Catalogue description Palatinate of Durham: Court of Chancery: Enclosure Awards

This collection of documents relating to the enclosure of lands consists of original commissioners' awards with papers pertinent thereto; three entry books of such awards in replica; and printed private parliamentary acts of local application confirming such enclosures. The awards were made by decree of the Court of Chancery of the Palatinate of Durham in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In the later eighteenth century acts of Parliament were preferred. Both methods are represented in this series, ranging from the year 1632 to 1834, by which time the enclosure movement had more or less run its course.

The documents are not entirely concerned with enclosures of common land or waste: the earliest, dated 1632, concerns a commissioned agreement about watercourses; the next, dated 1680, involves a bill of complaint to initiate action in the Court of Chancery and a decree confirming an award of 1658; two 1712 items concern a tripartite division of the estate of Ralph Blenkinsopp of Birtley, who had left three co-heiresses.

Further enclosure awards, chiefly acts and papers regarding the division of common lands, are held at the University of Durham, Department of Archives and Special Collections.

Palatinate of Durham, Chancery Court, 1333-1836

References to enclosures from 1801 will be found in Index to Local Acts from 1801 to 1899 (HMSO, 1900), indexed under enclosures.

A 'List of Some Enclosure Awards in the Public Record Office' follows the paper catalogue of CP 43, available in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.