We'd all like to be Lord or Lady of the Manor. But in these days of soaring property prices, who can afford a manor? Fortunately, thanks to the 1922 Law of Property Act and UK estate agents Strutt and Parker, we don't have to. Now we can buy the lordship first and - who knows? - confiscate the manor later on if you're lucky.
Thanks to the aforementioned act, which allows titles to be sold separately from the land to which they related, hundreds of perfectly sound lordships have changed hands on the open market. Some of them in need of refurbishment, as you might expect with old titles.
Mind you, inflation has had an effect in this sector too and, sad to say, many lordships are now beyond the reach of young couples starting out on the long social climb.
In 1987, the Lordship of Stratford-upon-Avon went for £87,000, for example; while the Barony of Hastings fetched a whopping £92,500 in 1996.
This despite the fact that these titles don't carry membership of the House of Lords. Or even the right to call yourself "Lord X", as opposed to "Lordship of the Manor of X" ("some confusion often arises over this", the catalogue notes).
Indeed, as the agents also point out, where the titles are sold separately, "the Lord of the Manor does not have an automatic right to set foot on the property".
What the buyer does get is second-hand history, detailed at length in Strutt's catalogue.
If you purchase the Lordship of Wartling in Sussex, for example, you'll follow in the footsteps of Sir Thomas Hoo, sheriff of Sussex 1348-50; of another Sir Thomas Hoo, made Lord Hoo of Hoo in Bedfordshire, 1448; and of a veritable Hoo's Hoo of descendants of this Sir Thomas's family (tragically all daughters, who lost the family name in marriage).
In the case of Strutt & Parker's star attraction, there's even more history. The Deputy Lord High Stewardship of Ireland occupies five dense pages of the catalogue: starting in the 12th century with Sir Bertram de Verdon and moving, via words such as "bredwyck" and "conusance", up to 1994 when the Right Honourable Charles Benedict Crofton Chetwynd 22nd Earl of Shrewsbury, while retaining the hereditary title of Lord High Steward, "created and preferred" the present owner to the hereditary position of Deputy High Steward.
The documentation that comes with the title is as thin as the history is thick: consisting of an illuminated parchment signed by the 22nd Earl.
Who buys these titles. Well, one clue occurs (in brackets) in the sentence: "Overseas cheques (checks) will not be accepted except by prior arrangement with the auctioneers." Most major credit cards are acceptable, however.
The auction takes place on November 10th at Ironmongers' Hall in London.
Further information can be had at www.struttandparker.co.uk
