Private [e]state

The image and text booklet 'Private [e]state' considers the ad coelum doctrine - a principle of property law - in relation to private landed estates. Originating in the 13th century, this ancient law proclaims the extent of land ownership beyond that of the surface. Although now acceptable in a limited form, real property/estate encompasses airspace, wild animals, trees, plants, flowers, water, mines and minerals above, on, and below the surface of the land.

Bretton Estate is a 500-acre parkland near Wakefield in West Yorkshire within which is located the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Appearing in the Domesday Book of 1086, over the centuries the landed estate and the Hall were the private grounds of a home. Owned by four interconnected families – latterly the Wentworths and the Beaumonts – it was sold to West Riding Council by Viscount Allendale, who settled in his other landed estates in Northumberland.

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