Forums Forums Wirral History : Chasing the Past History Information Request What happened to Lordships of the Manor?

I’ve seen a couple of websites where you can buy a Lordship of the Manor, with prices starting around the £5,000 mark. These titles, which date back to medieval times, are apparently legally saleable.

You may remember that around 2005, the footballer Djibril Cisse bought such a title along with a mansion and became Lord of the Manor of Frodsham.

I set me wondering what happened to the Lordships of the many manors in Wirral, such as Claughton, Oxton, Bidston and Birkenhead (although I'm not sure if Birkenhead was a manor in itself).

In the 1820s, Francis Price, owner of most of the land in Birkenhead, was Lord of the Manor when he sold off parcels of the land for development. Eventually, the growing town came under the auspices of improvement commissioners and later a fully-fledged corporation.

Did Price keep the Lord of the Manor title, or was it sold on with the land? If it is still in existence, could someone buy it?

The ones for sale are 99% of the time only honorific titles, not true tiles.

Eg you cannot call yourself "Lord myname of Oxton" but only may use it in the form "myname, Lord of Oxton" and even that has dubious legal standing.

Manorial variants are not true titles at all unless they have ownership of the land of the stated manor. Buying a square yard of titled land does not constitute a manor.

Its much the same as the schemes where you can name a star or planet crater - there is usually no legal standing.

More detail HERE

The current Lord Birkenhead is Tony Hall:
Lord Birkenhead
Who is also Director General of the BBC
Tony Hall DG of BBC

My Title is Laird Of Lochaber as I am a land owner in that part of Scotland. It confers me fishing rights on a river. It cost around £20 off ebay. I have coordinates for my land which totals 1 square foot. I like the surrounding owners must allow free passage over my square foot. Never been there but have occasionally used the Title in letters.
One day maybe will fish there.
I suspect sheep happily use my square foot for their various activities.

This one doesn't have fishing rights
http://www.findmeagift.co.uk/lochaber-highland-estates-lord-and-lady.html

Thanks for your replies. There’s a lot of info about Lordships of the Manor here ...

http://www.msgb.co.uk

... reading it, it looks pretty certain that they are real titles and it even has a list of those for sale.

That’s why I wondering what happened to the Lordships of the Manors in Wirral. They must all have ended up somewhere, or still be owned by someone.

But DD is correct in saying that these titles are NOT peerages. So, for instance, Djibril Cisse could not call himself Lord Frodsham. However, he could call himself Djibril Cisse, Lord of the Manor of Frodsham.

Re: Papa Juliet. Tony Hall's title is Lord Hall of Birkenhead, not Lord Birkenhead. He is a life peer (a baron) who chose Birkenhead as part of his title because he was born there.

The first Lord Birkenhead was the Lord Chancellor, F E Smith, who was also born in Birkenhead. He was created a baron in 1919 and became an earl in 1922 - his title was hereditary and his son became the second Earl of Birkenhead.

See … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._E._Smith,_1st_Earl_of_Birkenhead

Donating a load of cash to the tories will gain you a gong, if you are a feeble enough person to think people will be impressed by it.

The tories are 98% financed by donations - very little comes from members who are dying off at the rate of knots - so you should be able to pick one up at a knockdown price soon.

Which is an illegal offence! Its not the only party do appear to do this of course.

"Which is an illegal offence!"

Not at all! It is simply a recognition of services to the party!

Not that you can call the tories a party really. They are a business pressure group. Look who pays the piper!

Take a look at Parliamentary briefing paper No 5125 which you can download in PDF form here:

http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN05125

The membership is so low they have failed to report it since 2013. Surely there must be some minimum number of members before a group can be called a political party, and claim TV time etc?