Land Registry helps Lord Crewe's Charity secure future

The legacy of 18th century nobleman and leading clergyman, Lord Crewe, is to be safeguarded for future generations following help from Land Registry.

Lord Crewe (1674-1722), Bishop of Durham, was an extremely wealthy man who married into the Forster family that had estates in Northumbria. He left much of his property in trust, run by the Lord Crewe's Charity, for the benefit of the clergy and for bursaries at Lincoln College, Oxford University, where Lord Crewe was Rector.

The Forster home was at Bamburgh Castle, later sold by the charity to Lord Armstrong, and after the Forsters went into debt, Lord Crewe purchased the estates to keep them out of debtors' prison.

Now the charity has taken steps to register the land it owns to safeguard it for future generations.

Jon Williams, Land Agent for Lord Crewe's Charity, said: "The Blanchland Estate is the largest of the four estates owned by the charity. It includes Blanchland village, created by the charity from the principal buildings of Blanchland Abbey.

"The estate has 46 listed buildings, 12 scheduled ancient monuments and more than 4,000 acres of some of the best heather moorland habitat in the country - all of which is internationally designated for its conservation and landscape values.

"Registration of the land should aid our record-keeping and help secure it for future generations."

Land Registry is the government department responsible for registering land ownership in England and Wales. It is currently running a campaign to encourage people and organisations to identify and register what they own.

Harry Charlton, Register Development Manager, said: "Almost 40 per cent of land in Durham and across the North East remains unregistered. We know that farmers and landowners live busy lives but we hope they will take a little time to pause and think to secure their future.

"Lord Crewe was a major landowner in the North East and his charity still owns large areas of land in the region. They have already recognised the value of voluntary registration and we hope others will be encouraged to follow suit.

"Land Registry is keen that farmers and other landowners have a proper guarantee of their land ownership. We have a straightforward system for checking and registering who owns what and there is currently a 25 per cent discount on the cost of voluntary first registrations." Once registered, owners have the title to their land guaranteed by the state and buying and selling can be easier. Landowners also know the administration of their land holding is in good order with key information in one place and easy to access.

To find out more about the voluntary registration scheme click on landregistry.gov.uk.