Law Case Summary
Wheeldon v Burrows (1879) LR 12 Ch D 31
Property Law – Easement – Right of way – Grant – Common owner conveying freehold
Facts
A workshop and adjacent piece of land owned by Wheeldon was put up for sale. The land was sold separately. The workshop/shed was sold to another person but it was found that the workshop had minimal amounts of light and was only lit by several small windows which overlooked the field. The new owner of the field blocked out the light that illuminated the workshop with a wall.
Issue
Whether there was a right or grant over the land for light to enter the workshop.
Decision/Outcome
It was usual for implied grants and easements over tenements to be passed down or to continue over the land. Usually, they were granted as part of the enjoyment of the land and there are no corresponding implications in favour of the grantor. However, when Wheeldon conveyed the land, he had not reserved a right of access of light to the windows, no such right passed to Burrows (the purchaser of the workshop). It did not prohibit or stipulate that any purchaser of the land could build and obstruct the windows to the workshop as he pleased. It was determined that there was no implied right that was granted before or on the sale of the land and nothing specified in the conveyance. All those continuous and apparent easements over part of any land which were necessary to the enjoyment of that part of the land were passed on as part of the grant. This may have applied if both parts of the land had been sold together, but as the two bits of land were sold separately, no right passed on to the purchaser of the workshop. The appeal was dismissed.
Updated 21 March 2026
This case summary remains accurate as a statement of the legal principles established in Wheeldon v Burrows (1879) LR 12 Ch D 31. The rule in Wheeldon v Burrows continues to form part of English land law and has not been abrogated by statute or overruled by subsequent case law. The principles relating to implied grants of easements upon conveyance of part of a common owner’s land remain good law, operating alongside the statutory mechanism in section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925.
Readers should be aware that the Law Commission considered reform of the law of easements in its report Making Land Work: Easements, Covenants and Profits à Prendre (Law Com No 327, 2011), which recommended rationalisation of the rules on implied creation of easements, including modification of the Wheeldon v Burrows rule. However, those recommendations have not been implemented by legislation, and the rule therefore continues to apply in its established form. Students should also note that the interaction between Wheeldon v Burrows and section 62 of the Law of Property Act 1925 remains an important area of study, as confirmed in cases such as Wood v Waddington [2015] EWCA Civ 538.
