To The Manor Bought

"Lord of the Manor" titles are being bought at auction for thousands of pounds, provoking bitter disputes over the ownership of village greens and grass verges, and prompting campaigners to call for the abolition of feudal laws.

A village in the Peak District has become an unlikely battleground between the country's old feudal laws and the modern British legal system.

The title of Lord of the Manor of Alstonefield was bought for £10,000 in 1999 by a business in Wales.

That business is owned by Mark Roberts, who also styles himself Lord Marcher of Trelleck, another title his company owns. It owns 60 titles in all.

He claims ownership of grass verges and commons in Alstonefield, but the parish council has disputed this claim, saying it has an old legal document to prove a previous lord of the manor gave up rights to this land in the 1800s.