Record#
EV ID |
EV-0900 |
Title |
Archaeology: 1990 GGAT evaluation and 1994 excavation |
Date of document |
c.1880 to 2014 (timeline); records and the 1992 planning file read 21 Oct 2026 |
Type |
timeline of heritage records, planning records, report and journal |
Evidence label |
OFFICIAL RECORD (HER, Coflein, ADS, online) · PRIMARY DOCUMENT HELD (1990 report, EV-0126) · PUBLISHED REPORT (Medieval Archaeology 49, 2005, full text read) |
Repository / reference |
Heneb HER GGATE003872 · GGATE000877 · 02038s · Coflein NPRN 20182 · NMR ref. 6524751 · Holbrook & Thomas 2005 · Morgannwg 38 (1994), Archaeological notes, p.123 (the Llandough early-medieval cemetery: Bii amphorae c. AD 475–550; out of use by the 11th–12th century) |
Status |
HELD (the 1990 report: EV-0126, transcription; online records read 21 Oct 2026) |
Related evidence |
EV-0126 · EV-0113 · EV-0114 · EV-0124 · EV-0128 · EV-0131 · EV-0132 · EV-0293 · EV-0301 · Archaeology and Heritage · Master Timeline |
The 1990 report#
“Land at Great House Farm, Llandough: An Archaeological Assessment”, Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, August 1990. Holbrook & Thomas (2005) list it as an unpublished report: it was never printed. A copy is held here (EV-0126, 16 pages, with a full transcription). The National Monuments Record of Wales holds it as NMR ref. 6524751, and the Heneb HER cites it as the source of events GGATE003872 and GGATE000877.
Commissioned by BP Properties Ltd after the demolition of December 1988, through its agents Debenham Tewson.
Required by the outline permission of 13 March 1990: “no development shall take place until a field evaluation survey and archaeological assessment report has been carried out by a qualified archaeologist to the satisfaction of the Local Planning Authority.”
GGAT advised the council and BP at the same time. The report calls this a “dual role”.
8 trenches. Human bone in trenches 3 and 4 (“numerous human bones, most of which seemed to be disarticulated”). The north-east corner of the house, probably the dairy, in trench 7.
It names the Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981 and “recommends that before any decision on the options given above is taken, advice should be sought by B P Properties Ltd on any legal requirements which may pertain to the human skeletal remains.”
Recommendations: watching briefs; around trenches 3 and 4 and east of the churchyard, raise the ground level to avoid disturbance, or excavate and record before building.
Timeline#
Date |
Event |
Source |
|---|---|---|
c.1880 |
‘Armour’ reported found under the floor of the rear wing of Great House; thought to be the medieval ironwork from Llandough now at the National Museum. |
|
1962–3 |
|
|
1963 |
Barry and Vale Archaeological Group excavates south of the church: the corner of a 12th- or 13th-century house and a gully with three human skeletons of possible 13th-century date. |
|
1979 |
GGAT excavates south of the church: a possible late Iron Age roundhouse and a Roman villa (2nd–4th century), published 1988. |
|
6 Dec 1988 |
BP Properties Ltd demolishes the farmhouse and farm buildings. HER: “suddenly and completely demolished … amid considerable local controversy.” RCAHMW records sherds of 12th- to early 14th-century pottery on the slope north-east of the house. |
|
8 Nov 1989 |
Outline application 89/01396/OUT (residential development) received by the Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council. GGAT comments on the application. |
|
13 Mar 1990 |
Outline permission granted. Condition: “no development shall take place until a field evaluation survey and archaeological assessment report has been carried out by a qualified archaeologist to the satisfaction of the Local Planning Authority.” |
|
1990 |
GGAT digs 8 trial trenches, commissioned by BP Properties Ltd through its agents Debenham Tewson. GGAT advised both the council and BP (the report calls this a “dual role”). Human remains in trenches 3 and 4; the dairy corner of the house in trench 7. |
|
Aug 1990 |
GGAT report “Land at Great House Farm, Llandough: An Archaeological Assessment”. Area by the churchyard wall rated medium-high potential. It flags the Disused Burial Grounds (Amendment) Act 1981 and recommends that BP Properties Ltd take legal advice on the human remains before deciding how to build. Short note in Archaeology in Wales 30 (1990), 66. |
|
Mar–May 1992 |
Ideal Homes Wales applies for approval of reserved matters, 92/00671/RES (20 detached houses), under the 1990 outline permission. Layout drawings dated March 1992. |
|
27 Jul 1992 |
GGAT to the council: the 1990 assessment “demonstrated conclusively that significant archaeological deposits exist within the proposed development area … including a quantity of human bone”. GGAT urges excavation to “preserve by record” before development. Page 2 of the letter is missing from the file. |
|
3 Sep 1992 |
The council’s Chief Planning and Development Officer approves 92/00671/RES. No additional archaeological condition is imposed. Holbrook & Thomas (2005) and the developer’s 1994 preliminary report call this “full planning permission” in “March 1992”. |
Planning file 92/00671 (approval stamp; archaeology responses pp.24–25, 29) |
3 Dec 1993 |
BP Properties Ltd to Ideal Homes Wales (title WA231076). |
|
13 & 15 Dec 1993 |
Building has started. GGAT, the council’s archaeological adviser, writes that condition 18 “has not been fulfilled and cannot be discharged by your Authority” and recommends “a Breach of Condition notice is issued immediately”. |
Planning file 92/00671, archaeology responses pp.1–2; EV-0131 |
4 Feb 1994 |
After a site meeting on 18 Jan 1994, the developer’s agent cites the developer’s counsel’s opinion that condition 18 “has been discharged and that the approval of the detailed plans and the notice issued by your council are decisive as to that”. |
|
Mar 1994 |
Cotswold Archaeological Trust commissioned (by Wyn Thomas & Partners for Ideal Homes Wales Ltd) to excavate about 0.1 ha. Home Office burial licence granted 21 Mar 1994. GGAT’s letter of 18 May 1994 says it expired on 21 Apr 1994 and had not been renewed by 3 May; the agent’s note of 5 May says it runs to 20 Jul 1994. |
|
4 May 1994 |
Meeting of the council’s Director and planning officer, GGAT, Ideal Homes and the excavators. The agent’s note records conditions 17 and 18 as discharged (council letters of 15 Oct 1990 and 15 Feb 1994), that the council does not intend work to stop, and that the excavation is “on a voluntary basis”. |
|
18 May 1994 |
GGAT to the council: condition 16 “can now effectively be discharged”; Cadw may consider “spot scheduling this rare and important site of national significance”; no development until the site is “archaeologically cleared to the highest professional standards”. |
|
1994 |
“At an early stage it became clear that the site contained numerous burials that continued beyond the bounds of the agreed excavation area.” Excavation extended to 0.22 ha: 1,026 burials. Work ceased September 1994. (The HER event record gives 858 inhumations.) |
|
1994 |
Building work outside the excavation area disturbed “probably at least 30” burials; two were recovered by salvage recording. |
|
28 Jul 1994 |
Finds donated to Amgueddfa Cymru (accession 95.56H) by Ideal Homes Wales Ltd. |
|
2005 |
Holbrook & Thomas, “An Early-medieval Monastic Cemetery at Llandough, Glamorgan: Excavations in 1994”, Medieval Archaeology 49, 1–92. Free eprint at the Archaeology Data Service; 1994 datasets doi 10.5284/1000252. |
|
9 Jun 2014 |
RCAHMW splits the cemetery out of the farm record as Coflein NPRN 802090 (Cotswold Archaeology project archive, NMRW CA017). |
Record numbers#
Record |
What it is |
|---|---|
Heneb HER event GGATE003872 |
|
Heneb HER event GGATE000877 |
|
Heneb HER 02038s |
|
Heneb HER 03586s / 02272s |
|
Heneb HER event GGATE003875 |
|
Coflein NPRN 20182 |
|
Coflein NPRN 802090 |
|
NMR ref. 6524751 |
|
ADS record (RCAHMW) |
|
ADS record (Glamorgan-Gwent HER) |
|
ADS record (Glamorgan-Gwent HER) |
GREAT HOUSE FARM, LLANDOUGH (1990 evaluation / 1994 excavation) |
ADS eprint |
|
ADS dataset |
|
Planning |
|
Planning |
The 1992 consent was approval of reserved matters (92/00671/RES) under the 1990 outline permission, granted on 3 September 1992, 38 days after GGAT’s letter of 27 July 1992. The “March 1992” in Holbrook & Thomas (2005) first appears in the developer’s 1994 preliminary report; the layout drawings are dated March 1992. The Vale’s online planning register starts in 1996, so neither application is online.