Catalogue description Administrative Records of the The Crown Estate and predecessors

Responsibility for Crown foreshore was transferred from the commissioners of woods, forests and land revenues to the Board of Trade in 1866 and later to the Ministry of Transport. In April 1950, however, responsibility for foreshores was returned to the commissioners from the Ministry of Transport. The areas of Crown estate covered by the term 'foreshore' included coastal foreshore (the area between low and high tide), the bed of the territorial sea out to the United Kingdom's twelve mile limit, including rights to explore and exploit natural resources of the United Kingdom continental shelf (including oil and gas), and the rights to the tidal beds of approximately half of the United Kingdom's rivers.

Revenue is derived from such activities as the dredging of aggregates, charges for outfalls, pipelines and cables laid across the foreshore, leases of foreshore, mineral extraction, ports and commercial traffic, recreational use of foreshores and other developments.

For England and Wales, these revenues were administered from 1950 by a Foreshore Group, whose duties also included responsibility for demonstrating Crown title to contested areas of foreshore. In 1959, the Foreshore Group was renamed the Foreshore and Seabed Group. From 1973, management of foreshores was combined with that of urban estates outside central London in an Other Urban Estates, Foreshore and Seabed Branch. Foreshore and Seabed was re-established as a separate business group in 1978. The business group was abolished in 1980 when control of foreshores passed to the Establishments, Finance and Country Estates Branch.

The common services elements of this branch were separated out in 1984 and the Foreshore and Seabed Business Group was re-established as part of the Foreshore and Seabed, Agriculture and Forestry Estates Branch. This branch was divided in 1989 when a Marine Estates Business Group was established to manage foreshore and all related matters. Responsibility for managing the Crown foreshores in Scotland has rested with the Scottish Estates Group since 1950.

The Crown's agricultural and forest estates in England and Wales were managed from 1925 by the commissioners of Crown lands in London (and briefly, Bracknell) through a series of local land agencies throughout the country. With the exception of the Windsor Estate Office these local offices were all small in size and were administrative rather than policy making offices. The Crown's agricultural estates consist of some 300,000 acres of mixed land, including farms, forests and woodlands, common land and mineral deposits (of clay, slate, limestone and aggregates etc., and of gold and silver in the 'Mines Royal').

Revenue is derived mainly from the farms, all of which are let on traditional landlord and tenant lines on commercial terms, (except at Laxton in Nottinghamshire, where by agreement with the tenants medieval open farming is still practised), and from mineral leases, residential leases and from forestry.

Responsibility for managing the agricultural estate, from the establishment of the Office of the Crown Commissioners in 1926, was split between three groups. All Scottish estates were managed by the Scottish Estate Group, and there were separate English Agricultural and Welsh Estate Groups. In 1961 the English and Welsh groups were combined to form an Agricultural Estate Group, which were separated again in 1966 but re-united in 1969 following the relocation of The Crown Estate Office headquarters to Bracknell.

In 1973 a new Establishments, Finance and Agricultural Estates Branch was formed, to which was added in 1977 urban estates outside central London (becoming the Other Urban estates, Establishment, Finance and Agricultural States Branch). In 1978 the urban estates group was abolished and a new Country Estates Group established to manage the agricultural estate and some parts of the former other urban estates portfolio.

In 1983, the name was amended to the Agricultural and Forestry Estates Group. The common services elements of the branch were separated out a year later and a new Foreshores and Seabed and Agricultural and Forestry Estates Branch was established. This branch was split in two in 1989 and a separate Agricultural Estates Business Group was established.

Although the bulk of the Crown's forests and woodlands had been transferred to the management of the Forestry Commission in 1923, a number of notable areas of woodland remained as part of the Crown estate, notably those at Windsor. In 1956 it was decided that there should be a strategic forestry plan for all forests on the estate, and a Director of Forestry, based at Windsor was appointed to implement and oversee this.

The Crown's urban estates have been managed since the formation of the Office of the Commissioners for Crown Lands in 1925 from London (and, briefly, Bracknell) using local managing agents. The properties in the estate are of two main types, commercial (ie industrial, retail and offices) and residential. In addition, the properties have from time to time been divided for administrative purposes between the London Estate and Other Urban Estates, and, since 1966, there has been a separate Housing Estate Business Group administering the residential properties in four London estates (Cumberland Market, Millbank, Victoria Park and Lee Green) and at Windsor.

These properties are let on regulated Fair Rent tenancies, and new tenants are nominated by local employers and organisations (such as the Post Office or the London Ambulance Service). Non-residential urban properties in and around Windsor are managed from the Windsor Estate Office.

In 1956 responsibility for managing the Crown's urban estate was split between a Central London Estate Group and an Other Urban Estates Group (as well as the elements managed from Windsor mentioned above). Responsibility for urban properties in Scotland lay with the Scottish Estate Group. In the following year the Central London and the Other Urban Estates groups were merged to form a single Urban Estates Branch. A third group within the branch was created in 1966 to deal with the residential estate in London (the Housing Estates Group).

Following the relocation of The Crown Estae Office headquarters to Bracknell in 1969, the branch was split in two: the Urban Estates Branch and the London Estates Branch (which included the Housing Estates Group). In 1973 the London Branch was re-titled the Central London Estates Branch, while the urban branch was merged with the Foreshores and Seabed Branch to become the Other Urban Estates, Foreshore and Seabed Branch.

This administrative unit lasted until 1977 when the Other Urban Estates, Establishments, Finance and Agricultural Estates Branch was formed, and a year later the urban and agricultural estates groups were merged to form the Country Estates Group (Establishments, Finance and Country Estates Branch). Meanwhile the Central London Estates Branch reverted to its former title of London Estates Branch in 1977. In 1984, the London and other urban elements of the estate were re-united as a single London and Urban Estates Branch. In April 1989 the office of the Surveyor of Crown Estates was absorbed into the branch.

Also in 1989 a separate Housing Business Group (from 1992 Housing Estates Business Group) was established, with the remainder of the branch becoming the Urban Estates Business Group.