Aristocrat forced to open part of estate to public after council ruling

Hertfordshire council rules area of land on Hatfield House estate - owned by Marquess of Salisbury - is common land

The aristocrat who owns the country manor Hatfield House has been forced to allow the general public to walk on part of his estate after the local council ruled that it was common land.

Earlier this year, the Marquess of Salisbury, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, opposed an application by the Open Spaces Society (OSS) to register a 1.8-hectare (4.45-acre) area of land on his estate as a common. Gascoyne-Cecil is a Conservative politician, once an MP and minister, and now sits in the Lords as a hereditary peer.