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 https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/4468065 

 

LORDSHIP OF THE MANOR AND FORST OF ENNERDALE IN THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND

 

Why This Gazette Entry Matters

The London Gazette is the UK’s formal venue for recording:

Because Ennerdale was a Crown manor sold by Parliament in 1821, the Gazette notice serves as the modern continuation of that chain of title.

 

“Full Title Guarantee”

📌 Statutory Source

Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994, ss. 1–3.

📘 Legal Meaning

When a transfer states that the owner gives Full Title Guarantee, it automatically implies the following covenants:

• The transferor has the right to dispose of the property. This is a covenant of right to convey—the strongest possible assurance.

• The property is free from all charges, encumbrances, and third‑party rights except those already disclosed.

• The transferor will do all acts necessary to perfect the title (the “further assurance” covenant).

🏛 Why it matters for a manorial lordship

For an incorporeal hereditament like a manor or forest liberty, “Full Title Guarantee” means:

• The seller warrants the valid existence of the manorial dignity.

• The seller warrants the continuity of incidents (courts, rents, rights, intellectual property, etc.).

• The seller warrants exclusive beneficial ownership.

• The seller promises to defend the title against all prior claims.

This is the highest form of assurance available in English property law.

 

Legal Meaning of “Incidents” for Ennerdale

In English manorial law, incidents are inherent rights and privileges that attach to the manor and pass automatically with it. For a forest manor like Ennerdale, these incidents fall into several major categories:

🌲 1. Forest and Waste Incidents

These are the most significant for Ennerdale because the manor historically included:

• Forest of Ennerdale (a named liberty)

• Wastes, moors, fells, and unenclosed land

• Timber and underwood rights

• Pasturage and estovers

Key forest incidents include:

A. Timber Rights

• Right to take timber, underwood, and fallen wood.

• Historically included the right to lop, top, and fell trees on waste land.

B. Estovers

Traditional rights to take wood for:

• Housebote (repairing houses)

• Hedgebote (repairing fences)

• Firebote (fuel)

• Ploughbote (repairing agricultural tools)

These rights may now be symbolic unless expressly preserved, but they remain incidents of the manor.

C. Soil of the Waste

The lord traditionally owns the soil of the waste, meaning:

• The ground beneath unenclosed land

• Rights to grant easements or licences

• Rights to minerals beneath the waste (unless severed)

Ennerdale historically had extensive waste, so this is a major incident.

💧 2. Water and Fishing Incidents

Ennerdale is unusually water‑rich:

• Ennerdale Water

• Rivers Liza and Ehen

• Becks, streams, and tributaries

Key water-related incidents include:

A. Fishing Rights (Piscary)

A manorial lord may hold:

• Exclusive fishing rights in enclosed waters

• Several fishery in rivers or lakes

• Rights to regulate fishing (historically via court leet)

If the Lonsdale estate did not sever these rights, they remain incidents.

B. Water Rights

• Rights to take water

• Rights to divert or use watercourses for mills or irrigation

• Rights to construct weirs, fish traps, or fords (historically)

C. Rights in the Bed of Lakes or Rivers

If the manor historically included the bed of Ennerdale Water, this is a significant incident.

🦌 3. Hunting, Fowling, and Forest Liberty Incidents

Because Ennerdale was a forest liberty, not merely a manor, it historically included:

A. Rights of Chase or Free Warren

• Hunting deer

• Taking game

• Fowling rights

• Rights to regulate hunting within the liberty

These rights are often ceremonial today but remain incidents unless extinguished.

B. Estrays and Waifs

Historically included:

• Estrays (stray livestock)

• Waifs (ownerless goods) These are mostly obsolete but still legally recognized as manorial incidents.

⛏ 4. Mineral and Quarry Incidents

Ennerdale historically included Mines and Minerals which is reserved by the Earl Lonsdale

Mineral incidents include:

• Right to enter land to extract minerals

• Right to lease mineral rights

• Right to royalties from extraction

• Right to open new workings on waste land

🐑 5. Common Rights (Profits à Prendre)

The Earl has reserved the Common Land.

These rights may be held by tenants, but the lord retains the soil and the reversionary interest.

🏛 6. Jurisdictional Incidents

Even if ceremonial today, they remain legally recognized.

These include:

• Court leet (public order, minor offences)

• Court baron (customary tenants, copyhold matters)

• Right to appoint officers (historically: reeve, ale‑taster, constable)

• Right to hold view of frankpledge (rare today)

These incidents confirm the manor’s legal personality.

🪙 7. Financial Incidents

These include:

• Quit rents

• Chief rents

• Fines

• Fees for licences

• Herbage and agistment fees (grazing charges)

• Toll rights (if historically granted)

If any remain unredeemed, they are still enforceable.

🛡 8. Intellectual Property and Symbolic Incidents

The Gazette notice explicitly includes “intellectual property”, which is unusual and significant.

This includes:

• Manorial name

• Arms, badges, seals, or insignia

• Historic symbols of forest liberty

• Rights to use the title in commerce or education

• Rights to prevent unauthorized use

This is a modern legal recognition of the manor’s identity.

📚 Summary Table of Expanded Incidents