TWO plots of land are no longer required by the Ministry of Defence in Aberporth.

The MOD has a base in the village which included lands that previously formed part of the Pennar Uchaf farmland.

It is this part of land – now known as the sports field and changing pavilion on Hillside Road, Parcllyn, Aberporth and the playground, Hillside Road, Parcllyn, Aberporth – that are no longer needed by the MOD and have been declared surplus.

The land was acquired at the start of the Second World War to create the MOD base to use as a military testing range which is now used to test air launched weapons and unmanned aerial systems and is run by Qinteq.

When land that has been acquired by the MOD is no longer needed, the Crichel Down Rules require that the Government departments offer the land back to the former owner or their successors in title (not through purchase) at the current market value unless an exemption applies.

However, the MOD has – in the instance of both of these pieces of land – decided that an exemption applies and will not be offering it back to the owners or their successors and instead will be selling the lands.

The MOD is looking to trace the former owners or their successors to notify them of the decision.

The former owners of both pieces of land were Thomas Jones (farmer) and Sarah Jones (spinster) of Pennar Isaf in the parish of Aberporth in a conveyance dated December 28, 1939.

There is also a second former owner of the land which is now the sports field and changing pavilion which is Trustees of the will of John Lewis Jones being Margaret Jones of Pennar Uchaf, Aberporth, and Geoffrey Edward Evans George of 25 Quay Street, Cardigan, in a conveyance dated January 15, 1940.

The former owners or their successors should contact the MOD in writing by January 7, 2024, with successors needing to state and provide evidence of their relationship to the former owner and evidence to show that had the land not been acquired by the MOD, it would have been devolved under the former owner’s will or intestacy to the successor in title.

Contact should be made in writing to John Jones, senior estates surveyor, Land Management Services, Defence Infrastructure Organisation, Building 133A, Churchill Lines, St Athan, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, CF62 4NX.