LEGAL MEMORANDUM ABOUT CARBON OFFSET RIGHTS OF ENNERDALE BAILIWICK
Re: Rights of the Lord of the Manor of Ennerdale to Carbon Credit Monetisation from
Manorial Waste in the Forest of Copeland
I. INTRODUCTION
This memorandum addresses the historical and legal basis upon which the Lord of the Manor of Ennerdale may lawfully
claim and monetise carbon credits (or analogous environmental benefit units) arising from approximately
11,000 acres of manorial waste situated within the Forest of Copeland. The
Ennerdale manorial interest derives from a fee simple conveyance by the Crown and Government in 1822, which preserved the
manorial incidents and liberties associated with the estate.
II. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
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1822 Crown & Parliamentary Sale – The Manor, Liberty, Bailiwick, and
Forest of Ennerdale were alienated in fee simple by the Crown with Parliamentary sanction,
transferring to private ownership not merely the freehold lands but the incorporeal manorial
rights, liberties, and regalian incidents traditionally exercised over the waste and commons.
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Nature of the Manorial Waste – The manorial waste historically comprised
unenclosed moorland, woodland, and rough grazing land under the dominion of the Lord, with rights
to manage, license, and benefit from its products and uses, subject to customary common rights.
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Survival of Rights Post-Enclosure Acts – The Ennerdale sale preserved a
distinct category of legal interest in the waste, separate from enclosed demesne lands, allowing
the Lord to retain certain economic rights over its use and exploitation.
III. LEGAL FRAMEWORK
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Manorial Rights – English property law recognises manorial rights as
incorporeal hereditaments capable of separate ownership from the freehold (Law of Property Act
1922, as amended). Such rights may include minerals, timber, sporting, and other resource-based
profits.
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Profits à Prendre & Airspace Rights – The right to take products from
the land, including timber and biomass, is a profit à prendre. Carbon credits, being a monetised
representation of carbon sequestration in biomass and soils, are analogous to timber and may be
claimed if the right to the trees and vegetation of the waste subsists. Airspace rights, while
curtailed by modern aviation law, still attach to the extent necessary to enjoy the rights to
vegetation and forest canopy.
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Carbon Credits under UK Law – The UK Woodland Carbon Code and other
recognised standards require that the project proponent have legal control over the land or express
authority from the rights-holder for the vegetation and soil management. The manorial right to
biomass production and management over the waste may provide such authority if not extinguished or
transferred.
IV. APPLICATION TO ENNERDALE
Given the 1822 sale terms and the continuing manorial interest in the 11,000 acres of waste:
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The Lord retains the legal standing to enter into agreements for afforestation,
reforestation, and woodland management on the waste lands.
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Where forestry is currently managed by the Forestry Commission or another public body,
the Lord may still negotiate a revenue share or co-registration arrangement for carbon credits derived
from biomass growth on the waste.
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The economic benefit from such credits constitutes a modern exploitation of the manorial
resource rights preserved under the 1822 conveyance.
V. CONCLUSION
It is the considered position that the Lord of the Manor of Ennerdale, by virtue of the fee simple conveyance of
1822 and the survival of manorial incidents over the 11,000 acres of waste in the Forest of Copeland, possesses a
defensible legal basis to claim or participate in the monetisation of carbon credits derived from said lands. Any
such scheme should be implemented via formal agreement with the managing authority to ensure compliance with the
Woodland Carbon Code or equivalent standard, thereby converting a historic regalian prerogative into a viable
21st-century environmental revenue stream.
Ennerdale — Potential Heritage Carbon Credit Initiative
The Liberty, Bailiwick, and Manor of Ennerdale — conveyed by the Crown and Parliament in 1822
with full manorial incidents — retains a historic interest in approximately 11,000 acres of manorial waste in the Forest of Copeland. This land, steeped in
centuries of stewardship, is today part of a living landscape managed for environmental and public
benefit.
As part of exploring ways to connect Ennerdale’s heritage with modern sustainability goals,
there is the potential for the Lord of the Manor to participate in, or facilitate, carbon sequestration
projects on the manorial waste in cooperation with relevant land managers. Such projects could, in the future,
allow for the generation of verified carbon credits under the UK Woodland Carbon Code or other recognised
environmental standards.
Any initiative of this kind would depend on formal agreements, legal compliance, and independent verification, ensuring that
the heritage of Ennerdale is preserved while contributing to 21st-century climate goals. Should this
concept move forward, purchasers of Ennerdale-linked carbon units would not only support the removal of
carbon from the atmosphere but also help maintain one of England’s most storied and historically
significant free liberties.
This statement describes a potential and exploratory concept only. It does not constitute a
public offer, solicitation, or guarantee of the sale or availability of carbon credits.
1. Manorial Incidents of “Waste”
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In manorial law, “waste” didn’t mean useless land — it meant common or uncultivated land (heaths, moors, forests, wetlands).
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The lord of the manor retained seignorial rights over the soil and its products, even where tenants held
customary grazing or turbary rights.
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Byproducts like timber, fallen branches, leaves, turf, bracken, peat, stone, and sand were
traditionally incidents of the lord’s ownership unless expressly granted out.
2. Waste Products and Incorporeal Profits
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By analogy, anything “emanating from the soil” (profitae naturales) — timber, turf, fruit, minerals, and even deadwood — was owned
by the lord.
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This category of rights could extend, under modern legal reasoning, to
carbon sequestration services and oxygen release of forests and waste lands.
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Historically, tenants could not appropriate these without the lord’s leave; they were
fined in the manorial court if they did.
3. Modern Legal Analogy: Carbon Offsets
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Carbon credits and offsets are essentially the monetization of ecological services provided by land — the capacity of
soil, peat bogs, forests, and wetlands to absorb CO₂ or release O₂.
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Ownership of credits flows from ownership of the land and the right to exclude others from profiting off its ecological functions.
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Thus, if the lord of the manor retains manorial rights in waste lands, then by strict
analogy, the lord would also be the party entitled to claim carbon offsets and related environmental credits.
4. Legal Support
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The maxim cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos still underpins English
land law: ownership of the soil extends to everything above and below.
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Case law (e.g., Bernstein v. Skyviews & General Ltd [1978]) confirms ownership of airspace “as
much as is necessary for ordinary use and enjoyment.” That principle supports ownership of trees’
byproducts insofar as they are tied to land use.
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By analogy, carbon absorption and oxygen release are tied to the ecological use of
land.
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If the Crown can claim “regalian rights” in gold and silver, then the lord’s manorial
incidents in waste, turbary, estovers, herbage, and minerals can be read as a basis for
claiming “carbon sequestration rights.”
5. Conclusion
Yes — under manorial law extended into the modern environmental context:
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The lord of the manor, as holder of manorial incidents in waste, could assert
rights to carbon offsets and environmental credit instruments generated by the waste lands.
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These rights are analogous to traditional incidents like timber, herbage, minerals, or
turbary, which were considered the lord’s property unless alienated by charter.
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