Billy’s unhappy family

By Jim Clarke

WHEN the bailiffs refused to let South Wales farmer Billy Buckler back into his family home they found eight other people sharing the rambling old farmhouse.

What were they all doing there? It seems that Billy opened his doors to everyone except the bailiff and his men. Billy’s friends and then their friends and then friends of friends turned up at Great House Farm in Llandough, Cardiff, for short stays that become permanent residencies.

So the eviction of Billy, his wife Branwen and their three children Hywel, Rhys and Amy has made another group of people being made homeless.

Some of the tenants are unemployed and had their rent at the farm paid by the Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council. One man works in a Cardiff club and two others will have to abandon business projects as a result of the eviction.

“Billy and Branwen have had a hard time of it recently, but we’ve all tried to get behind them and help get the farm back on its feet,” said Chris Thompson.

Karen Griffiths, aged 21, from Cardiff, told how the pressure of the legal battles with BP had taken their toll on Billy. “Sometimes we’ve seen him break down and cry,” she said.

Most of the young people who were evicted had been living a semi-communal life on the farm for around a year. Karen, who was made redundant from Llandaff Tech earlier this year, and her friend Terry Rayment had been travelling and living on a bus for a time before they found a place to stay on the farm — now they are back on the bus in a nearby lay-by with their two dogs, a cat and all the possessions they could carry out of the farm.

“The farm was a happy place to stay,” said Terry, who has known the family for years. Karen told how the residents of Great House Farm would go out on “wood runs” together, collecting fuel from the nearby woods to feed the open fires in the huge farmhouse.

Thirty-year-old Chris had just started a light haulage business backed by the Enterprise Allowance Scheme. “It was going really well and I had plenty of work coming in, but without a base to work from or a phone I’ve had it,” he said.

The bailiffs refused to comment on the [accusations] laid by the former tenants of the farm.