Ellenborough Park is a park in Weston-super-Mare (split by a minor road, not considered by either side, nor the courts consequential). The larger park was owned in 1855 by two tenants in common who sold off outlying parts for the building of houses, and granted rights in the purchase/sale deeds to the house owners (and expressly to their successors in title) to enjoy the parkland which remained. The land was enjoyed freely until 1955, when
Judge Danckwerts delivered his decision on a complex dispute at first instance. The nub of the case appealed centred on a monetary question affecting the land for the first time. It centred on the fact that the
War Office had used the land during
World War II, and compensation was due to be paid to the neighbours (if correctly alleging a proprietary interest to use the land, namely an easement) or the landowner, the trustees of the original owner if they were the sole person(s) with an owning interest (under the Compensation Defence Act 1939, section 2 (1)). The landowner (of the park), the beneficiaries of the trust of the original owners of the land, challenged the assertion of an "easement" from the immediate neighbours enjoying the expressed right to use the park in their deeds (title), which they in practice also regularly enjoyed. They stated these neighbouring owner-occupiers (and their tenants) had only a personal advantage (a licence, with no proprietary rights), and not an easement proper (which would include proprietary rights). ==Judgment==