| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1937 c. 56 |
| Year | 1937 |
An Act to make provision for the ascertainment and registration of particulars as to proprietary interests in unworked coal and mines of coal and in certain associated minerals, property and rights in land, and for purposes connected therewith.
[30th July 1937]
B E it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Registration of particulars of ownership.
(1) For the purpose of recording such particulars as are hereinafter mentioned as to proprietary interests that subsist in coal and mines of coal in Great Britain and in certain property and rights held in association therewith, the Board of Trade shall establish a register, to be called ‘the coal holdings register.’
(2) The Board shall receive applications duly made to them for the registration of particulars in the register, and, after such applications have been examined in accordance with the provisions of this Act, shall register particulars of the facts ascertained upon the examination thereof.
(3) Registrations under this Act shall be effected in respect of such proprietary interests or groups of proprietary interests as are, under the provisions of the First Schedule to this Act, to be treated as constituting units of separate ownership, and applications for registration must be made accordingly.
Any such interest or group of interests is in this Act referred to as a ‘holding.’
(4) The matters whereof particulars may be registered in respect of any holding shall be—
(a ) the coal and mines of coal in which the holding subsists;
(b ) the property and rights which are held in association with such coal and mines or any of them and in which the holding subsists;
(c ) the servitudes, restrictive covenants and other matters subject to which the coal hereditaments in which the holding subsists or any of them are or is held;
(d ) such matters of title as are requisite for the identification of the holding as a unit of separate ownership; and
(e ) such other matters, if any, relating to the coal hereditaments in which the holding subsists, or to the title thereto, as appear to the Board to be material for the purpose of rendering the information as to proprietary interests recorded in the register complete.
(5) The provisions of Part I of the Second Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the making and examination of applications for registration, to the ascertainment of the facts whereof particulars are to be registered, to the registration of particulars, and to the rectification of the register.
(6) The provisions of Part II of the Second Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to the payment by the Board of costs incurred in giving effect to the provisions of this Act.
(7) The person on whose application particulars have been registered in respect of a holding and any person authorised by him or by an order of the High Court or by rules made by the Board, but no other person, may inspect and make copies of and extracts from the entries in the register relating to the holding.
2 Expenses of Board of Trade.
2. All expenses of the Board of Trade under this Act shall be defrayed out of moneys provided by Parliament, and shall not be taken into account in computing the amount of the expenses of the Department of Mines for the purposes of the limit imposed by subsection (2) of section five of the Mining Industry Act, 1920, upon the expenses of that Department.
3 Definition of ‘coal’ and application of Act to certain associated minerals.
(1) In this Act ‘coal’ means bituminous coal, cannel coal and anthracite, and has also the extended meaning assigned to it by subsection (2) of this section.
(2) This Act shall have effect in relation to minerals or substances other than coal, that are comprised in a lease which confers a right to work and carry away both coal and those minerals or substances, in like manner in all respects as if they had been coal, and references in this Act to coal shall be construed accordingly.
(3) In this Act references to coal, other than references to the carrying away, making merchantable or disposing thereof, shall be construed as references to coal that is unworked, that is to say, not so severed as to have become a chattel.
4 Interpretation.
4. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires, the following expressions have the meanings hereby assigned to them respectively, that is to say:—
‘Coal hereditaments’ means coal and mines of coal and property and rights which are held in association with any coal or mine of coal;
‘Coal-mining lease’ means in relation to any coal a lease that confers a right to work and carry away that coal, and means in relation to any mine of coal a lease that confers a right to use it for a coal-mining purpose;
‘Coal-mining purpose’ means searching and boring for, winning, working, getting, carrying away, making merchantable or disposing of, coal;
‘Interested’ means, in relation to a person referred to as interested in any coal or mine of coal, or in any other land, any person entitled to, or to exercise, or interested in, or in the exercise of, any estate, interest, charge or power in, on or over that coal or mine or that other land, as the case may be, other than a person entitled or interested as aforesaid in respect only of the benefit of a servitude or restrictive covenant adversely affecting that coal or mine or that other land, as the case may be; and ‘interest’ has a corresponding meaning;
‘Lease’ includes an underlease and an agreement under which the right to have a lease or underlease granted is subsisting, and in relation to such an agreement ‘estate owner’ means the person entitled to have vested in him the term agreed to be created; neither ‘lease’ nor ‘underlease’ includes a mortgage; ‘lease’ and ‘underlease’ each include a licence (whether personal or by way of profit prendre) that confers a right to work and carry away coal or to use a mine of coal for a coal-mining purpose, and in relation to such a licence the expression ‘reversion’ and other expressions importing a reference to a lease shall be construed accordingly with the requisite adaptations;
‘Mine of coal’ means a space which is occupied by coal or which has been excavated underground for a coal-mining purpose, and includes a shaft and an adit made for a coal-mining purpose;
‘Proprietary interest’ means any interest in coal hereditaments with the exception of—
‘Prescribed’ means prescribed by rules made by the Board of Trade;
‘Servitude’ means any liberty, privilege, easement, right or advantage annexed to any land and adversely affecting other land, and ‘annexed to’ means, in relation to any coal or mine of coal or to any other land, appertaining or reputed to appertain thereto or to any part thereof, or demised, occupied or enjoyed therewith or with any part thereof, or reputed or known as part or parcel thereof or appertaining thereto or to any part thereof.
5 Application to Scotland.
5. This Act shall apply to Scotland subject to the following modifications:—
(1) ‘restrictive covenant’ means an agreement or stipulation imposing a restriction and includes a real burden ad factum praestandum; ‘underlease’ means sub-lease, and any reference to an underlease derived out of another lease shall be construed as a reference to a sub-lease granted by a lessee; for any reference to a mortgage there shall be substituted a reference to a heritable security; ‘chattel’ means corporeal moveable; and ‘demised’ means let;
(2) for any reference to the High Court a reference to the Court of Session shall be substituted;
(3) any reference to a charge or power in, on or over, any subjects shall include a reference to a heritable security affecting such subjects;
(4) ‘heritable security’ has the like meaning as in the Conveyancing (Scotland) Act, 1924 , except that it does not include a real burden ad factum praestandum.
6 Short title and extent.
(1) This Act may be cited as the Coal (Registration of Ownership) Act, 1937 .
(2) This Act shall not extend to Northern Ireland.
(3) This Act shall not extend to any part of the Forest of Dean or of the Hundred of Saint Briavels in the County of Gloucester in which the privileges of free miners are exercisable.
S C H E D U L E S.
FIRST SCHEDULE.
Units of Separate Ownership.
General.
1.
(1) Subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 of this Schedule, each of the following proprietary interests, or groups of proprietary interests, in coal hereditaments shall constitute a unit of separate ownership for the purposes of this Act, namely:—
(a ) each freehold reversion (that is to say, in the case of all the coal and mines of...
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