County Borough of Doncaster: Estates

The corporation acquired the manor of Doncaster from the Crown by its charter of 1505 for an annual payment of £74. 13s. 11.5d (£74.70p). The corporation continued to pay this until 1896, when it bought out the obligation for £2,300. Besides obtaining the right to hold a manorial court, the manorial monopoly of milling corn, and the right to collect tolls, the borough gained a substantial amount of manorial property. This included areas of common land in various parts of the manor, including the common later used as the racecourse, land in Balby, Hexthorpe and Long Sandall and the entire township of Rossington. All the land in Rossington was disposed of by auction in 1838 in order to reduce the municipal debt, but the extensive remaining corporate estate continued to provide the council with a substantial income. The greater part of the deeds referred to here (some five hundred of a total of over one thousand) are counterpart leases of property leased by the corporation to its tenants from the mid-sixteenth century to the 1830s. Many title deeds, however, are retained as current records in the custody of the Directorate of Law, Property and Democratic Services. Title deeds and leases 1276-1838; Rentals of the municipal estates 1590-1812; chief rent accounts 1830-1873; Surveys, plans (mostly by J Colbeck and J Alexander) and other records of estate administration for the townships of Balby with Hexthorpe, Doncaster, Rossington, Sandall and Wheatley 1764-1848 including the enclosure award and plans for Hexthorpe with Balby and Long Sandall 1785; Report and working papers of the committee on municipal income and expenditure 1730-1830, known as the 'Stock Committee' 1831

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