A wealthy British aristocrat whose vast rural estate makes him a neighbor of King Charles has been accused of effecting a rural “land grab” to claim over three thousand acres of land that some locals say rightfully belongs to the community.
The fight centers on a tract of marshy land running to the sea from the quaint Norfolk village of Burnham Overy Staithe, which has been nicknamed Chelsea-on-Sea and where holiday houses often change hands for millions of pounds. The village is just 16 miles from the royal Sandringham Estate.
Locals say that common land has been wrongfully claimed by Thomas Edward Coke (pronounced “cook”), the 8th Earl of Leicester, and is being treated as private property, with charges being levied for mooring boats and launching vessels.
The earl, who is a friend of the royals, sits in the House of Lords, and was the Page of Honour to Queen Elizabeth II between 1979 and 1981. He insists the land is lawfully part of his estate, Holkham, which is thought to be worth around £200 million ($250 million).
According to local newspaper North Norfolk News, when the argument ended up at Norwich Magistrates’ Court in recent weeks, the Earl won, but locals have since vowed to carry on their crusade.
The argument, in its current form, goes back to 1984 when the then-newly formed Scolt Head and District Common Rights Holders’ Association first argued the land belonged to Burnham Overy Parish Council under historic laws dating back to the 18th century.
However, the earl registered the land to the Holkham estate in 2012 and has leased it to the Burnham Overy Harbour Trust ever since.
The Times of London reported that minutes of a parish council meeting from 2019 recorded that “there are some very strong and genuinely held feelings amongst people within and outside our community that Holkham is not the legal owner of the land and that [the parish council] is the rightful owner.”
Rod Cooke, secretary of the Scolt Head and District Common Rights Holders Association, told North Norfolk News: “Common land has been taken from us and is being used as private property. There’s not supposed to be any commercialization of common land and they shouldn’t be profiting from it.”
Peter Mitchell, managing director of the estate, told North Norfolk News that it retained ownership of the land and was committed “to manage this important area of natural habitat.”
