Record#
EV ID |
EV-0279 |
Title |
Barry Dock News, 16 August 1889, p.2, “A Batch of Orchard Looters at Llandough”: four boys fined at Penarth for taking apples from “the orchard of Great House Farm … the property of John Williams”; John Williams junior gives evidence about “his father’s orchard”, which the boys entered “over the hedge from the railway” |
Date of document |
16 August 1889 (offence Sunday 11 August 1889; hearing Monday 12 August 1889) |
Type |
newspaper report (court) |
Evidence label |
PRESS, CONTEMPORARY (read in full, public online copy) |
Repository / reference |
|
Status |
HELD (public online copy, read 21 Oct 2026) |
Provenance |
Welsh Newspapers Online search “Williams “Great House” Llandough farmer”, 1880–1889; article read in full, 21 Oct 2026. |
Related evidence |
EV-0225 (directories: “Williams John, Great house”) · EV-0226 (geese, 1891–92) · EV-0224 (1881 census) · EV-0280 (lime works) · later press, same household: Barry Dock News, 22 Aug 1890, p.6 (“the orchard belonging to Mr John Williams, Great House Farm, Llandough”; the prosecutor’s son reported the theft; online copy) and Barry Herald, 6 Mar 1903, p.3 (“John Williams, jun., Great House Farm, Llandough” fined £1 for a Grangetown–Cogan rail fare; online copy); see John Williams |
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Quotation (verbatim): “A BATCH OF ORCHARD LOOTERS AT LLANDOUGH … four … boys … appeared in answer to the charge of breaking into the orchard of Great House Farm, on Sunday morning, and stealing therefrom a number of apples, the property of John Williams … P.C. Herbert Evans said … with the assistance of Mr John Williams, junior, caught three of the offenders … The boys got into the orchard over the hedge from the railway … John Williams, junior, corroborated the evidence of the constable, and added that about half the apples in his father’s orchard had been stolen.” (Penarth magistrates, Messrs J. S. Corbett and V. Trayes; fine 10s and costs each.) Library OCR, typos corrected only where the scan is plain (“Willi-im” = Williams).
Fits with: A second contemporary court report, two years before the geese case, naming John Williams as the occupier of Great House Farm, with a grown son, John Williams junior, working the farm. It places the orchard next to a railway (most likely the Taff Vale Railway’s Penarth line, which passes Llandough; the report does not name it), which helps locate the orchard on the OS sheets.
Cuts against: Occupancy only: the report is silent on tenure or title. “Property of John Williams” refers to the apples.
Notes: Penarth magistrates and a railway hedge place this at Llandough-juxta-Penarth, not Llandough near Cowbridge.
Catalogued by Sion’s Tab agent, 21 Oct 2026, in the decade-by-decade gap sweep (free online sources only).
Page version & change log#
Current version: 1.0.0
Version |
Date (UTC) |
Editor (human or agent name) |
Change |
Source / evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1.0.0 |
2026-10-21T06:03Z |
Sion’s Tab agent |
Page created in the 21 Oct 2026 decade-by-decade gap sweep. |
Owner’s instruction, 21 Oct 2026 06:50 BST; sources linked above |
Agents and editors: follow the Editing Protocol.