Places one can anchor for free and places one has to pay to anchor?

[Tranona]

Humm think that the Crown Estates often own the River Bed even where a Harbour Authority has been created, so the Harbour Authority lease the River Bed from the Crown Estates. In the West Country its Prince Charles as the Duchy of Cornwall's income.

As I understand it the Crown Estates and Duchy only own up to the Mean High Water mark, above that its the Councils foreshore / land. So often a Beach Up above the Mean High Water might be outside of above any Harbour Authority jurisdiction ? maybe ?

But the Duchy has no control over the charges made by the harbour authority.

There seems to be a lot of confusion here about a principle that is so simple (apart from the oddities like Beaulieu and Yarmouth). That is harbour authorities have powers to manage a harbour and levy charges on users. The only thing that is really up for discussion is the extent to which they use those powers, both formally, that is in terms of the published policy, and informally, that is the extent to which they enforce the charges. This varies from authority to authority.

So, for example Chichester is very active in collecting dues from leisure users, because that is the main type of user and source of income. Poole is a commercial port, and is efficient at collecting dues from boats kept in the harbour through the clubs, marinas and mooring contractors, but less active in collecting daily dues from visitors unless they use one of the marinas.

I think this is what the OP was hoping to get at in the original poll, and to identify anchorages where there are no charges. A massive job! - but the principle is really all you need to know. Most anchorages are free, but mooring buoys in those anchorages usually have to be paid for. But once you get into a managed harbour you are under their bye laws and may be subject to charges.