  :: This publication may help explain, http://www.landreg.gov.uk/assets/library/documents/lrpg022.pdf  The manor rights were based on copyhold and in 1926 these rights went with an act of parliament in 1922 and copyhold turned into freehold fee simple to give its proper name. The 8 shares of the manor have descended to the heirs of the last owners.  When Liverpool took over the Rivington hall estate they did so under the Liverpool Corporation Act 1902 it was a compulsory purchase and could not acquire the manor rights with it, they did however acquire the land and also by act of parliament not by rights of manor they gained the water rights, the subsequent properties act of 1925 gave the Corporation the ability to claim land not bought under compulsory purchase.  Manor rights and land ownership are not always one, in fact in most cases these days they are often seperate as a result land being sold off in bits and the 1926 change in law. In this case manor rights and land onwership hae by our lifetime become seperate, the transfer had to specify the rights of the manor are included and the deed must exist to show that, if it does not then the rights have not passed to the new owner of the land.  This is a complex area of law. In regard to the heirs excerising rights of the Manor there are few rights. Until 2003 a manorial right could have become registered that would create an overiding interest and would appear on land deeds even today and there are areas within  Lancashire where this has occured, however many manor rights were not registered and the time limit has lapsed for them to become registered now as a result of the 2003 act.   From your sentence I think you may be confusing the Rivington Hall estate as being the full manor, the manor was a much larger area and other families held manor rights for the 3/8, as you can see the Rivington Hall estate held 5/8. There is no record of the 1/4 share being sold after 1683 and the 1/8 did transfer but had not been registered. Liverpool corporation only owned the land from Rivington Hall and other properties they compulsary purchased but they did not acquire all of the area nor did they acquire manor rights, I have spoken to them some years ago about this and they confirmed this statement. Further there is no evidence at all that manor rights were transferred to W.H Lever. Land outside the Rivington Hall estate as an example Rivington Unitarian chapel is owned still by the descendants of Robert Andrews, the chapel has a lease from copyhold.  Bradleys is also private and the entire village has always remained in private ownership. Yes it is correct an estate can and often is sold without the rights of the manor in conclusion these rights still exists with the descendants, the only times I have seen the rights in use have been in services and the rights of land where they have retained freehold. The rights of the manor are today mostly valued as mineral rights and to be blunt the rights at Rivington are worthless.  I am sorry this is long reply but I hope I have clarified this.