Farmland reclaims a city

[Onasander]

Have they had any luck building on mines, especially coal mines, in England?

 

Here, we have four layers of coal, but most of our flat land is on top of hills..... that top most coal level is 10-20 feet below surface, and instead of just blowing up the surface, they got all inventive and mined it underground instead. The land ends up unsuitable for building that point on. 

 

I don't know how high of a premium land is in England, or when the first suburbs popped up.... from my understanding, suburbs was a 19th century Pittsburg PA phenomena first, I don't know how much the English have gotten into it over the traditional Ekistics since. 

[caldrail]

There's plenty of areas built on former mines, and occaisionally sinkholes break through. Sometimes that occurs because of the mining, or because of natural subterranean erosion, such as happened in the north of England when a locomotive was swallowed up by a sudden hole (it's still down there, though no-one is sure how deep). However, most of these problems occur with earlier mines from the industrial revolution rather than the later and larger collieries, which tended to be opened further from habitation. There are area's in my home town that are built on former quarries, used between Roman and Victorian ages.

 

Land is very expensive in crowded England and there's all sorts of laws attached to owning it, such as responsibility for maintaining public rights of way, however archaic, and to pay tax above a certain sized holding. There's a new shopping mall being built around the corner from where I live, and the developers, an experienced construction/architect company, could not find out who owned the unpaved alleyway running along the north side of the site. Ownership got misfiled and forgotten a long time ago, even though it's a public right of way.

[Onasander]

We have some archaic public right away away laws here in west Virginia, if you can show a path has been used for 25 years, people are allowed to use it no matter your perceived property rights..... I've had to had a showdown with a crazy hillbilly upset kids were ruining his grass, claiming he had the right to shoot us.... more convincing given his shotgun in hand. 

 

Had to explain to him the law, our rights, and killing minors who were not violating his property rights was gonna lead to the death penalty for him. 

 

He's been nice ever since.  

[caldrail]

Part of the process of buying land in Britain is to pay for a legal search for such things (I'm not sure if it's mandatory, but you're risking a nasty suprise if you don't). The recent "right to roam" legislation does not interfere with this process.

 

Concerning America, we probably get a skewed opinion here in Britain. Almost inevitably when this sort of thing eriupts in a 'fly on the wall' series, there's dramatic music, wobbly cameras, and a loud argument  with lots of pushing and a clear victim (never any firearms of course. What's all this nonsense about Americans using weapons? )

[Onasander]

Some of the court cases here stretch back to colonial times, the fines paid to the king.... I guess till 1776 it would still count as legal..... there is a book on the internet focusing on Colonial Virginia Court Records found in Western Pennslyvania. Its big, so I havent gone all through it.... was thinking of photographing the modern spots of any land rulings here.....

 

Issue is, I am worried the early claims will substantially differ from what developed., and my.research will be used in a land claim situation.

 

It would be deeply disturbing if say, descendants of Dirty Girty, the scumbag royalist who killed all the people here, was discovered to have a claim because some lord gave him a thousand acres just prior to the revolution., and he contested a neighbors claim in some royalist court....

 

That would be like giving land to the descendants of one of Hitlers favorites. I want to know..... but Im not certain I want to know. The settlement period here was perhaps the darkest decade of british history. Ugly, dark, and creepy from all angles.