The Battle of Ireby Fell

Ireby (population 60) is a tiny village in Lancashire. It is situated at the highest point in Lancashire and close to the county boundary with West Yorkshire. For the past eight years it has been the site of “a rather old fashioned un-neighbourly dispute with some unusual feudal bits and some land registration bits tacked on”. This dispute culminated in the Court of Appeal’s decision in Walker & Scott v Burton & Bamford [2013] EWCA Civ 1228, [2013] All ER (D) 146 (Oct) on 14 October 2013. This article considers the land registration issues associated with the dispute.

Background

The protagonists in the dispute are Mr Burton (a retired banker from Maidstone), his wife Ms Bamford (a business consultant), and various villagers from Ireby. On 1 September 2000, Mr and Mrs Burton purchased the freehold of Over Hall Farm (the Hall), which is just to the north of Ireby, together with some 39.25 acres