Subject: Re: FOI 1264/26 - non-personal operational records concerning Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough, November–December 1988
From: Sion Buckler
Direction: sent
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2026 17:06 UTC
Institution: South Wales Police
Refs: 1264/26, FOI1264
Archive id: gm-1a1363a8a12eaf81
------------------------------------------------------------

Further to my clarification sent today, for the avoidance of doubt: William
Beverly Buckler, my late father, died at Llandough Hospital on 15 May 1992.
Information about a deceased person is not personal data under the Data
Protection Act 2018, s.3(2), so recorded information about him falls within
the scope of this FOI request.

I add, as a specific search lead, that he was reportedly taken from his
hospital bed at Llandough Hospital on 3 December 1988 to be charged with
assaulting two bailiffs, criminal damage, and wanton or furious driving.

Sion Buckler (Ret'd Sergeant)




On Tue, 13 Oct 2026, 17:05 Sion Buckler, <[email redacted]> wrote:

> Dear Mr Byrne,
>
> Thank you for your email of 13 October 2026 concerning Freedom of
> Information request 1264/26.
>
> I provide the clarification and additional search identifiers below. The
> purpose is to help South Wales Police identify and locate existing recorded
> information responsive to my original request. I am not seeking to extend
> the period covered, require the creation of new information, or ask the
> Force to investigate or determine the underlying property dispute.
>
> For clarity, the requested period remains 1 November to 31 December 1988
> inclusive. My request remains for existing, non-personal recorded
> information only. Personal data is excluded from this FOI request and is
> being pursued separately through the appropriate subject-access route.
>
> 1. Location and alternative site names
>
> The property concerned is Great House Farm, also referred to as Great
> House and Tŷ Mawr / Ty Mawr, at Llandough-juxta-Penarth in the Vale of
> Glamorgan, adjoining St Dochdwy’s Church.
>
> The following identifiers may assist searches of occurrence, incident,
> control-room, deployment or other operational records:
>
> - Site: Great House Farm / Great House / Tŷ Mawr / Ty Mawr.
> - Locality: Llandough-juxta-Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan, near Penarth.
> - Approximate National Grid Reference: ST 1681 7331; the less precise
> reference ST 168 733 may also appear.
> - Distinctive context: the family farmhouse and associated buildings that
> were the subject of the possession dispute and were demolished in December
> 1988.
>
> The locality description is intentional: I refer to
> Llandough-juxta-Penarth, not the separate Llandough near Cowbridge.
>
> 2. Names and organisational identifiers
>
> The principal individual identifier is:
>
> William Beverly Buckler, also referred to in contemporary reporting as
> William Buckler, Bill Buckler or Billy Buckler.
>
> Relevant corporate or property-related search terms include:
>
> - B.P. Properties Ltd / BP Properties Ltd, the company identified in the
> property litigation and associated with the demolition.
> - BP Pension Trust Ltd and Western Ground Rents Ltd, which appear in the
> wider historical property context. I include these names only as
> supplementary indexing terms; I do not assert that either organisation was
> involved in, or communicated with police about, an event during the
> requested period.
> - Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council and South Glamorgan County Council,
> the relevant local-government names for the period.
> - Court enforcement personnel, bailiffs and any public authority or
> official recorded as contacting, corresponding with, or requesting
> assistance from the police in relation to the property.
>
> The following case identifiers may also be useful if records were indexed
> by litigation or proceedings rather than by address:
>
> - B.P. Properties Ltd v Buckler [1987] EWCA Civ 2.
> - Buckler v United Kingdom, European Commission of Human Rights
> application 14464/88, registered on 12 December 1988.
>
> These case identifiers are offered to assist retrieval, not as an
> assertion that the Force necessarily held records under either reference.
>
> I am supplying names and case references as historical search identifiers.
> I am not asking for personal data about living individuals. Where a
> responsive record contains personal data, please consider whether
> non-personal information can be disclosed separately or after appropriate
> redaction.
>
> 3. Chronology and specific search leads
>
> The following events provide context for identifying any corresponding
> police records. They are search leads drawn from historical reporting, the
> heritage record and the family archive; they should not be treated as proof
> of police involvement.
>
> 29–30 November 1988 — possession and eviction
>
> The historical chronology records possession on 29 November 1988. A
> contemporaneous South Wales Echo report dated 30 November, titled “Angry
> scenes as farmer evicted” and attributed to Peter Bibby, describes the
> eviction sequence and reports that bailiffs entered the property and that
> the roof of an outbuilding had already been partly removed. The chronology
> also associates demolition of outbuildings with 30 November.
>
> There is therefore a date distinction between the recorded possession date
> and the newspaper’s account of the eviction. I cannot presently reconcile
> the dates. Please search across both 29 and 30 November, rather than
> treating either as an exclusive date for the relevant incident.
>
> 2–5 December 1988 — court proceedings and proposed access to belongings
>
> Contemporary reporting describes further court proceedings in the days
> before the farmhouse was demolished, including an arrangement under which
> access to collect belongings was reportedly permitted subject to conditions
> and pending a further hearing.
>
> The precise terms and procedural details should be verified from the
> original records rather than inferred from press summaries. This chronology
> may nevertheless help identify any police liaison, requests for assistance,
> public-order concerns or communications concerning access to the premises.
>
> 6 December 1988 — demolition
>
> The heritage record identifies 6 December 1988 as the demolition date. The
> archived historical chronology reports that a demolition team arrived in
> the early hours and that the farmhouse was demolished that morning.
>
> I emphasise that the reported arrival time is not evidence that police
> were present at that time. I am asking whether responsive police records
> exist, not inviting an assumption that an attendance or deployment took
> place.
>
> 9–13 December 1988 — discrepancy requiring verification
>
> A South Wales Echo report dated 10 December 1988 appears to state that
> William Buckler was released on bail the previous day, which would be 9
> December.
>
> Separately, a notebook attributed to William Buckler and retained in the
> family archive contains an account referring to police having “locked me up
> for 2 weeks” and to a search involving family antiques and the taking of
> documents. The entry is a family-held historical account; it is not, by
> itself, independently verified proof of detention, a search, seizure or the
> precise dates involved.
>
> If the notebook’s reference to two weeks from 29 November is literal, it
> would point to a date around 13 December. That does not readily reconcile
> with the newspaper’s reported release date of 9 December. I do not ask the
> Force to accept either account in preference to its own records. The
> discrepancy is a reason to check the relevant dates and any associated
> records.
>
> Accordingly, please include 29 November to 13 December 1988 when checking
> for any potentially relevant custody, detention, search, property-seizure,
> operational or cross-referenced occurrence records, while retaining the
> original overall FOI period of 1 November to 31 December 1988. I seek only
> information falling within the original request’s non-personal scope,
> including any separable non-personal operational information.
>
> 4. Earlier event offered solely as an indexing lead
>
> The archived historical chronology also describes a separate incident at
> Great House Farm on 29 April 1988, involving bailiffs and a police presence
> during a stand-off. The account attributes to South Wales Police the
> position that the officers were there to prevent a breach of the peace,
> rather than to assist bailiffs.
>
> That event is outside the requested period. I am not asking you to
> disclose records from April 1988 under this request, and I do not suggest
> that the earlier incident establishes police attendance in November or
> December. I mention it only in case any occurrence number, location index
> or related reference appearing in the records from the requested period
> would be easier to identify against the same property or dispute.
>
> 5. Records sought and search categories
>
> With those identifiers in mind, the records sought remain the existing
> records described in my original request, insofar as they fall within the
> period and are held by South Wales Police. In particular, please search for
> responsive:
>
> 1. Incident and control-room records: incident or occurrence logs, calls
> for assistance, control-room entries, dispatch records and associated
> incident references relating to the site or the events described above.
>
> 2. Police attendance and operational records: deployment, duty,
> operational or event logs recording any police attendance, requested
> attendance, planned response or recorded decision concerning the site, its
> occupants, bailiffs, enforcement personnel or demolition activity.
>
> 3. Communications and liaison: recorded correspondence, messages,
> telephone notes or other communications between police and local-authority
> officers, court or enforcement personnel, the landowner or developer, their
> representatives, or other public bodies concerning the property or events
> during the requested period.
>
> 4. Requests for police assistance and public-order matters: records
> concerning requests for assistance, access to or removal from the premises,
> the enforcement of possession, complaints, reported disorder, obstruction,
> public-order concerns, or action proposed or taken in connection with the
> eviction or demolition.
>
> 5. Custody, search and property-related records: to the extent that
> responsive non-personal information is held and falls within the original
> scope, any operational references or separable non-personal information
> concerning a possible detention, premises search, or taking or retention of
> documents or other property during the relevant dates.
>
> 6. Records-management information: where a responsive record is no longer
> held, any existing record-transfer, retention, destruction or disposal
> entry sufficient to establish whether the record existed and, if recorded,
> what became of it.
>
> I am not asserting that each category necessarily generated a record. The
> purpose of the list is to identify the likely record types and help make
> the search practicable.
>
> If the Force’s systems use different terminology, location codes,
> occurrence categories or operational record series, please use the
> equivalent available indexing terms where reasonably possible.
>
> 6. Historical reference material
>
> For convenience, the relevant historical chronology and case background
> are available here:
>
> - Archived Great House Farm Wiki homepage:
> https://web.archive.org/web/20260927001835/https://greathousefarmwiki.wordpress.com/
> - Archived demolition chronology:
> https://web.archive.org/web/20261006042123/https://greathousefarmwiki.wordpress.com/demolition-1988/
> - B.P. Properties Ltd v Buckler case page:
> https://greathousefarmwiki.wordpress.com/bp-properties-v-buckler/
>
> These pages are provided as contextual aids and sources of possible search
> terms, not as substitutes for the Force’s own records or as claims that any
> particular police record exists.
>
> 7. Confirmation of scope and statutory timetable
>
> I trust the above supplies the clarification you require to identify and
> locate the information requested.
>
> Please confirm receipt and whether this clarification is sufficient for
> the Force to proceed with its searches. Please also confirm the date from
> which you calculate the applicable 20-working-day response period and the
> resulting response deadline.
>
> For the avoidance of doubt:
>
> - the date range remains 1 November–31 December 1988 inclusive;
> - the request remains confined to existing recorded information;
> - personal data remains excluded from this FOI request and is being
> pursued separately through the appropriate subject-access route;
> - the historical accounts and discrepancies above are search leads, not
> demands that the Force accept disputed facts; and
> - I am not asking the Force to reach conclusions about ownership, the
> validity of court orders, the conduct of any party, or the truth of any
> allegation.
>
> Thank you for your assistance.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Sion Buckler (Ret'd Sergeant)
> Royal Signals Cyber/Electronic Warfare Professional and Life Member