Manorial Rights
Naturally anyone who owns land no matter how large or small assumes they own the land, buildings and ground surrounding them, but this might not actually be the case! Our current system of legal land ownership came into existance around 100 years ago, at this time the rights of the old Lords of the Manor were not always recorded, but even so they still over-ride the rights of the current landowner.
These Manorial Rights might include sporting rights, access rights or mineral rights. These rights can be vary valuable (or cetainly maybe in the future, who knows what access routes or minerals might be valuable in the future?)
Thankfully significant changes to the law are due to take place, through the land registration act of 2002, any Manorial Rights must be registered by 13th October 2013, if they are to continue to be binding on the land.
This will mean that in future buyers of land will be clear whether they really own the ground beneath their feet. On the other hand this will mean that any holders of Manorial Rights wll lose them if they are not registered in time.
To register these rights, you will need to prove that you own them and so research, legal, and application costs are involved, but you may be protecting significant future value by doing so. Trustees who might be owners of such rights have a duty to protect trust assets and may feel obliged to look into the matter.
It seems only sensible to have a position where owners of land, owners of rights of land and potential users of those rights or assets are all clear about their relationships. However, there is some way to go between where we are now and that position of desirable clarity, so all parties would be well advised to look into the matter in plenty of time before the 2013 deadline.