Subject: RE: Ty Mawr/ Great House, Llandough, Cardiff
From: NMR Enquiries
Direction: received
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2026 17:07 UTC
Institution: RCAHMW (Royal Commission)
Refs: none
Archive id: gm-1a0c4f015168ab78
------------------------------------------------------------

Prynhawn da.

Diolch am eich ymholiad rhyddid gwybodaeth.  Byddwn yn ymateb o fewn 20 diwrnod gwaith.

Thank you for your FoI enquiry.  We will respond within 20 working days.




NMR Enquiries
Ymholiadau Cyhoeddus I Public Enquiries
Ffordd Penglais | Penglais Road, Aberystwyth, [postcode redacted]
[phone redacted]
[email redacted] | [email redacted]
www.cbhc.gov.uk | www.rcahmw.gov.uk
Noddir gan Lywodraeth Cymru | Sponsored by Welsh Government
Rydym yn croesawu gohebiaeth yn Gymraeg a Saesneg. Ni fydd gohebu yn Gymraeg yn peri oedi.
We welcome correspondence in Welsh and English. Corresponding in Welsh will not lead to any delay.

Yn unol â Rheoliadau Safonau'r Gymraeg (Rhif 2) 2016, mae gennych hawl i gyfathrebu a gohebu â Chomisiwn Brenhinol Henebion Cymru yn eich dewis iaith. Er mwyn sicrhau ein bod yn cyflawni’r hawl, rhowch wybod i ni a ydych yn dymuno derbyn gohebiaeth a/neu alwadau ffôn oddi wrthym yn y Gymraeg. Bydd yr wybodaeth hon yn cael ei chofnodi gennym ni, a byddwn yn defnyddio'r iaith o’ch dewis ym mhob cyfathrebu yn y dyfodol. Diolch.
Under the Welsh Language Standards (No. 2) Regulations 2016, you have the right to communicate and correspond with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales in your preferred language. To ensure we uphold this right, please let us know whether you wish to receive correspondence and/or telephone calls from us in Welsh. This information will be recorded by us, and we will use your preferred language in all future communication. Thank you.
​
From: Sion Buckler <[email redacted]>
Sent: 20 September 2026 08:07
To: NMR Enquiries <[email redacted]>
Subject: Ty Mawr/ Great House, Llandough, Cardiff

Dear Rhodri, dear colleagues,
>
> Diolch am eich cydnabyddiaeth ar 8 Medi. On the Welsh Language Standards point raised in your signature — I am Welsh and I would be glad to receive correspondence in Welsh, but please use whichever language is quicker for you. I do not want language to delay anything, and I will not treat a Welsh reply as needing translation.
>
> This is a request under section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and, so far as the records concern the historic environment, under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004.
>
> **First, a point of housekeeping. Nothing in this email amends, clarifies, narrows or withdraws my requests of 8, 15 or 17 September.** Those stand exactly as made and their statutory periods run from their own dates. This is an additional request, and I would not want it to be treated as restarting any clock. On my reckoning:
>
> - **8 September 2026** — FOI/EIR on R. F. Suggett's December 1988 unpublished records, H. J. Thomas's 1974 survey, the source of the "held by the National Museum of Wales" attribution, and copy correspondence with Amgueddfa Cymru, GGAT, Cadw and the Vale. Acknowledged by you the same day, twenty working days. **Due Tuesday 6 October 2026.** No reference number issued; nothing yet supplied.
> - **15 September 2026** — catalogue check on Emergency Recording case **RCS2/1/1777**, filed under Great House (Ty Mawr), Bonvilston, where the material described is the pattern one would expect for the Llandough demolition. **Due Tuesday 13 October 2026.**
> - **17 September 2026** — whether the Commission was notified, consulted or asked to record the farmhouse before its demolition on 6 December 1988. **Due Thursday 15 October 2026.**
>
> The second and third received only the automated enquiry acknowledgement, which cites fifteen working days and notes that the priority search service is suspended. I understand the staffing position and I am not complaining about it. But both emails ask for recorded information, and a request for recorded information is a request under section 1 whether or not it is labelled as one. **Please confirm that all three are logged as FOIA / EIR requests and let me have the reference numbers.** If they are currently sitting in the research-enquiry queue rather than the information-rights queue, that is easily fixed now and much harder to fix later.
>
> **On the number of requests.** I am conscious that this is my fifth email in twelve days. It is not an attempt to burden the Commission. Each request arose from a document I only found after sending the last one — the GGAT 1990 assessment led me to Suggett, Suggett's own note led me to the lost correspondence, and a Coflein search led me to RCS2/1/1777. I am content for all of them to be answered together in a single response if that is more efficient for you, and if the whole exceeds the appropriate limit under section 12 I will happily tell you which items to do first rather than have anything refused outright. Please just ask.
>
> **The site.** Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough (Llandochau) juxta Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan — the community of St Dochdwy's Church and Llandough Hospital. **Not** Llandough near Cowbridge, and **not** Ty Mawr, Bonvilston (Cadw 13603), which is a different and still-standing house. NPRN 20182. ST 1681 7331. HER GGAT02038s. Now Church View Close. Outbuildings demolished 30 November 1988; farmhouse 6 December 1988.
>
> Holdings I am aware of include file references **NA/GL/88/49** and **NA/GL/89/208**, NMR site file material catalogued on Coflein (a plan with additions dated 12 December 1988, a descriptive account, a press cutting), Inventory working papers for Glamorgan Inventory site 425, and the disputed ERC bundle RCS2/1/1777.
>
> **Why this matters to me.** The farm was my family's. The immediate reason for this request is a line in your own records: R. F. Suggett's December 1988 assessment notes that *"Correspondence between C. N. Johns and Mrs Buckler, Great House Farm, has been lost from the file since 1986/87"*, and that *"There is apparently no photographic record of the site."* Mrs Buckler was my relative. I want the correspondence if it survives, the record of how it came to be lost if it does not, and the rest of the file either way. I am not asking the Commission for a view on title or on the legality of the demolition, and I would not expect one.
>
> **Information requested**
>
> Please supply copies, so far as held:
>
> 1. A full contents list or file schedule for **NA/GL/88/49** and **NA/GL/89/208**, itemising every document on each file, whether or not the documents themselves are disclosed.
> 2. Copies of all documents on those two files.
> 3. **The file cover, front sheet or wrapper of each file**, and any enclosure list, loans register, issue slip, reader-request record or file-tracking entry attached to or kept for them.
> 4. Every record concerning the **C. N. Johns / Mrs Buckler correspondence** recorded as lost since 1986/87: any surviving copy, draft, extract, summary, index entry or catalogue stub; any contemporaneous or later note of its loss; any record of a search for it; any record of who consulted, borrowed or handled the file between 1 January 1985 and 31 December 1988; and any internal or external correspondence about its absence. If no such record exists, please say so expressly rather than leaving it unaddressed.
> 5. The Commission's **retention and disposal schedule** applicable to site files and correspondence files in the 1980s and today, and confirmation whether any records relating to this site have been destroyed under it, and if so when and under what authority.
> 6. Whether the files listed above have been **reviewed for transfer to, or retention from, The National Archives or the Glamorgan Archives**, and the outcome of any such review.
> 7. All **Inventory working papers, drafts, card-index entries and record cards** for the site, including those for Glamorgan Inventory site 425.
> 8. All **photographs** of the site in any format — prints, negatives, transparencies, digital images, and any oblique or vertical aerial coverage of Llandough showing the farm at any date — whether or not catalogued, with their catalogue entries. Given Suggett's 1988 note that there is apparently no photographic record, **please state expressly whether the Commission holds none**, and whether any images sit within RCS2/1/1777 or in uncatalogued Emergency Recording material.
> 9. Confirmation, from the location plan, map copies and photographs inside **RCS2/1/1777**, whether that bundle is Bonvilston or Llandough. If Llandough, please re-link it to NPRN 20182 and supply a contents list and copies. Please also check adjacent case **RCS2/1/1776**. *(This is my request of 15 September, restated here for completeness only — it stands on its own date.)*
> 10. Any record of a site visit, watching brief, recording exercise or emergency recording carried out or considered before, during or after the demolition; any notification of the proposed demolition, from whom and on what date; and any decision **not** to record the building together with the reasons recorded for it. The building was not listed — Cadw inspected on 29 July 1988 and did not list it — so I make no assumption that the Commission was entitled to notice. What I would like to know is what the Commission's own criteria for initiating Emergency Recording were at the time, and whether this site was considered against them. Contemporary reports of 3 December 1988 stated that Cadw was considering emergency listing and that discussion with the Commission was being arranged. The house came down three days later.
> 11. The **1974 survey by H. J. Thomas**, his site notes of 26 April 1974 and 12 December 1988, and any measured drawings, sketches, plans or elevations, published or unpublished.
> 12. **R. F. Suggett's December 1988 records in full** — every page, card, continuation sheet, annotation and enclosure — not only the passages concerning the c.1880 find.
> 13. Any record of the source of the statement that the c.1880 ironwork "is held by the National Museum of Wales", and any later file that confirms, corrects or withdraws that attribution.
> 14. All correspondence between the Commission and any of the following concerning this site, 1970–1995: Cadw or the Welsh Office; the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust; Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council; BP Properties Limited or its agents, including Debenham Tewson & Chinnocks; Persimmon Homes (Wales) Limited; Ideal Homes Wales Limited; Amgueddfa Cymru; any Member of Parliament; and any member of my family.
> 15. Any accession records for material deposited with the Commission by GGAT, Cadw, Cotswold Archaeology or any other body relating to this site.
>
> **Practicalities.** Please reply by email to this address. I cannot attend in person and I am not seeking anything that attracts a charge. Scans are fine. Where an item is already on Coflein, a stable reference and link is enough **provided** you confirm the online record is complete. If any item is held elsewhere — The National Archives, Glamorgan Archives, Cadw, Heneb or Amgueddfa Cymru — please name the body and reference so I can apply there directly, which I will.
>
> Finally, so that it is on record from the outset rather than raised later: please let me have the name and contact details of the officer responsible for information rights at the Commission, and confirmation of the internal review procedure, so that I know where to direct any review request if one becomes necessary.
>
> With thanks for your patience with a long list.
>
> Yn gywir / Yours faithfully,
>
> Sion Buckler
> [email redacted]<[email redacted]>

--