THE discovery of a historic book has cast into doubt who owns dale village green – residents or a big landowner.
Raby Estate’s attempt to register several greens with the Land Registry in 2014 went unopposed by parish councils in Staindrop, Gainford and Middleton-in-Teesdale, but recently uncovered documents and minutes could result in the rights to Staindrop’s north and south greens being disputed.
The bound documents and minutes dating from between 1894 and 1917 were found by a dealer during a house clearance in Toft Hill.
The book was bought by Bernard Poole, a member of the village’s history group.
The parish council decided to reimburse Mr Poole and took ownership of the book during its meeting last month.
Mr Poole said: “I didn’t have any hesitation in buying it – if I hadn’t bought it, it would have disappeared.
“I found the village green saga absolutely fascinating – full tribute to the old parish council, the way they stood up to Raby. They wouldn’t give Raby an inch. And it is still not resolved.
“In fact, in my opinion, Raby [Estate] have no leg to stand on. They came up with this idea of manorial ways, or whatever that is, but the greens were leased out quite often by the parish council and the money was paid to the parish council, not Raby.
“If it was belonging to Raby, they would’ve wanted the money.”
The council has yet to contact Raby Estate about the book. Chief executive Duncan Peake said the estate has a good relationship with the parish council and they were “perfectly entitled” to challenge the estate’s title to the green.
He added: “We will have a dialogue with them. We work closely with the parish council on a lot of things.”
Mr Poole said an interesting feature of the book was an old map of the village on the inside cover.
Cllr Roger Humphries said: “That in itself is worth thousands to us.”
