Office of Land Revenue Records and Enrolments: Enrolments by Books, Office of Woods

This series contains the enrolments of all deeds or instruments relating to the purchase, sale, lease or exchange of Crown lands recorded by the Office of Land Revenue Records and Enrolments.

The series also contains enrolments relating to Crown woods which were not transferred to the Forestry Commission, but which remained the responsibility of the Commissioners of Crown Lands and their successors the Crown Estate Commissioners.

The enrolments in this series were made by, successively, the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings (1833-1851), the Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues (1851-1924), the Office of the Commissioners of Crown Lands (1924-1956) and the Office of the Crown Estate Commissioners (1956-1961).

Before 1 July 1914, when a single general series was instituted, the enrolments are classified in several series as Assignments, Leases, Purchases, etc. There was, however, some inconsistency in entering them, and deeds of a similar nature may be found to have been allotted to different series. It may, therefore, be necessary to search the indexes to series other than that to which a deed seems properly to belong.

From 1833 until June 1914, the enrolments were entered into distinct series of volumes for assignments, leases, purchases, sales and miscellaneous deeds, together with volumes relating to the Rolls Estate and to probate of wills from 1900 to 1903. From July 1914, enrolments were made in a single general series, which was simply a continuation of the miscellaneous volumes.

Further enrolments are in LR 1 LRRO 64 LRRO 66

Reference to the enrolments is by means of registers and indexes in

Deeds are in WORK 7

Further deeds are in WORK 24

Earlier enrolments are in E 315

Record copies of leases and conveyances of later date than July 1961 were formerly among the records of the Crown Estate Commissioners in. All three relevant series were withdrawn from the Public Record Office in 1972, but a card index to CRES 31 and CRES 32 is available for consultation, and lists of the three series are in:

OBS 1/1546

OBS 1/1547

OBS 1/1548

• Office of the Commissioners of Crown Lands, 1924-1956
• Office of the Crown Estate Commissioners, 1956-1961
• Office of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, 1851-1924
• Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings, 1832-1851

Topics

Crown lands and estates

Forestry

Between 1833 and 1852, enrolment was required for all transactions other than sales of Crown lands in which the purchase money was less than £100. At this time, enrolment was effected solely by the transcription of the full text of the deed into a volume in the Office of Land Revenue Records and Enrolments.

Thereafter, under statute 14 & 15 Vict, c42 (1851), all transactions were to be enrolled, but sales in which the purchase money was less than £100 could be enrolled simply by the deposit of a copy of the deed.

By a further enactment of the following year, 15 & 16 Vict, c62, this method of enrolment was extended to all transactions. Enrolment by deed rapidly became the more common method, although enrolment by books continued until 1961.

Separate series of volumes and deposited deeds were maintained for the various offices and departments which undertook transactions involving Crown lands. From March 1926, royal and treasury warrants relating to the work of the Commissioners of Crown lands were enrolled in these volumes.