Transcript Getting to grip with Landownership

Getting to grips with Landownership
VCH Cumbria
Meeting for volunteers, 14 Feb 2013
Overlordship
Landownership within baronies
Inquisitions post mortem [IPMs]:
Robert Clifford, 1314
IPM Robert Clifford (2)
IPM Margaret Dacre, 1362
IPM Peter Tillioll, 1246
Manor of Scaleby
 Demesne (233 acres arable land; 20 acres meadow; mill; capital
messuage; pasture with vaccary)
 Bondagium (31 bovates of land, held by 20 bondi)
 Cottagers (6 cottagers holding 6 cottages & 14 acres land)
 Free tenants (including: Udard de Etardebi holds Etardeby by service
of 16s annually)
Structure of a Manor
 Demesnes (often leased from 14th cent)
 Tenant land
 Freehold
 Customary (enfranchised 17th cent to 1925)
 Leasehold
Cumberland: demesnes
1688
1816
‘Customary tenantright’
 ‘at the will of the lord subject to the customs of the
manor’
 ‘ancient yearly rent’
 tantamount to freehold
 origins: probably originated in life leases granted for
the life of lord or tenant
 fine (or ‘gressum’) - not only on change of tenant but
also on a change of lord
 lords exploit fines to raise income
Landed estates, 17th-20th cents
 Processes
 Demesnes/leasehold – limited base in Cumbria
 Purchase of freehold/customary land
 Impact of Parliamentary enclosure of commons
 Motives:
 High farming
 Afforestation (private; Forestry Commission)
 Institutional control (Manchester Corp.; National Trust;
Ministry of Defence)
1910 Valuation Office Records –
‘Lloyd George Domesday’
 Provide a snapshot of landownership in early 20th century.
 Landholdings marked on Ordnance Survey 1:2500 plans,
working copies of which are in Cumbria Archive Centres
 Key to landholding unit: ‘Domesday Books’ – again held by CAS
 Detailed ‘field books’, with very full details of each property in
The National Archives, Kew, IR58.