The owners of a 17th-century country house used as a school for dyslexic children in the hamlet of Thickwood, near Colerne, Wiltshire, are locked in a High Court dispute over a right of way.
Colin and Sandra Agombar are defending a claim by Robinson Webster (Holdings) Ltd for a court declaration that the couple do not have the right to use land adjacent to their property, Thickwood House.
The Agombars claim that the disputed land is a public highway, or alternatively that they have a private right of way over it.
The problem dates back to when three key pieces of land owned by the same person were sold to separate buyers in 1990. Robinson Webster purchased one of the land parcels, Thickwood Farm, and also paid £10,000 to purchase “such right and interest as the seller had in respect of the Blue Land”.
When the Agombars later acquired Thickwood House in 1994, they wrote to introduce themselves to Robinson Webster, indicating that they understood that they had a right of access along the land in question and intended to use it occasionally. This letter marked the beginning of the dispute which has led to the High Court proceedings.
Today, Katharine Holland argued on behalf of the Agombars that the land is a highway. She contended that Wiltshire County Council responded to an enquiry about the lands status prior to the exchange of contracts in 1994 by saying it was to be inferred that it was a highway.
She also claimed that Thickwood House enjoyed the benefit of a right of way over the land which both sides accept existed as an easement or quasi-easement before the 1990 transfer of land.
However, David Hodge QC argued for Robinson Webster that it was for the Agombars to prove that the land was a highway, that there was no direct evidence of the public using it as of right and that the general reputation of the way was that it was subject to private rights only.
He also claimed that the proper interpretation of the 1990 transfer constituted an express release of all easements or quasi-easements over the land.
The hearing, before Etherton J, continues.
Robinson Webster (Holdings) Ltd v Agombar and another Chancery Division (Etherton J) 27 February 2001.
David Hodge QC and Ian Partridge (instructed by Manches) appear for the claimant; Katharine Holland (instructed by Clarks, of Reading) appears for the respondents.
PLS News 27/2/01
