Court Leet

The following quotation from the famous Domesday Book (a record of a survey of England in 1086) is taken from the secession �Land of the King�.

�Quote: �The King holds the island of Portland. King Edward held it in his lifetime. There are eight acres of meadow and this manor with its appurtenances of Wyke and Waymouth renders 65 shillings to blanch money. Here are 900 sheep, 3 horses of burden, 14 beast (cattle) and 27 hogs.�

For purely local affairs and minor offences each medieval manor would have its own court, called the Court Leet, over which the Lord of the manor or his steward presided. This court had almost absolute powers so far as local affairs were concerned. More serious affairs were passed to the �Court baron�, that is the court presided over by the Tenant-in-Chief. The final court was that of the Monarch known as the Court royal or Crown Court.
Portland Court Leet has run in an unbroken line, certainly since Roman times, and its functions remain unimpaired. Its existence has been threatened and attempts made to dispute it rulings, but thanks to some very resolute Islanders the Court has, so far, emerged successfully from these struggles and continues today to �zealously preserve the ancient rights and privileges of the island and its residents, denizens and tenants.�

The Functions of the Court Leet

The first and main concern is with the government and cultivation of the Manor with control of the commons, of which it is always recognised that �the soil is the Queen�s but the herbage is the Tenants�. The system of open field cultivation persisted in Portland long after it had died out elsewhere, and although it has now lapsed the right to herbage of the commons has never ceased and it is in this connection that the functions of the Court Leet are mainly exercised. The rights of the tenants are inalterable, and even the Crown itself cannot dispose of or deal with the commons without their consent, or deny them compensation for the loss of these rights. Here it should be stated that the right of herbage is not a right of tenants at large, nowadays referred to as council tax payers, but it is confined to tenants i.e. holders of Lana, from the Crown. In Portland today large areas of common land exist at Portland Bill, with several smaller areas distributed around the island. Where, for example, beach huts are sited on common land areas such as Portland Bill, Church Ope Cove and Chesil Beach, these are termed encroachments which require the permission of the Court let, and for which an appropriate compensation payment is received.