Who owns the bit below high water?

Rivers & creeks

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We want to anti-foul East Coast style on Saturday (on a beach, between tides). Do I need to ask permission of the owner of the land or is everything below high water fair game?
 
It's the bit below low water that is owned by the Crown Estate. Agents for the Crown on the South Coast are Humberts at Ocean Village. Above the low water mark the freehold could be whoever's.

rob
 
liz@buckhouse.com?
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"Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity"
 
'The foreshore or seashore - the two words mean the same in the legal sense...lies in the ownership of the Crown unless excluded by a stronger title.' - The Law of River and Watercourses. A S Wisdom

So dry out on the beach and get on with it.
 
Generally it is the crown - managed as said elsewhere by crown estates.

There are however a few oddities where for some historic favour or other the ownership of the foreshore has been granted to someone else.

More common is that the crown will lease the foreshore to a third party - normally so that they have some level of control over activities occurring (common on nature reserves etc so that damaging activities on the foreshore (such as spilling a couple of litres of antifoul /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) can be controlled.
 
On the Isle of Wight, land is generally privately owned down to the low water mark - an anomally created by Queen Victoria to prevent the peasants landing in Osborne Bay. It has created the situation in places like Wootton Creek where you can anchor at high water (to the annoyance of the land owners) but commit trespass if you dry out.

Local authorities usually have control down to the low water mark where public land adjoins the sea, hence they can impose bye-laws on beaches.
 
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