"Under historic laws, that go back to the Norman conquest, ‘Lordships of the Manor’ have the right to exploit minerals under common land around towns and villages or land that has been brought by someone else but is still on the ancient estate. However unless the mineral rights are registered with the Land Registry before October 2013 they could be lost. Accountants and estate agents are advising landowners to register their land as soon as possible in order to cash in on minerals like gravel, limestone and the new “energy gold”, shale gas. This will ensure that landowners are able to profit from shale gas reserves, as long as they gain planning permission, even if the local community is against drilling. The Doomsday Book lists 13,418 Lordships of the Manor who may hold rights over the sub-soil. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/8869801/Lords-of-the-Manor-to-cash-in-on-fracking.html

In setting out to research this on behalf of us peasants and commoners I notice that there is now a campaign to "End Manorial Rights". The campaign strap line is "An Action Group against out of date feudalistic laws affecting modern society". As the campaign argues "Protected interests of the landed gentry have NO place in today’s socially and culturally diverse Britain. We must get rid of these outdated rights." In this we should follow the example of the Scottish parliament which abolished such rights in 2000.

There is a petition. http://manorialrights.org/blog/2014/02/04/sign-petition-end-manorial-rights-now/ 

As I have said before - an appropriate resolution to this crisis, given the fact that are betters have surrendered to the oil and gas industry, would be for communities to take responsibility for the protection of soil, water and atmosphere - with a deliberative and democratic process deciding how sensitive and precious ecological "resources" are used to ensure that the interests of all, including other species in a healthy eco-system, are maintained.  http://wealthofthecommons.org/