 per cent. of the Preference shares [and] 22½ [figure unclear in the scan] per cent. of the Ordinary shares of Western Ground Rents, which has acquired the Bute Estate at Cardiff.”
PR-0013 · 11 October 1940 · The China Mail
“For the owners, the Marquess of Bute and the Earl of Plymouth, it was stated that until the end of the war Home Guard members on duty, wearing the official armlet, will be allowed free passage” … “motorists using the Leckwith road with its longer route and steep hill. Buses between Cardiff and Penarth have to pay 2s. for every journey over the toll-road.”
PR-0014 · 21 October 1940 · The Hong Kong Telegraph
“Chief interest in the toll road is held by Lord Bute, who recently sold half of Cardiff to a syndicate.” Lord Plymouth is “one of the owners of the road”, and “Penarth Council have protested against the toll”.
PR-0015 · 25 February 1944 · The Jewish Chronicle
“in 1938 he carried out what was believed to be one of the biggest property deals known in this country, the sale of the Cardiff estate of the Marquess of Bute, which involved the sum of £4,000,000.”
PR-0016 · 7 March 1950 · House of Commons debates
“In 1938, the Marquess of Bute sold half of the city to a great finance corporation. … The transaction included ground rents for 20,000 houses in Cardiff, 1,000 shops, 250 public houses, theatres and cinemas, and a large part of Cardiff docks.”
PR-0017 · 18 March 1955 · House of Commons debates
The Member for Cardiff West accepted the figures of a Western Ground Rents director as more accurate than “the figures published in the ‘Daily Express’ in May, 1938, when the transaction took place”: “11,000 houses in Cardiff owned by that corporation”.
Not checked
- The Times, 5 July 1938 p. 14 and 24 December 1938 p. 10: articles indexed, not read.
- Western Mail and South Wales Echo, May and December 1938: page images not read (Western Mail 24 December 1938 p. 8 is listed at EV-0022).
- Daily Express, May 1938: the source of the 20,000-house figure; not read.
- Estates Gazette and Country Life, 1938: not read.
- Press on Mountjoy Ltd’s sale of the Glamorgan manors, 1950–57, including the Llandough manorial rights: none found.
- Australian and New Zealand reprints, 1938: not read here beyond those listed at EV-0022.
Related: EV-0019 conveyance and plan, 1938 · EV-0022 completion reports · EV-0012 Bute will, 1900 · Western Ground Rents · The Bute Estate · Timeline