To ask what funny covenants you've got on your house

[IanHislopForPm]

I can't sleep (can you tell) and I'm going through the deeds of the house and one of the
(Many) covenants is that we're not allowed to sell fish on a Friday 😂 I read once about a landlord who instead of charging peppercorn rent insisted on 100 red roses 🌹 😂 I'm so excited that we're finally getting there now and we move in on Friday.

Not allowed to keep chickens!

I'm not allowed a carousel or rifle range in the back garden

I'm not allowed to grow nettles.

We had a side entrance/alleyway up the side of the house where we last lived and we were only allowed to take a horse and cart, three quarters of the way up it....presumably we would have to walk the final quarter

We're not allowed to build any permanent structures... on our roof. Would love to know the story behind that one

Post war house and we are not allowed to grow veg in the front garden, guess it’s all about getting back to a sense of normality post war.

Love so if these - not grinding bones for glue or lace making is my fave so far.

How would these covenants be enforced?

We can't make soap.

I can't brew beer.

@IntermittentParps (love the user name). I think it was called The Planners and was on BBC 2. But about 10 years ago.

We are responsible for the repair of a church roof three miles away. We're not even a vicarage. A one off payment to an insurance police ensures we'll never have to foot that bill!

Here it is @IntermittentParps, www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00tw844/episodes/guide

I think it might be on YouTube.

Our house was built in 1990 - not allowed a caravan in front garden (neighbours have one!) or fences but hedge is ok. Not allowed to keep chickens or a pig in back garden.

In our previous house (built same time) same as above plus we were not allowed a shed (but we had one).

Who would enforce these?

I can't run a brothel or a pub which is boring.

Also no farm animals, which as a mid terrace is probably fir the best

On my last home, the covenant stated that I couldn’t render any fat or make tallow candles!

An awful lot of these boil down to bad smells, if you’ll excuse the pun.

Imagine all the historical CFs there must have been to result in these covenants being put in place.

We are not allowed to keep goats, !!! 🐐

To summarise, brothels, pigs and alcohol seem to be the most popular covenants.

I reckon there's a TV series somewhere in that. Just needs a snappy title.
Something like 'Hops, sows and sordid lays'

Not allowed to keep chickens or breed dogs in our 1972 house.

I love the quirkiness of English land law (though it was less entertaining when I was studying it!). At our last house in England you couldn’t run a pub/sell alcohol. I think this is a pretty common one where so much land was once owned by churches.

To summarise, brothels, pigs and alcohol seem to be the most popular covenants

Is making bricks in there somewhere too?

metro.co.uk/2019/05/07/britains-smallest-pub-run-pensioner-98-front-room-9434397/

I am sure that I remember reading about a similar establishment in Derbyshire. It was a done thing once!

I've been to similar in small villages in Eastern Europe too.

Some of these are very good. Hope your move goes ok. Fingers crossed....

Can't trade in horses or cattle and no selling strong liquor. We live next to an Old inn in Oz and they used to have a cattle market.