It takes a family to raise a village

A hangover from the days of landed gentry, there are still privately owned villages scattered throughout the UK. What is it really like to be at the helm of a community, asks Alec Marsh

- Alec Marsh

ONCE upon a time, not so many generations ago, it was common for a landed estate to own the nearby village—a fact often reflected in the name of the local pub and, sometimes, in the uniform architecture of the buildings. Quite how many such villages there once were awaits the dedicated labours of academic study, but what we do know is that now, of hundreds or even thousands, scarcely a dozen or so privately owned villages remain.

With soaring death duties, rent acts and collapsing land prices in the aftermath of the World Wars, vast tracts of land were sold off across the countryside and the villages went with them. There was no let up. ‘From the 1970s, most privately owned villages were sold piecemeal, often after centuries of ownership,’ confirms Jonathan Thompson, senior heritage advisor at the Country Land & Business Association (CLA). A few, however, are holding out.

Meet Sir Richard FitzHerbert, owner of Tissington near Ashbourne in Derbyshire. The village and estate have been in the family for 500 years and the house, built in 1609, has only ever been occupied by his relatives. Sir Richard, the 9th Baronet, inherited it all from an uncle he barely knew at the age of 25, in 1989. ‘It’s sort of my job,’ he responds, when asked what owning a village is like.