Subject: RE: Marconi, Great House Farm, Llandough From: Archives Direction: received Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2026 13:30 UTC Institution: The Postal Museum Refs: none Archive id: gm-19fd74457e974ba4 ------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Sion, For your question on the date range, I looked at all the files we hold, including before and after the 1897 date. Our records go back to the 17th century and are up to the 21st century. So the dates you mentioned were checked. 2. Catalogue results which were considered unrelated. Would it be possible to provide the catalogue reference numbers and descriptions of those records, even where you consider them unrelated, together with the reason they were excluded? It would be a very large list of reference numbers to send you, but you can search those key words on the online catalogue here: https://catalogue.postalmuseum.org/ 3. Scope of the catalogue. Could you confirm whether this means that all existing Postal Museum archival holdings, including uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued material, are represented in the system searched, or whether there are categories of physical material which may not yet be represented? For what you will find on the online catalogue: you will only find catalogued items. It includes the ones held at BT Archives. You can tell the difference on where the items are held by looking at the 'Held at' line. Here is an example (unrelated to your area of interest): [cid:image006.png@01DD25AF.B869F840] On my system of archival catalogue: we can search catalogued and uncatalogued items. I also searched the uncatalogued items for your keywords, but only unrelated records came up. In addition to that, most uncatalogued items are records which are less than 20 years old. Any file from c.late 1890s or 1900s is already catalogued so you can't miss them. 4. Restricted, closed or unprocessed material. Were any records identified which could potentially relate to the subject but which were unavailable because they were restricted, closed, uncatalogued, unprocessed or otherwise inaccessible? The only material that would have restricted access would be records that hold individuals' private information. But considering all the people concerned were alive during the late 1800s and early 1900s, it's very unlikely anyone would still be alive and have any personal information that would still be up-to-date. The other type of records that are restricted are some philatelic items, which don't concern your research. 5. Records transferred to BT Archives. You explained that relevant telecommunications material appearing in the catalogue is held at BT Archives. Could you confirm whether the Postal Museum retains any transfer records, accession records, finding aids or other information identifying the particular GPO/Telegraph/Engineering records which were transferred to BT Archives? If there are catalogue references which would help BT Archives locate the underlying material, I would be very grateful for those. We don't have any transfer records any longer, it's been too long ago since the records were transferred to BT Archives. But you can easily find out which items are held at BT Archives when searching our online catalogue. See above the screenshot. Using the Finding Number mentioned on one of our online catalogue entries, you should be able to trace the item by contacting BT Archives directly. They are the only ones who have the most up-to-date information about the archival items that were transferred to them. 6. The Williams connection I'm afraid that we don't hold any record that aren't about postal employees. So we wouldn't be able to find anything about this individual in our records. If there is any record of him in the records held at BT Archives, it's not mentioned in any of the file's descriptions. 7. Preparatory and follow-up records Concerning all the terms you listed, the relevant records would be kept at BT Archives, so I can't know more about it. We have some books about Marconi in our reference library, but they are books destined to a general audience and you could find those books in most libraries. It's likely you are already familiar with the titles! Here is the list of books we hold, Online catalogue search 'Marconi lib*' I hope those answers will help you in your future research. Best regards, Mathilde Mathilde Jourdan Archives Assistant The Postal Museum | 15-20 Phoenix Place | London [postcode redacted] T: [phone redacted] | Archive enquiries: [phone redacted] | E:[email redacted]<[email redacted]> [Facebook Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Facebook channel][Twitter Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Twitter channel][Instgram Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Instragram channel][Youtube Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Youtube channel] [cid:image005.png@01DD25AD.E041C700] The Postal Museum is the public identity of the Postal Heritage Trust. Registered as a charity in England and Wales. Registered Charity Number 1102360. Company Number 4896056 From: Sion Buckler <[email redacted]> Sent: 31 July 2026 17:27 To: Archives <[email redacted]> Subject: Re: Marconi, Great House Farm, Llandough Mathilde, Thank you for clarifying the search methodology. Your explanation is helpful, particularly the distinction between records appearing in the Postal Museum catalogue and records physically held at BT Archives. Before I proceed to BT Archives, I would like to make sure I understand the limits of the search correctly and avoid unnecessarily duplicating it. There are a few further points which I would be grateful if you could clarify. 1. Date range Was the search for the various names and locations conducted across the surrounding period, or was material effectively assessed only against the 1897 demonstration? Could you confirm whether 1895-1900, including 1896, 1898, 1899 and 1900, was searched? This is important because I am investigating not only the demonstration itself but also possible preparations beforehand and correspondence or reports afterwards. 2. Catalogue results which were considered unrelated You mentioned that some results appeared for terms including Penarth, wireless demonstrations, GPO Telegraph Department, Engineering Department and Williams, but that they were considered unrelated after examination of their catalogue descriptions. Would it be possible to provide the catalogue reference numbers and descriptions of those records, even where you consider them unrelated, together with the reason they were excluded? I would prefer to examine those references myself rather than inadvertently overlooking something that may become relevant when considered alongside other records. 3. Scope of the catalogue You have explained that the physical archives were not separately checked because the information is recorded on the archival cataloguing system. Could you confirm whether this means that all existing Postal Museum archival holdings, including uncatalogued or incompletely catalogued material, are represented in the system searched, or whether there are categories of physical material which may not yet be represented? 4. Restricted, closed or unprocessed material Were any records identified which could potentially relate to the subject but which were unavailable because they were restricted, closed, uncatalogued, unprocessed or otherwise inaccessible? If so, I would be grateful for the relevant reference numbers and any applicable access restrictions. 5. Records transferred to BT Archives You explained that relevant telecommunications material appearing in the catalogue is held at BT Archives. Could you confirm whether the Postal Museum retains any transfer records, accession records, finding aids or other information identifying the particular GPO/Telegraph/Engineering records which were transferred to BT Archives? If there are catalogue references which would help BT Archives locate the underlying material, I would be very grateful for those. 6. The Williams connection The purpose of the search for Williams is not to establish that Mr Williams was a Post Office employee. The family tradition concerns a local Mr Williams of Great House Farm, Llandough near Penarth, who may have assisted Marconi locally. Consequently, a relevant record might describe him as a local resident, landowner, farmer, host, assistant, carrier, messenger, proprietor or other private individual rather than as Post Office personnel. Could you therefore confirm whether the search for Williams included references of this kind, rather than only Post Office employees or personnel records? Similarly, were variants such as Mr Williams, W. Williams, William Williams and Williams considered? 7. Preparatory and follow-up records Could the search also be considered in terms of records concerning: * preparations for the South Wales experiments; * arrangements made with local residents or property owners; * visits to or use of private premises; * transport or movement of equipment; * correspondence immediately before or after the experiments; * follow-up reports; * subsequent demonstrations or experiments in the area; * photographs, plans, maps or other material which might identify locations or participants. I appreciate that you may ultimately conclude that none of these are held by the Postal Museum. I am simply trying to establish precisely what evidence has and has not survived, and where the relevant archival trail now leads. Finally, if the Postal Museum has any contemporary publications, newspaper-cutting collections, photographs, finding aids or other material concerning the South Wales Marconi experiments, even where they do not specifically mention Great House Farm or Mr Williams, I would be grateful for those references as well. Thank you again for your assistance. Your clarification has helped considerably in narrowing the search, and I appreciate your taking the time to establish exactly what the Postal Museum catalogue can and cannot tell me. Kind regards, Sion Buckler (Ret'd Sergeant) Royal Signals Cyber & Electronic Warfare Professional and Life Member On Fri, 31 Jul 2026, 11:04 Archives, <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> wrote: Dear Sion, I searched our archive's catalogued, for all catalogued and uncatalogued items, using the following keywords: * Great House Farm * Llandough * Lavernock Result: no item is held in our archives using these words in the description. Concerning the below keywords: * Penarth * wireless demonstrations * GPO Telegraph Department * Engineering Department * Williams / Mr Williams Result: Some items held in our archives came up with those keywords, but when reading the description field on our catalogue, they turned out to be unrelated to the 1897 wireless telegraphy demonstration. Most were dated to before or after 1897. Many came up on our online catalogue, but they are held at BT Archives, therefore, we won't have any more information. This is what I meant by 'nothing relevant came up' - despite corresponding keyword, the dates or the content aren't related to your enquiry. The physical archives were not checked as all information on our files are recorded on our archival cataloguing system, which is what I used to search information and keyword. Because the few records that seemed relevant are held at BT Archives, only they can inform you of the digitised or non-digitised status of the items. Although the items held at BT Archives come up in our archival cataloguing system, you would need to contact directly for more information. For your questions in 4. On the link with Mr Williams, nothing came up about people who participated to the demonstrations. You can search our online catalogue here: https://catalogue.postalmuseum.org/ And here is the link to the catalogue of BT Archives: https://www.digitalarchives.bt.com/Calmview/ I hope this helps, Best regards, Mathilde Mathilde Jourdan Archives Assistant The Postal Museum | 15-20 Phoenix Place | London [postcode redacted][map link redacted] T: [phone redacted] | Archive enquiries: [phone redacted] | E:[email redacted]<[email redacted]> [Facebook Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Facebook channel][Twitter Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Twitter channel][Instgram Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Instragram channel][Youtube Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Youtube channel] [cid:image005.png@01DD25AD.E041C700] The Postal Museum is the public identity of the Postal Heritage Trust. Registered as a charity in England and Wales. Registered Charity Number 1102360. Company Number 4896056 From: Sion Buckler <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> Sent: 29 July 2026 14:41 To: Archives <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> Subject: Re: Marconi, Great House Farm, Llandough Dear Mathilde, Thank you for your further reply and for carrying out the searches. I appreciate your assistance, but I would like to clarify the scope and conclusions of the search, as several points remain unresolved. Firstly, I should correct one detail: the individual I am researching is Mr Williams of Great House Farm, Llandough near Penarth, not "Mr William". The surname is significant because family history suggests that my great-grandfather, Mr Williams of Great House Farm, assisted Guglielmo Marconi during the 1897 South Wales wireless experiments. I fully understand that the absence of a result within the Postal Museum catalogue does not necessarily mean that no such person or record existed. However, I would be grateful if you could clarify the following: 1. Search methodology Could you confirm exactly which catalogue collections, series, or record groups were searched for: * Great House Farm, Llandough (Penarth) * Llandough * Lavernock * Marconi * wireless telegraphy demonstrations (1897) * GPO Telegraph Department * Engineering Department * Williams / Mr Williams 1. Scope of the negative result When you state that "nothing relevant came up", does this mean: * no indexed catalogue entries were found in Postal Museum collections; * no digitised records were found; * or that physical archival holdings were also checked? 1. Records relating to GPO personnel You mentioned that most Marconi and Telegraph Department records are held at BT Archives. Could you confirm whether the Postal Museum holds any catalogue references, finding aids, or transferred-record information indicating where the relevant GPO engineering correspondence, reports, notebooks, or staff records may have been moved? 1. The Williams connection The question I am trying to establish is not necessarily whether Mr Williams was a Post Office employee. He may instead have been the owner/occupier of Great House Farm who assisted Marconi locally. Could you therefore confirm whether your search included references to: * private individuals assisting demonstrations; * hosts or local contacts connected with Marconi's experiments; * correspondence mentioning residents of Llandough, Penarth, or Lavernock? I appreciate that the absence of a catalogue entry cannot prove that an event or person did not exist, particularly where local residents or private landowners were involved. My aim is simply to establish the evidential trail: whether the Mr Williams mentioned in contemporary accounts can be identified, and whether surviving records connect him with Great House Farm and Marconi's experiments. Thank you again for your assistance. I would be grateful for any further clarification on the above points before I proceed to BT Archives and Glamorgan Archives. Kind regards, Sion Buckler On Wed, 29 Jul 2026, 10:32 Archives, <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> wrote: Dear Sion, I searched for all files related to the key words Great House Farm, Llandough, Lavernock, wireless demonstration. Nothing relevant came up. For Marconi and the Telegraph Departments, all the files would be held at BT Archives. I hope this helps, Best regards, Mathilde Mathilde Jourdan Archives Assistant The Postal Museum | 15-20 Phoenix Place | London [postcode redacted][map link redacted] T: [phone redacted] | Archive enquiries: [phone redacted] | E:[email redacted]<[email redacted]> [Facebook Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Facebook channel][Twitter Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Twitter channel][Instgram Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Instragram channel][Youtube Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Youtube channel] [cid:image005.png@01DD25AD.E041C700] The Postal Museum is the public identity of the Postal Heritage Trust. Registered as a charity in England and Wales. Registered Charity Number 1102360. Company Number 4896056 From: Sion Buckler <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> Sent: 29 July 2026 14:04 To: Archives <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> Subject: Re: Marconi, Great House Farm, Llandough Dear Mathilde, Thank you very much for taking the time to carry out these searches and for your detailed response. I appreciate the clarification regarding the distinction between Great House Farm, Llandough near Penarth and the similarly named location near Cowbridge. The Penarth/Llandough/Lavernock area is the location of interest. Your advice regarding BT Archives is very helpful, and I will follow this up with them, as the surviving GPO Telegraph and wireless records appear likely to be held there. I am also grateful for the information about the Post Office family history records. My main interest is not that Mr Williams was necessarily a Post Office employee, but whether the individual mentioned in contemporary accounts as assisting Marconi at Great House Farm can be identified. Family history passed down through my great grandfather's line suggests that a Mr Williams of Great House Farm assisted Marconi during his South Wales experiments, and I am trying to establish whether this can be connected to my ancestor. If possible, could you let me know whether the search you carried out included any of the following terms or collections, as this may help me understand the scope of the search: * Great House Farm (Llandough/Penarth) * Llandough * Lavernock * Marconi * wireless telegraphy demonstrations (1897) * GPO Telegraph Department / Engineering Department I will also contact Glamorgan Archives, as you suggest, since local newspapers, estate records, or correspondence may contain information not held in the national collections. Thank you again for your assistance. Your guidance has helped narrow down where the relevant evidence is most likely to survive. Kind regards, Sion Buckler On Wed, 29 Jul 2026, 07:31 Archives, <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> wrote: Dear Sion, Thank you for your enquiry. I will do my best to check if we have surviving records of this demonstration, although most of the records about telecommunications were transferred to BT Archives so they might have more information than us: https://www.bt.com/about/bt/our-history/bt-archives * Great House Farm, Llandough, near Penarth, Cardiff (not Great House Farm, Llandough near Cowbridge) I couldn't find any record mentioning Great House Farm, Llandough. For Penarth, there were some results but they were all dated much later than the demonstration. We have many records on Cardiff, which you can find on our online catalogue Here, but nothing relevant seemed to have come up. * Llandough, Penarth, Lavernock and the surrounding wireless demonstration sites. Nothing came up for Lavernock either, the locations are too precise for this type of records to have reached our archives. I searched for 'wireless demonstration' and POST 88 Series titled 'Post Office: Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony' mentions such events, but all the files are kept in BT Archives. * Guglielmo Marconi's 1897 demonstrations. Almost all the files related to Marconi are held in BT Archives. * GPO Telegraph or Engineering Department records concerning these demonstrations. See above. * Correspondence, reports, notebooks, diaries, staff lists, expense claims, photographs or plans relating to engineers or officials present. See above. * Any references to Mr Williams of Great House Farm, Llandough, who family history suggests assisted Marconi before, during or after his stay at the property. I couldn't find any specific file about a Mr William from Great House Farm, but the main records we have that are useful for family history research are the Appointment Books, and the pension and gratuity records. We also have Establishment Books and staff magazines that can be helpful too. You can find more information about what we hold here: https://www.postalmuseum.org/collections/the-archive/family-history/ Please bear in mind that most villages, small towns, hamlets, etc. such as Llandough had business that ran a postal service, and these people were not directly employed by the Post Office, therefore, we won't have any information. If Mr Williams had another business, he was likely not employed by the Post Office. A local archive might hold newspaper cuttings or other information about this person: https://glamarchives.gov.uk/ You are welcome to visit our archives, but I believe most of the records and information you are looking for will be held at BT Archives. You can contact them directly to organise an appointment. I hope this helps, Best regards, Mathilde Mathilde Jourdan Archives Assistant The Postal Museum | 15-20 Phoenix Place | London [postcode redacted][map link redacted] T: [phone redacted] | Archive enquiries: [phone redacted] | E:[email redacted]<[email redacted]> [Facebook Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Facebook channel][Twitter Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Twitter channel][Instgram Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Instragram channel][Youtube Icon - click to open a new browser window showing the Postal Museum Youtube channel] [cid:image005.png@01DD25AD.E041C700] The Postal Museum is the public identity of the Postal Heritage Trust. Registered as a charity in England and Wales. Registered Charity Number 1102360. Company Number 4896056 From: Sion Buckler <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> Sent: 24 July 2026 16:17 To: Booking Support Team <[email redacted]<[email redacted]>> Subject: Marconi, Great House Farm, Llandough You don't often get email from [email redacted]<[email redacted]>. Learn why this is important Dear Archive Team, I am conducting historical research into the General Post Office's involvement in Guglielmo Marconi's wireless demonstrations in South Wales during 1897. Post Office Ltd has advised that your archive is the most likely repository for surviving historic GPO records relating to this period. I would be grateful if you could search for any records relating to: * Great House Farm, Llandough, near Penarth, Cardiff (not Great House Farm, Llandough near Cowbridge). * Llandough, Penarth, Lavernock and the surrounding wireless demonstration sites. * Guglielmo Marconi's 1897 demonstrations. * GPO Telegraph or Engineering Department records concerning these demonstrations. * Correspondence, reports, notebooks, diaries, staff lists, expense claims, photographs or plans relating to engineers or officials present. * Any references to Mr Williams of Great House Farm, Llandough, who family history suggests assisted Marconi before, during or after his stay at the property. If records relating specifically to Mr Williams cannot be located, I would also appreciate details of any records identifying GPO personnel, visitors or local residents connected with the demonstrations, as these may help establish the historical context. If another archive holds any of these records, I would be grateful if you could advise where I should direct my enquiry. Mr Williams of Great House Farm was my great grandad. I am trying to ascertain if the Mr Williams post office worker, mentioned helping Marconi in the article, was the same man as my great grandfather. I am also looking for any more connections between my family, my former home and Marconi and the radio experiments at lavernock point. Which I understand were already underway before Marconi arrived to South Wales. Thank you for your time and assistance. I look forward to your response. Kind regards, Sion Buckler (Ret'd Sgt) Royal Signals Cyber & Electronic Warfare Professional and Life Member