A REMARKABLE STORY.

Manawatu Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 107, 9 May 1907, Page 7

A REMARKABLE STORY.

Considerable surprise was created a little while ago by the cabled statement that, through a flaw in title, the Crown had laid claim to a vast area of the valuable land in London and suburbs and the neighbouring country known as the Page estate, and aggregating no less than 60 square miles. It was stated that the Attorney-General has decided to declare this estate, which is worth millions, escheac to the Crown, and that a Select Committee of the Home of Commons is to be at once appointed to a-, certain how, by whom, and during what period the nation has been deprived of the proceads of the property.

What is the Page estate ? Home files supply an anawer to the conundrum, says the Post. It is an area of some sixty square miles, including a third of the county of Middlesex, whole suburbs of London, and sections of rural Hertfordshire. It stretches north from Marble Arch through Edgeware to Elstree Station, and from that point its boundary runs westward to Kickmansworth, and thence south to a point a few miles south of Uxbridge, and back to Hyde Park by Southall, Acton, and Notting Hill. Harrow is approximately its centre. Stfme of the finest residential districts in the West End and a sqj)urban area which is certain to be enormously developed in the next few years as well as rioh agricultural districts towards the Bucks and Herts borders, are part of the enormous valuable Page estate. What is the history of the Page eßtate? It begins with the suppression of the monasteries, including Kilburn Priory by Henry 7111. A local legend, it is saic!, relates that the ejected nuns foretold that those who succeeded them in the property would reach the climax of ambition and then disappear. That, at any rate, is exactly what happened. The Page family acquired the property from Henry VIIL, and gradually through centuries enlarged it into its present vast dimensions. Then in 1829 the family died out. Five families of the Pages had owned land in various parts of the present es tate, but in the end all fell into the hands of Henry Page. He died in 1829, and left no heirs. The estate passed into the hands of trustees. Under the old rules of feudal tenure, dating from the time when all land was held from the Crown, estates of inheritance for want of an heic revert to the Crown. Under this law of escheat still holding good, the Crown's right to ownership of the Page estate is now declared. As the revenue of Crown Jandsnow belongs to the National Exchequer, this declaration means that the nation enters at least into legal ownership of the Page estate. Why the claim has lain so long in abeyance will no doubt appear during the Selcct Committee's enquiry. In the interval of nearly eighty years since the death of the last of the Pages it is not surprising that the question of * titles to various parts of the estate haa become exceedingly complicated. Portions of • the estate have been constantly sold, and in several cases the title of the vendors has been challenged - in one case, at least, successfully, Stanmore Grange, which is on the north of the estate, being withdrawn from sale after its auction had been announced. The far-away confiscation of a nuns' priory in the days of the Re- • formation is thus still vexing holders of property in the district. For instance, the Rev. John Clifford and the Westbourne Park trustees, who recently acquired a plot of land —at full value —for the extension of their chbpe l , now learn with amazement that it is part of the Page estate. In other oases, however, parties to the sale have been well aware of the difficulty of title, and it has been taken into consideration of the price. In the case of Twyford Abbey, which

was sold to the Koyal Agricultural Society, and of Wembley Park, sold to the Tower Company, it is believed that much of the estate which changed hands was disposed of at a fifth of its value, the buyers taking the risk of escheat to the Crown. Five main lines of railway-the Midland, London and North Western, Metropolitan, Great Central, And Great Western—run through the Page estate, and two of these, the London and North-Western and the Metropolitan, have paid large suing into court, owing to their distrust of the title acquired. In 1848 the former company lodgtd £500,000 and many years later the latter paid £400,000. The pr.cedure of the Select Committee will be of the greatest interest. Property-holdera on the estate, who acquired possession in the belief that their title was good, w,ill probably appear as claimants, and all such bona fide titles are likely to be confirmed. In those cases, however, where land was obtained beneath its prop?r value, the risk of escheat beiDg recognised, it [is obvious that present ownersnip may not be upheld. There have been and are. as might be supposed, a host of private claimants to the Page estate. One of these, says the Tribune, who is connected with the Page family by marriage, has already sent a statement of his case to every member of the House of Commons. The trustees ot the estate still hold a large portion of it, including the mansions fronting on Maida Yale, and as the leases of these buildings are all falling in, the Crown should enter into immediate possession. The playing fields of Harrow school are one of the many properties on the Page estate whose title ie likely to be investigated. The last occasion on which the ancient Crown rights wereenfored in the case of a great estate was thirty years ago, when, after a tremendous legal battle, Epping Forest was secured for the public.