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Competitive Bid
Lordship of Lydd Court Title Closed
8
Competitive Bid
Lordship of Lydd Court Title Closed
8
Competitive Bid
Lordship of Lydd Court Title Closed
8
Competitive Bid
Lordship of Lydd Court Title Closed

Lordship of Lydd Court Title


Minimum Bid £2,500
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This item is now closed
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Description

Lordships of the manor are one of the oldest surviving forms of property rights in England & Wales, a relic of the feudal system of land tenure, some of which some pre-date the Norman invasion.

In medieval times, the lord of the manor would allow people to occupy or work his land in return for payment or services, but he would retain certain rights over the land. Those rights attached to the lordship rather than the land itself.

The rights of the occupiers of the land eventually gained legal recognition, known as copyhold, which was abolished in 1926. Thereafter, the only legal estates capable of existing in land have been freehold and leasehold. Manorial rights were classed as an overriding interest (i.e. by which a purchaser who acquired registered land would do so subject to the rights which affected it) but, since 2013, they are no longer capable of overriding a transfer of registered land and, in most cases, can no longer be registered with a notice at HM Land Registry.

Some of the rights associated with lordships of the manor may, however, remain. These include the right to call oneself ‘Mr Smith, Lord of the Manor of X’. A lord of the manor should not, however, be confused with a peer of the realm (i.e. a duke, marquess, earl, viscount or baron), a title which may be bestowed only by the monarch or inherited from a direct ancestor who held such a title; or by the courtesy title of Lord/Lady which may be borne by certain relations of such peers. It does not, for example, entitle the holder to sit in the House of Lords, a coat of arms or access to the land affected by the rights.

The lordship of the manor of Lydd or Lydd Court is currently vested in the executors of a deceased benefactor of Demelza House. She inherited it from her late father, who purchased the lordship in 2002 at a specialist auction held by Strutt & Parker. A history of the manor, described as “The Lordship of the Manor of Lydd or Lydd Court (held in chief formerly Lydene or Lyden or Lydden with ancient grants of free warren, wreck and foreshore) in Eastry and Worth in Kent”, is set out in the auction particulars and is available for inspection.

The auction particulars record that the manor of Lydd or Lydd Court was acquired (together with Waldershare Park and other estates and manors) by the 1st Earl of Guilford on the death of this wife Katherine, Countess of Rockingham, in 1766 and passed in direct descent to his great-great-great-grandson Edward Francis, 9th Earl of Guilford.

In 1986 the 9th Earl sold the lordship of the manor to an Ernest Chambers and the documents of title include that, and subsequent, conveyances which show devolution to the current owners. Also included are two Statutory Declarations by which the 9th Earl provided further information about the history of, and rights attached to, the manor. A Deed of Gift by Ernest Chambers includes a plan of the area believed to comprise the manor, the boundaries of which follow much of the course of North Stream from Lydden Valley to its confluence with the River Stour and thence to the mean low water mark at Sandwich Flats. It includes the areas on which now stand Prince’s and Royal St George’s Golf Links.

The lordship of the manor is transferrable by legal conveyance. Any person interested in purchasing the lordship is strongly recommended to take legal advice on the documents of title, rights which may be associated with it and the formalities for transfer. The buyer will need to instruct their own solicitor for the transfer of the deeds.