Race to register "manorial" rights as feudal remnants swept away This weekend, almost 1,000 years since William the Conqueror's coronation as England's king, some of the last remnants of the feudal system he established are being swept away. As long-dormant commercial interest stirs in the minerals and energy that lie beneath the land, the registration deadline for "manorial" rights in England and Wales falls on Saturday. These can include rights to mines and minerals, sporting activities, the staging of markets and fairs, and the goods of vagrants. Until now, these rights - some of which date back to the days of medieval barons, knights and peasants - have been termed "overriding interests": even though they do not appear on the title register, they must be observed by the current owner of the land. It is fairly common in England and Wales for ownership of the surface of the land and the strata beneath to be in different hands - a fact that many owners of property and land have been unaware of. Following today's deadline, if these manorial rights have not been registered, their owner is likely to lose them if the surface land is sold. The Land Registration Act set the deadline in 2002. But the approaching date has generated a large volume of research and a last-minute rush of work for specialists. They range from expert lawyers, land agents and country estate managers to archivists, freelance historical researchers and mapping specialists. All have been studying ancient documents to establish who is entitled to the rights of the lord of the manor. Also at stake are some obligations for church repairs, stemming mainly from the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 16th century. This liability obliges an owner of land to pay for the chancel to be repaired - the area in a church containing the altar and choir. In addition, many owners of mines and mineral rights, which were retained over the centuries after land was sold, are also registering their ownership. The change in the law was intended to create transparency, so that anybody buying a property or piece of land could know what they owned. But it has stirred up alarm among people receiving Land Registry notices about rights relating to their property. The process also highlights the enduring power of institutions including the Crown, Church Commissioners, ancient charities, aristocratic families and the landed gentry. The Land Registry, a government department covering England and Wales, has sent out more than 82,000 notices to property owners from Cornwall and Kent in the south to Oxfordshire, Powys and Cumbria, telling them that an application had been made to register rights relating to their land. The Church Commissioners, who hold mineral rights in excess of 500,000 acres across England, the Crown, the Duchy of Lancaster and the Lonsdale Estates, in Cumbria, are among the applicants. The Land Registry said it has also had applications from "various lords, dukes and barons" as well as a few companies and private individuals. "What's important to remember is that all these applications are doing is registering or protecting rights or property that the lord of the manor already owned," said David Towns, a director of Bond Dickinson solicitors and a national expert in this field. "The vast majority of people I'm acting for are longstanding owners of titles, which have come down their family and were formulated when feudal law applied," he adds. Their primary motivating factor has been that they don't want to be dispossessed of rights simply because of the change in the law. However, in areas with potential for fracking - the fracturing of rocks to release oil and gas - the Church Commissioners have been trying to reassure dismayed homeowners they are not manoeuvring for a big financial gain. The experience of Tim Shorland, an elderly asbestos-removal contractor who bought the title Lord of the Manor of Hempton and Northwick in 1990, demonstrates that feelings can become heated. When Mr Shorland sought to register his rights to an area of South Gloucestershire, notices sent by the Land Registry to residents resulted in threats. He has withdrawn his application; he told the Financial Times this week he felt too unwell to discuss it. "People panicked," says Doug Daniels, a friend and town councillor. There were threats of violence against poor Mr Shorland. He is dreadfully upset. Copyholders versus lords of the manor The terms freehold and leasehold are familiar to today's homeowners. Less known is "copyhold," a product of the feudal system, writes Chris Tighe. In the 19th and early 20th centuries a series of legal changes, called enfranchisement, gave manorial tenants - copyholders - more rights, enabling them to obtain the freehold of the surface. This process culminated in the Law of Property Act 1922. But under enfranchisement, the lord of the manor would retain "overriding interests." This weekend's registration deadline applies to these manorial rights. Owners of mineral rights that are not manorial rights have also been recommended to register their interests. Potentially the most valuable manorial rights relate to mines and minerals. Owners of these "ransom" rights could derive financial benefit from the extraction of sand, gravel, clays, stone and minerals from their strata. Coal and petroleum products, gold and silver belong to the Crown. But their extraction - for example by fracking - could require access through strata covered by mines and mineral rights. While some companies seeking to exploit these reserves could seek compulsory rights of access from the government, owners of mineral rights could earn royalties or be bought out. Having fuelled the industrial revolution, minerals slipped from prominence in the UK, says Andrew Graham of GPC, Cumbria-based surveyors and land agents heavily involved with registration. "This has brought them back into the spotlight," he said.