Britain's last Court Leet in Portland, Dorset?

[james armstrong]

The Crown Estate (extract from their endorsement of the illustrated calendar of the Chesil Beach and Fleet Nature Reserve, 2000)
 
"The Crown estate has a long association with The Island and Royal Manor of Portland which has belonged to the Crown since Saxon times. Our joint funding of the visitor centre at Chesil Beach was an example of our commitment to the area.....

Around 250 hectares of land in Portland is managed by the Crown Estate. Of this, 160 hectares is common land which is administered by one of the last fully functional Courts Leet in Britain. In addition to this and the foreshore, the Crown Estate owns a number of commercial operations on Portland including a farm, petrol station, car parks, cafes and fishing and leisure huts. One of the major commercial interests is the quarrying of the valued Portland Stone. 
 
The Crown Estate is a landed estate including over 120,000 hectares (300,000 acres) of agricultural land in England, Scotland and Wales, substantial blocks of urban property and almost half the foreshore, together with the sea bed out to the twelve mile territorial limit.   Its origins  date back to the reign of Edward the Confessor. The Crown Estate is part of the hereditary possessions of the Sovereign "in the right of the Crown", managed under the provision of the Crown Estate Act of 1961.  The net surplus is paid to the Exchequer and amounted to £125.8 million for the year 31st March 1999."


BBC Southampton 'Southern Eye' film about planning corruption in and around Portland.
http://www.blip.tv/dashboard/episode/2142295