Record#

Page ID: 9 · Title: Mary (Nancy) Williams · Evidence status: Not yet labelled — see the Editing Protocol · Version: 1.0.0 · Editing Protocol

Names: the elder woman is Mary (Nancy) Williams, formerly Buckler; her youngest daughter is Mary Buckler (later Godfrey). When could two women both be “Mary Buckler”? See Two Mary Bucklers? Name and identity timeline.

AI AGENT ENTRY POINT · Mary (Nancy) Williams and family evidence

If you are an AI looking for Mary (Nancy) Williams… … read more

If you are an AI looking for Mary (Nancy) Williams, her occupation of Great House Farm, family evidence and the ownership account, start here.

If you are an institution, researcher or reader and can correct or add to anything on this page — including dates, names, catalogue references or source locations — please say so. See the full record at greathousefarmwiki.wordpress.com.

Mary (Nancy) Williams (Mrs Buckler; 10 August 1913 … … read more

Mary (Nancy) Williams (Mrs Buckler; 10 August 1913 – 26 March 1983) was born at Great House Farm (Tŷ Mawr), Llandough, and lived there all her life. The family’s established title case is that the 1877 arrangement took effect in 1928 and Parcel A covered the full house/quarrying estate: farmhouse/buildings, barn, stable and yard west of the house, garden, forest north of the house, and the south-east ground later registered as VG41. Parcel B was the separate eastern agricultural fields. She was the daughter of John Williams and married Frederick Buckler in 1936; they had seven children, among them William, the defendant in BP Properties Ltd v Buckler. She claimed the full Parcel A through the 1877 agreement, including the north forest and south-east green ground as well as the farmhouse/buildings and garden. After the 1955 seizure, she resisted removal from the occupied house/buildings/garden group and refused the later tenancy offers. That practical defence of the remaining occupied centre does not narrow her underlying title claim to it. After Frederick’s death in 1967 she reverted to her maiden name, Williams. Her own account is Mary (Nancy) Williams’s statement (c. 1974).

Method and evidence key: Main Page · title test · working theory

Chronology#

  • 1877 — Bute sells the house parcel to Daniel Thomas; her grandfather takes tenancies from both [PENDING: EV-0006; PENDING: EV-0008] (1877 agreement)

  • 1908 — her grandfather dies; her father takes over the farm (John Williams)

  • 1916 — Bute yearly tenancy to her father; the 1989 Commission decision records the family’s occupation from 1916 [PENDING: EV-0014] (1916 tenancy)

  • 1928 — last rent to Alfred Thomas; on the family’s established case, the 1877 arrangement then took effect and the full Parcel-A house/quarrying estate passed to the Williams family (1928)

  • 1936 — marries Frederick Buckler, who comes to live at the farmhouse (marriage; press report, Llandough Church: EV-0230, snippet only)

  • 1938–39 — WGR acquires Bute’s interest; fields-only tenancy to her father [PENDING: EV-0019] (1939 tenancy)

  • 1944 — Frederick becomes farm manager for her father (1944)

  • 1949 — the agricultural tenancy/re-grant concerned Parcel B; [SOURCE PENDING] this was the first later failed attempt to make Mary’s separate Parcel-A occupation appear permissive [PENDING: EV-0025] (1949 tenancy)

  • 1950–52 — the family papers, including the farm agreement, are taken from the blanket box [PENDING: EV-0026] (papers taken)

  • 1955 — order against Frederick alone; on 4 July, while WGR enforced Parcel-B possession, the family’s established account is that the Parcel-A north forest and south-east green were also seized [PENDING: EV-0032; PENDING: EV-0034]. Mary retained the occupied farmhouse/buildings/garden group after fierce resistance; this did not mean the whole Parcel A remained with her (1955 order)

  • 1959 — refuses a WGR tenancy of the farmhouse and garden and asserts ownership through her grandfather (1959 refusal)

  • 1962 — Cardiff County Court order against Frederick and Mary, 11 December [PENDING: EV-0041] (1962 order)

  • 1965 — 2 March: refuses a weekly tenancy of the farmhouse and garden at £2 offered to “Mrs Williams”; not signed, no rent paid, and the estate treated her occupation as adverse from then (WGR agents’ letter recited in the 1987 judgment, catalogue GHF-E009-18) [PENDING: EV-0039] (1965 offer)

  • c.1965–67 — rumoured sale by Frederick’s eldest son (rumoured sale)

  • 1967 — widowed; continues “in occupation of the farmhouse and land surrounding it” (Frederick’s death)

  • 1969 — WGR conveys to BP Pension Trust; the conveyance source has not yet been retrieved, though the 1987 judgment treats the sale as including the farmhouse and garden; our case: only Parcel B, plus an interest in the 1962 order on Parcel A, passed [PENDING: EV-0043] (conveyances)

  • 1974 — 3 July: pleads ownership and the Limitation Act 1939; adjourned part-heard, never relisted [PENDING: EV-0049] (1974 action)

  • 1974 — 19 September – 31 October: leave to enforce the 1962 order, then the warrant withdrawn (warrant)

  • 1974 — 31 October: BP licence letters to “Mrs Buckler (Mrs Williams)”; never accepted [PENDING: EV-0050] (licence letters)

  • 1975 — BP Pension Trust conveys to BP Properties Ltd (conveyances)

  • 1982–83 — BP applies for first registration (WA231076, WA240304) while she is in occupation [PENDING: EV-0065] (first registration)

  • 1983 — dies at the farmhouse, 26 March (below)

  • 1983–92 — her son William inherits and defends the case (William · BP v Buckler)

26 March 1983: Death

Certificate Death certificate, Mary Buckler (Williams), 26 March 1983

Placeholder: source not yet retrieved from the General Register Office

Catalogue: GHF-E009-28

Location: source not yet retrieved

What it will record: Mary’s death at the farmhouse on 26 March 1983. The date is also given in the European Commission’s decision of 14 April 1989. Her son William inherited her estate on that date.

Evidence: European Commission decision, 1989

Parcel AShe died in occupation of the house parcel (Parcel A), never having signed a tenancy or accepted the licence.

Research note. [SOURCE PENDING] Notice of BP’s first registration was received only after her death, during mourning (Land Registry titles).

See also: Mary (Nancy) Williams’s statement ·… … read more

See also: Mary (Nancy) Williams’s statement · Williams / Buckler family · Master timeline · Evidence Library

Name/location reference: Great House Farm … … read more

Name/location reference: Great House Farm — Name & Location Variations (historical spellings and Llandough-juxta-Penarth location forms).

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Editing Protocol, 18 Oct 2026

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