Most Church of England land has been church property longer than the Land Registry has existed, and no results are provided on their search.
Is there a way to acquire paperwork that demonstrates church ownership, for example to allow an electricity network such as SSEN to undertake work? Suppose the church on the land has been present and in use since the 1100s.
You must register when property is:
This system was a deliberate choice so that the costs of registration would only be imposed when a transfer of title or other significant event was happening to the property.
However, none of these things ever happen to church property. Or, for that matter, other property that rarely, if ever, changes hands: government property, parks and reserves, railways, ports, airports etc. Currently, this amounts to about 15% of the land in England and Wales (because Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own systems).
This only comes up, as far as the law is concerned, when there is a dispute over title. Then the issue is solved by testimony and evidence and the person with the more convincing case wins.
The church has kept very good records for an unusually long time, so it’s possible that that they have a title deed and can demonstrate ownership back to time immemorial, 1189.
However, that isn’t actually necessary. If the church (or anyone else) has been in possession of the land unchallenged for 12 years (30 or 60 years for Crown lands), then all they have to do is prove that and the land is theirs. Proving occupancy since 2012 is likely to be easier than proving ownership since 1189.
A confounding factor could be that possession itself is considered a proof of ownership in the English common law.
Another confounding factor is that there isn't necessarily just one form of "ownership", in the sense of a single legal person with complete authority and sovereign rights to a parcel of land, from the heavens to the bowels of the earth.
The Statute of Westminster 1275 defined the year 1189 as the threshold of "time immemorial" for the common law, so any land continuously possessed by the church since before then could not possibly be defeated by any superior written title.
In general though, if a utility wished to do work on church property, they would simply ask the church.
Before the Land Registry was created, the U.K., like the U.S. today, used a recording system. Deeds were recorded with the deed recording office and indexed in a grantor-grantee index. Those records probably still exist somewhere, even if the property hasn't been added to the land registry, probably as part of the archives of the same office that handles the Land Registry.
Another place where records of ownership are probably kept, or at least information on where the records can be found, is in the records of the bishop who is responsible for the church in question.
The National Archives' Land and property ownership: enrolment and registration of title 1227-c1930 page may be of use, at least as a starting point for more research.
To prove ownership of historic church land, try these:
Contact the local diocese for church records. Check historical archives for old documents. Consult the Land Registry for guidance. Seek legal advice if needed. These should help with acquiring the necessary paperwork.
