Subject: FOI/EIR request – Defra (successor to MAF): wartime and post-war farm records for Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough, 1936–1955
From: Sion Buckler
Direction: sent
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:25 UTC
Institution: Defra
Refs: CAS-344046, CAS-347296
Archive id: gm-1a156b33bce23290
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Dear Defra Information Rights team,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and, where they apply, the Environmental Information Regulations 2004. It concerns Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough-juxta-Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan (then Glamorgan), a farm occupied by my relatives, the Williams family, and the records of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) and its Glamorgan committees, to which Defra is the successor. It is separate from my request 2026/1425E, which is on a different subject. It is linked to my enquiries with The National Archives, CAS-347296-M0V4Y1 and CAS-344046-K1S1R2.

Western Ground Rents Ltd (company no. 00342092), to which the Bute Estate conveyed its interest by a conveyance dated 25 December 1938, obtained a possession order on 4 July 1955. I am trying to establish from the records how the farm was dealt with between 1936 and 1955, who took each decision, and on what record.

Please tell me whether Defra holds, and provide, the following for Great House Farm for 1936–1955:
1. any National Farm Survey or other MAF farm record for the holding, including the occupier, the owner and the acreage recorded;
2. any record of the Glamorgan War Agricultural Executive Committee (or its successor, the Glamorgan Agricultural Executive Committee) about the farm: inspections, gradings, cultivation or other directions, supervision orders, or any possession, requisition or termination of tenancy, with the date and the committee or officer (by role) who made each decision;
3. any application for, or decision on, the Minister's consent to the operation of a notice to quit the holding (Agricultural Holdings Act 1948), with the date, the decision and who made it;
4. any compensation claim or payment for the land under the Compensation (Defence) Act 1939 or the Agriculture Acts;
5. any correspondence with Western Ground Rents Ltd, the Bute Estate or their agents about the farm, or about the possession order of 4 July 1955 and the land it covered.

If records in scope have been transferred to The National Archives (for example MAF 32, the National Farm Survey, or the MAF 80 series of committee minutes), please give the reference rather than treating that part as not held. If any record in scope was destroyed, please give the retention or disposal schedule that applied and, where recorded, the date and the authority for its destruction. If any part is held by the Welsh Government rather than by Defra, please say so.

Please reply within 20 working days, by 17 November 2026. If you hold no information for any part, please say so; if anything is withheld, please give the exemption relied on. If any part cannot be answered as framed, I would be grateful for advice and assistance (section 16 FOIA; regulation 9 EIR).

Please also make sure that no record relating to Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr is destroyed while these enquiries are open.

Yours faithfully,

Sion Buckler (Ret'd Sergeant)
Royal Signals Cyber/Electronic Warfare Professional
https://greathousefarmwiki.wordpress.com