This thesis examines the evidence for the decline and survival of historic landed
estates since the end of the nineteenth century. The focus is on the processes of
adaptation undergone by those estates that have survived over the post-war period.
These processes are described in this study as a 'compromise' of 'traditional' landed
estate characteristics. The particular approach taken by this research is to focus on the
manipulation of property rights as a way of comprehending estate survival strategies.
The work observes how various forms of legislation and the emergence of other
powerful interest groups have acted to increasingly constrain the rights of rural
landowners. A conceptual framework indicates how wide-ranging political, economic
and social changes, and alterations to family circumstances, are reflected in the changing
division and sub-division of owner, occupier and user rights over historic landed estates.
The research is based on a micro-level investigation of an estate in south-east
Devon. It examines how the political activities of the estate's owners represent attempts
made by them to publicise their position and to defend their property rights.
Subsequently, the study investigates the evolution of the estate over the post-war period
in terms of its ownership and management, size, occupancy, economic activities, and
local relations. Particular attention is paid to a series of 'critical' moments when
changing circumstances required the formulation of major survival strategies. The study
examines the central place of property rights and their accompanying responsibilities,
observing how the allocation and re-allocation of property rights has become particularly
fluid, complex and contested, and how the manipulation of property rights represents the response of estate owners to both opportunities and threats. The findings of the case
study are also considered more broadly, that is, in relation to the position of rural
landowners in general in the late twentieth century countrysid