Chancel Repair

Liabilities

What are they?

• An ancient liability based on the facts that: – A rector (priest) received tithes from the parish

(attached to land parcels)

– The rector officiated in the chancel

– Therefore the owner of the property and land attached to the rectory covered the cost of chancel repairs (Often “Glebe, Grange or Manor” land)

– The parish covered the costs of repairs to the rest of the building

– If the ownership of the “rectory land” changed hands, the liability transferred with it.

What does it mean today?

• If you own old rectory land, or your house is built on it, there is a possibility you could be liable for chancel repairs;

• E.g in 2003 Andrew and Gail Wallbank received a demand for almost £100,000 to fund repairs of their parish's medieval church at Aston Cantlow. (They owned farm land that used to be rectory land.) After a protracted legal battle the Law Lords found in favour of the Parochial Church Council, leaving the Wallbanks with a £350,000 bill including legal costs.

What does it mean today?

• Home owners can insure against this, but are usually unaware if they have a liability and it has only become an issue of concern since 2003.

• PCC’s under the power of the Land Registration Act 2002, have to identify all affected land and register their interest before 13 October 2013.

• After that date, new owners of land will only be bound by chancel repair liability where it is entered on the Title Register database kept by the Land Registry.

Surely we should just forget about it!

• The Church commissioners are in favour of PCC’s exercising their rights, and may hold them liable if they do not!

• “the Church cannot be expected to forego sources of funding to which it is entitled unless it receives adequate compensation.”

• There is a growing acceptance that in some cases the damage caused to parish relationships outweighs that approach

• PCC’s have to decide their course of action by October 2013

So what’s this mean to Claines?

We don’t have a rector!

We don’t have any rectory or any glebe land!

Do we have a problem?

But..(the short story)

• Claines was originally a chapelry annexed to the church of St. Helen, Worcester. When the controversy between the bishop and the prior as to the church of St. Helen was finally settled in 1234 the chapel of Claines was assigned to the bishop, and it was agreed that he should ordain a vicarage there.

• Instead of doing this the bishop gave the vicarial and some of the great tithes to the nuns of Whistones, on condition that they provided a fit chaplain to serve the chapel of Claines.

• Thus, though Claines was called a vicarage, it was in reality a perpetual curacy, the curates being provided by the owner of the vicarial tithes until 1874, when Sir Offley Wakeman granted the advowson to the Bishop of Worcester.

• The Wakeman’s were the last “Lay Rectors” of Claines

But..(the full story) • The vicarial tithes remained with the nuns of Whistones until the dissolution of their house.

• In 1545 all the tithes belonging to Claines Vicarage, which still carried with them the obligation to support a chaplain, were granted to George Tresham, who sold them in the same year to Richard Callowhill, then owner of the site of the priory. Most of these tithes, some having already been sold, were purchased of John Callowhill, nephew of Richard, by John Porter in 1558.

• In 1567 John Porter sold the property to John Habington. Thomas and Richard Habington, sons of John, gave it to Queen Elizabeth in 1590 for a term in payment of a debt.

• In 1595 Thomas and Richard sold it to Robert Wilde. On the death of the latter in 1608 the vicarage passed to his son Thomas.

• His son Robert afterwards held it, and in 1639 some disagreement seems to have arisen between him and the curate as to the parsonage-house.

• In 1653 the vicarage and tithes belonging were included in the marriage settlement of Robert's son Thomas and Mary Savage.

• Six years later Thomas was still holding it. is son Robert died, leaving no children, and until 1789 nothing is known of the vicarage, which may, however, have remained, like the rectory in the possession of the Wilde family.

• Nash states that the Wildes sold it to Mr. Denne, a banker, and it was probably this estate which, as 'the advowson of the vicarage of Claines,' was sold in 1789 by Cornelius Doune and his wife Elizabeth to Henry Wakeman, who probably bought the rectorial tithes shortly afterwards.

Conclusions so far

• We had lands with tithes attached to them

• We had Lay rectors

• There was a strong possibility there was a Perdiswell connection

• We have some ancient manors (Bevere, Northwich)

• We have some Grange farms (Claines Grange, Northwick Grange)

Background to Claines Investigations

• Claines has a superb Tithe map from 1843 showing every land parcel and its tithe value

• A whole host of legislation has been enacted to merge, commute and abolish tithe rentchages.

• The most significant was the Tithe Act of 1936 which tidied up the situation in a parish

So what was left in Claines after 1936?

Claines Tithes 1936

• Simply, liabilities on 91% of all the former tithe land no longer exist as a result of the legislative changes

• But 37 land parcels continue to carry a liability, equal to 9% of the original liability

This is how they are listed

Etc……

So we found the land plots on the 1843 tithe map, e.g

762

761

744-760

763

764 765 767

And plotted them onto later maps

Some were straightforward as original field boundaries were still there or had been followed by new roads..

Others were more difficult as field boundaries had been lost..

Plot 975

And some virtually impossible without referencing earlier maps along the way..

So what have we found?

• Our original 37 land parcels with liabilities now have approximately 1000 houses on them

• Virtually all of these would have originally been associated with the Manor of Northwick

• Many (69%) are no longer in the parish of Claines (but still carry the obligation!)

Claines Parish Boundary

Claines Parish Boundary with chancel repair liability plots

Northwick block of chancel repair liability plots

Cranham Drive chancel repair liability plot

What would it mean?

• If we had a chancel roof repair bill of £100,000, we could ask for £9,000 of this to be met by the approximately 1000 householders. (9% liability)

• We would only have to serve notice on 1 householder and they would have to sort it with the other householders.

• We would not be popular!

What have we done with our findings?

• We have communicated our findings to the Diocesan Registrar

• As a Parochical Church Council we have agreed that we do not wish to “exercise our right” due to the potential parish reaction and fact that obligations only account for 9%.

• Therefore we will not register our interest on properties by the October 2013 deadline.