• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Ty Unnos

S

_schnor

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 14, 2001
Messages
983
I heard about the so called Ty Unnos recently; belief has it that if you built a house overnight on common ground, and had smoke coming out of the chimney by day break, you could claim ownership and the house, and any land contained within an area to the distance of a thrown axe.

A quick google later, and I couldn't find much - can anyone confirm or deny this? It sounds like we could make a killing on the property market...
 
I seem to remember that such a 'law' operated in NW England during the 17th century, but your ownership only extended to the gound the house stood on. Can't remember any details, though. It could be the reason that you find a fair few cottages (or ruins thereof) standing all alone in windswept godforsaken moorland, miles from anywhere. I've often wondered why on earth anybody would want to build a home there - but if you were homeless and got the land for free, you wouldn't worry about the location.
 
I can't shed any light on that, but it's fascinating.

I do know the the origin of "breaking and entering" dates back to medieval times, when domiciles were built of earth, and flimsy enough to allow one to smash through the wall. Furious peasants would occasionally go and tear another's house apart with their bare hands!

Ah, simpler times.
 
I've asked around about it, and it used to be widely practised from the 1600's to 1750's. If farm workers lost their jobs and were down on their luck, they'd ask permission from their ex-bosses if they could move onto common land and build a house (granted it was common land but the wealthy landowners/employers would have almost exclusive rights to the land) and they'd reply along the lines of "sure, if you can manage to build a house in 1 day you're more than welcome" so they'd quickly make one using all the stones (moraine) on moorland and make a basic house, strengthened up with peat and what-not.

They could then improve it throughout the year. Like anna said before, it explains all the isolated houses in "locationally disadvantaged areas" with in modern times, having quite small gardens, which I always wondered - a house in the middle of nowhere only having a 10 ft garden?

It also explains the nature of isolated farmhouses, a basic core - one story high, 10 ft across with rooms added as and when.

Unfortunately, the rule no longer applies, and has been wholly succeeded by modern day planning laws (in my area, all the common land is an SSSI, so new buildings are prohibited unless specifically authorised)

So, there we have it - every days a day at school eh?

My fortune awaits elsewhere ;)
 
In North Wales (possibly on Anglesey) there's a tourist attraction called "the ugly house" built by two brothers between sunrise and sunset the same day for just this reason. It's pretty crooked and ugly. Don't know when it was built, sorry.
 
This was mentioned in one of George Ewart Evans's books, "Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay", I think, but I can't find the reference at the moment!!!!!

There is also something dating from the middle ages, where some chapels were built as a penance or in thanksgiving & were built between sunride & sunset!!!
 
Isn't there a law which says that if you fence off a plot of land and keep your fences intact for longer than 12 years then you can prove the right to own that land? By agreement I pay the local farmer £1 p.a. to park my car on his bit of rough ground, thus I'm renting and so cannot claim it. maybe I should quickly throw up a garage with a chimney overnight.:D
 
Yup!!!!

"It is possible that by possessing another persons land for 12 years,one can gain "squatters rights" over it"..

But it depends on the person not complaining about your encroachment during this time OR them agreeing to it.

With the latter a tenancy is implied, even if no rent is claimed.
 
David said:
Yup!!!!

"It is possible that by possessing another persons land for 12 years,one can gain "squatters rights" over it"..

But it depends on the person not complaining about your encroachment during this time OR them agreeing to it.
Click to expand...

Or shooting you and burying your corpse on said bit of land...or does that only work between nations?
 
Inverurie Jones said:
Or shooting you and burying your corpse on said bit of land...or does that only work between nations?
Click to expand...

There are a few places in the country, were boundry disputes in which one (or more people) were killed & were then buried on the disputed boundry, are suposed to have happened.

If anything, that seems to be the point were "higher authority" steps in & lays down the law. I can think of a gallows erected by the King & still beside the road in (I think) Nottinghamshire, as in: "Clean up your act, or I'll hang the lot of you." As well as a a dispute about parish bounderies in North Hertfordshire, in which a rector was supposed to hve been killed by the neighbouring cleric!!!!
 
David said:
Yup!!!!

"It is possible that by possessing another persons land for 12 years,one can gain "squatters rights" over it"..

But it depends on the person not complaining about your encroachment during this time OR them agreeing to it.

With the latter a tenancy is implied, even if no rent is claimed.
Click to expand...
I beleive it also depends on you actually making regular and continuous use of the property as well - i.e. living on it, or cultivating it. Just fencing it off isn't good enough.
 
I love the ugly house, but it's difficult trying to get a good look, so I always nearly crash trying to look 180o and try to drive at the same time :eek:
 
David said:
"It is possible that by possessing another persons land for 12 years,one can gain "squatters rights" over it"..
Click to expand...
Ooh, for once I'm the expert on something. It's called adverse possession, and here's a fascinating link to the Land Registry Practice Advice Leaflet No. 15, one section of which is entitled, forteanly, "What stops time running"
Enjoy!
http://search.landreg.gov.uk/publications/pal/pal015.pdf
 
Dunno if a form ofty unnos works in the channel islands, but once you have some property there, you can invoke the Clameur de Haro to protect it.

It'd be nice if it worked on the mainland - if the Council decided to chop down one of our trees, I'd quite fancy standing in the middle of our road yelling in Norman French till they stopped . . .

Carole
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top