The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for forestry in England and Scotland. It was set up in 1919 to expand Britain's forests and woodland after depletion during the First World War. To do this, the commission bought large amounts of former agricultural land, eventually becoming the largest land owner in Britain. The Commission is divided into three divisions: Forestry Commission England, Forestry Commission Scotland and Forest Research. Forestry Commission Scotland reports to the Scottish Government.
Crown land, also known as royal domain or demesne, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realms such as Canada and Australia, crown land is considered public land and is apart from the monarch's private estate.
The Ministry of Works was a department of the UK Government formed in 1940, during World War II, to organise the requisitioning of property for wartime use. After the war, the Ministry retained responsibility for Government building projects.
A royal forest, occasionally "Kingswood", is an area of land with different definitions in England, Wales, and Scotland. The term forest in the ordinary modern understanding refers to an area of wooded land; however, the original medieval sense was closer to the modern idea of a "preserve" – i.e. land legally set aside for specific purposes such as royal hunting – with less emphasis on its composition. There are also differing and contextual interpretations in Continental Europe derived from the Carolingian and Merovingian legal systems.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) is a government ministry of the Canadian province of Ontario that is responsible for Ontario’s provincial parks, forests, fisheries, wildlife, mineral aggregates and the Crown lands and waters that make up 87 per cent of the province. Its offices are divided into Northwestern, Northeastern and Southern Ontario regions with the main headquarters in Peterborough, Ontario.
Charles Shirreff was an early Canadian businessman and public official.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners were, in England and Wales, a body corporate, whose full title was Ecclesiastical and Church Estates Commissioners for England. The commissioners were authorized to determine the distribution of revenues of the Church of England, and they made extensive changes in how revenues were distributed. The modern successor body thereof are the Church Commissioners.
The Clergy Corporation, or the Clergy Reserve Corporation of Upper Canada, existed to oversee, manage and lease the Clergy reserves of Upper Canada, a large amount of land in Upper Canada that had been put aside for the Anglican and later Protestant churches. The main operations of the Corporation were to collect rents on these lands, receive petitions, answer inquiries and settle all disputes arising from the clergy land.
The Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues were officials under the United Kingdom Crown, charged with the management of Crown lands. Their office were customarily known as the Office of Woods. Under the Act of Parliament 14 and 15 Vict Cap 42 they took over from the Commissioners of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works, and Buildings those functions which related to the revenue-earning parts of the Crown lands. In 1924 the Royal Forests including the New Forest and Forest of Dean were transferred from the Office of Woods to the new Forestry Commission, and the title of the Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues was changed to Commissioners of Crown Lands.
The Commissioners of Crown Lands were charged with the management of United Kingdom Crown lands. From 1924 to 1954, they discharged the functions previously carried out by the Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues. There were three Commissioners at any one time: the Minister of Agriculture, the Secretary of State for Scotland and one Permanent Commissioner.
The Court of Augmentations, also called Augmentation Court or simply The Augmentation, was established during the reign of King Henry VIII of England along with three lesser courts following the dissolution of the monasteries. Its primary function was to gain better control over the land and finances formerly held by the Roman Catholic Church in the kingdom. It was incorporated into the Exchequer in 1554 as the augmentation office.
Alexander Milne was a British civil servant who worked as a Commissioner of Woods and Forests for many years.
William Alcock Tully was a Surveyor General of Queensland,.
Arthur Cates was an English architect.
George Ranken was a Scottish-born Australian surveyor, pastoralist and writer.
Crown Estate Scotland is the public corporation of the Scottish Government responsible for the management of land and property in Scotland owned by the monarch in right of the Crown. It is responsible for managing a range of rural, coastal and marine assets and works with the Scottish Government, Scottish Parliament, local authorities, communities and businesses in sectors such as offshore renewables, farming, tourism and aquaculture. The assets are held 'in right of the Crown' and the monarch remains the legal owner, but it is not the private property of the monarch. It cannot be sold by the monarch, nor do revenues from it belong to the monarch. Surplus revenue is paid from Crown Estate Scotland to the Scottish Consolidated Fund.
Sir Benjamin Charles Stephenson, GCH was a prominent British courtier and government official in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After military service, he served kings George III, George IV, and William IV. He was, from 1813 to 1832, Surveyor-General.
Ralph Bernard Pugh was an historian and editor of the Victoria History of the Counties of England from 1949 to 1977.
The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it the "Sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's private estate. As a result of this arrangement, the sovereign is not involved with the management or administration of the estate, and exercises only very limited control of its affairs. Instead, the estate's extensive portfolio is overseen by a semi-independent, incorporated public body headed by the Crown Estate Commissioners, who exercise "the powers of ownership" of the estate, although they are not "owners in their own right". The revenues from these hereditary possessions have been placed by the monarch at the disposition of Her Majesty's Government in exchange for relief from the responsibility to fund the Civil Government. These revenues thus proceed directly to Her Majesty's Treasury, for the benefit of the British nation. The Crown Estate is formally accountable to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, where it is legally mandated to make an annual report to the sovereign, a copy of which is forwarded to the House of Commons.
