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Custody of Inclosure Awards. [July, 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND CIRCULARS, 



Enquiries are frequently addressed to the Board for information as to 

 the whereabouts of awards under which inclosures of land in England 

 and Wales were effected prior to the Inclosure 

 Custody of Act of 1845. 



Inclosure Awards. All such awards subsequent to the Act of 



1845 are in the custody of the Board, and 

 copies thereof are deposited with the Clerk of the Peace for the County 

 concerned, and also with the Churchwardens of the parish or their 

 successors in title. A list of the Awards under that Act made up to the 

 year 1893 is contained in a House of Commons Return (455 of 1893). 

 Awards made under Acts passed between the General Inclosure Act, 

 1 80 1, and the Inclosure Act, 1845, were in the absence of other pro- 

 vision in the authorising Act, to be enrolled in one of His Majesty's 

 Courts of Record at Westminster, or with the Clerk of the Peace for 

 the County, and enquiries as to their present place of deposit and as to 

 opportunity of inspecting them may be addressed to the Public Record 

 Office, Chancery Lane, London, W.C. The place of deposit of Awards 

 made under Acts prior to, or not governed by, the General Inclosure 

 Act, 180 1, can be discovered only from inspection of the particular 

 provisions of each Act. In many cases these private Acts were not 

 printed, and it would probably be difficult to discover any existing copy 

 of some Acts. Lists of local Inclosure Acts from 1727 to 1834 are con- 

 tained in George Bram well's Analytical Table of Private Statutes (2 

 vols., London : 1813 and 1835). Reference to the Index of Local Acts, 

 1801-1899 (H.M. Stationery Office : 1900) may also be useful in an 

 endeavour to trace information. 



It will be seen that considerable difficulty may be experienced in 

 tracing the Awards of Inclosure bearing date prior to 1845. Many of 

 them are included in the House of Commons Return (No. 50 of 1904) 

 of Inclosure Awards deposited with Clerks of the Peace or Clerks of 

 County Councils, who may possibly in certain cases be in a position to 

 supplement the information contained in that Return. Where this 

 source of information fails, it may sometimes be possible to obtain par- 

 ticulars from the Steward of the Manor or from the Parish Council or 

 Incumbent of the Parish concerned. 



A certain number of Inclosure Awards, or copies thereof, are in the 

 custody of the Public Record Office, His Majesty's Commissioners of 

 Woods and Forests, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. At the 

 Public Record Office are kept those Awards which were transferred 

 from the Royal Courts of Justice and from the Duchy of Lancaster 

 Office, as well as those transferred with the Land Revenue Records 

 from the Office of Woods and Forests. The Commissioners of Woods 

 and Forests have information only as to the whereabouts of such Awards 

 as affect Crown property. 



A very few Awards relating to lands in Middlesex are in the keeping 

 of the Land Registry, as successors to the Middlesex Registry of Deeds ; 

 and some relating to lands in Yorkshire (East, North, and West 

 Ridings) are at the Registries of Deeds at Beverley, Northallerton, and 

 Wakefield respectively. There is reason to believe that some Inclosure 



