Armchair land referencing #3

Last time I asked what the two plaques shown below are and when and why might these be important. They denote a parish boundary, the one on the left for St Dunstan-in-the-West and the one on the right is the marker for St Andrew’s Holborn, which is the London parish WSP’s Chancery Lane office is in. Parishes (as delineated by their boundaries) are small administrative units of Christian ecclesiastical derivation within a diocese, each with their own parish church and covering the same geographical area as a feudal manor. They have little relevance in today’s administrative structures, but these boundaries and their markers became particularly important after a 1555 Act of Parliament made parishes responsible for the upkeep of tracks and roads. Neighbouring parishes were naturally not keen to carry out and pay for the maintenance of another parish’s patch, so they all erected boundary stones or other markers (noted as ‘BS’ on OS maps). Parishes remain the underlying basis for land referencing for hybrid Bills such as HS2 as the book of reference and other documents as Parliamentary Standing Orders stipulate that must be broken down into chapters by parish. Also, parish boundaries can still be contiguous with and therefore define larger administrative areas such as districts/boroughs and counties.

The one in Chancery Lane is interesting because, if you stand in the middle of the street facing these markers both your heels will be in (the City and County of) the City of London, whereas your left toes will be in the City of Westminster, and your right toes will be in the London Borough of Camden. As with elsewhere when the length of a road falls under the responsibility of more than one maintaining authority, the three London boroughs with theoretical responsibility for Chancery Lane would have local agreements in place to ensure that the road was maintained – just as parish clerks asserted with their boundary markers. Complicated? Yes – which is why these administrative relics are still useful to note. I include another image of some typical, more rural, parish boundary markers, each placed by their parish officials to show the extent of their responsibilities. Traditionally parishioners were encouraged to ‘beat the bound’ by walking around the extent of their parish each Rogation Sunday (25 April), a tradition still observed in many parishes today.

This edition’s challenge also relates to roads. Who owns the street outside your house?

Answer next time.

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This article is written by Ashley Parry Jones, Director – Planning, WSP. The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of WSP or SoLR or its members. The information provided does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice and instead is offered for general purposes only. It does not constitute the most up to date legal information. Any links and references provided are for the readers’ convenience only and do not constitute a recommendation of those sources.