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Letter from Miss J.M. Spendlove to Peterborough District Land Registry:
| HELMDON PARISH COUNCIL |
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7 Field Way
Helmdon
Brackley
Northants.
NN13 5QN |
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April 10th 1989 |
Peterborough District Land Registry
Touthill Close
City Road
Peterborough
PE1 1XN
Dear Sir,
Triangular grass bank, Wappenham Road, Helmdon (Jenners Piece)
Thank you for your enclosed letter of March 29th.
Since the land has not been registered before, I have marked it clearly
on an enlarged plan and named the adjacent properties so that you
can readily identify it.
The Piece is a grass bank sloping from the stone wall of the Hill
Farm orchard to a level strip along the edge of Mrs Wilson's yard
and cottages. At present there is an irregular back strip along the
Hill Farm wall containing elder, wild rose, small hawthorn, and a
young silver birch, and a wide range of wild flowers. A footpath (not
made up) winds along the front of this from the road to the field
gate. Below this is a sloping area, steep at both the road and bottom
path. Most of this part we are arranging to have regularly mown, but
on the steep parts flowers are preserved. In the upper part of this
slope is a copper beech planted there some ten or more years ago and
surrounded by paling, and near the road is a telegraph pole. Along
the lowest edge by Mrs Wilson's is a wider path kept closely mown,
from the road to the field path. I have marked some of these features
on the plan. You will judge the size from the grid; it was enlarged
from the 25" O.S. map.
In view of what you told us of an application to register this land,
I should like to explain the Parish Council's interest in it.
It has beyond living memory been regarded as in some sort public land,
though not registered as common. In the early years of the century
the Baptists held a large service on it because their chapel across
the road would not contain all who came for that special occasion.
The right of way crosses it from the road to the field path to the
allotments and the church.
In the mid-1970s the tree-planting work here, continuous since the
Dutch Elm disease struck the county, included a desire for some striking
tree on this bank which is prominent from a length of Wappenham Road.
A blue cedar was tried without success. Then a copper collection was
made in the Post Office, and the copper beech planted which is still
there. It was surrounded by palings to protect it from the young people
then attending a youth club at the chapel. It has thrived well.
In the early 1980s the Parish Council was concerned about the untidiness
of the long grass, which the Highways Department would not undertake
to mow. The Gullivers and Mrs Wilson as the adjacent landowners were
asked if they had any property or other interest in the land. On investigation
both found they had no title to it. The Parish Council then tried
to plan for its care as a whole. The Trees committee proposed to add
to the shrubs along the back and to plant wild flowers, to produce
a "relatively wild but attractive and colourful'' effect (P.C.
Minutes). This was begun that autumn, 1983, and work on the patch,
especially the removal of nettles and excessive hedge parsley has
continued ever since, spreading forward from the back strip. Over
a year ago I counted more than fifty species, besides grasses, growing
in this small conservation area. I have myself put in as much work
as anyone.
In the spring of 1984 a seat was put on the lower part of the triangle,
and has been much used and enjoyed especially by the elderly in the
parish.
Mowing the tough grass on the sloping area has long been a main problem,
and we are in course of entering into an agreement with County Contracting
to do this for us.
However, two years ago, the Gullivers of Hill Farm decided to sell
their farmyard for development, and fears were aroused of some attempt
to take a drive across Jenners Piece or even to claim a property right
to it and build there. The developer (Juniper Country Homes) has current
plans to demolish and rebuild the big barn as a house. (The minor
stone buildings along the road, and modern ones adjacent to them,
have already gone.) The stone wall along Jenners Piece, which the
developer owns, we fear may be sold and replaced by something less
suited to house wildlife. Our concern about that is also to retain
the increasingly rare and therefore valuable Helmdon stone in situ.
This has been the situation in which last autumn we consulted the
Northants. Association of Local Councils about a late registration
of the Piece as common land.
This, as you will know, we are too late to do, but we are following
their advice to claim and establish possession of Jenners Piece by
the Parish Council in the interests of Helmdon's inhabitants. As the
acting Clerk has told you, we took possession by resolution of the
Parish Council on January 5th 1989, put up a sign to declare it, and
advertised
our decision in a local paper.
Now, however, you tell us about an application being made to register
the land. What can the applicant offer to support a claim of ownership?
When the farm was put up for sale, I searched at the County Record
Office for evidence of former ownership of the triangle. The Enclosure
map (1759), and the 19th-century tithe map, and some estate maps of
1886-7 when Magdalen College, Oxford, was still the owner, all placed
the property boundaries round the outside of the triangle, leaving
it belonging to neither of its neighbours; and I could trace no verbal
documentary evidence to any contrary effect or to suggest that anyone
had ever owned it.
If any other party is now making a claim to ownership of Jenners Piece,
Helmdon Parish Council contest their right.
The Parish Council have committed this correspondence to me. I should
be grateful if you would reply to me direct and not through the acting
clerk, who will soon be giving up that office.
Yours faithfully,
Miss J.M. Spendlove, Vice-chairman
To Miss J.M. Spendlove, from Peterborough District Land Registry:
Dear Madam,
RE: TRIANGULAR GRASS BANK - WAPPENHAM ROAD HELMDON (JENNERS PIECE)
Thank you for your note received on 5 May 1989.
I apologise for the previous confusion in this matter but I can now
confirm that there has been no application made for the registration
of the triangular piece of land you refer to as Jenners Piece. This
land remains not registered under the Land Registration Act 1925.
The application under NN113791 referred to in the Departments Memorandum
of 26 January 1989 is the application to register the Developers land
to the East of Jenners Piece.
I hope this information assists you.
Yours faithfully
B. PARKER |