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ANYONE with ambition to join the aristocracy could get their chance because a family is to auction off the lordships of two manors, near Chipping Campden, which it has owned since the 17th century.

The new lords and ladies of these manors will be able to use the titles on their passports, cheque books and credit cards.

Memorial Auctioneers will auction the Lordships of Broad Campden and Berrington at Stationers' Hall, Ave Maria Lane, London on Tuesday, May 20 at 2pm.

Expected to fetch between £5,000 and £6,000 each, they will be auctioned on behalf of the Earl of Gainsborough who is descended from the Hicks family, the Viscounts Campden, who acquired them in the 17th century with the Lordship of Chipping Campden, which was sold last November.

They were included under Chipping Campden in the Domesday Book at the command of William the Conqueror, in 1086, as an inventory of the principal landowners in his new kingdom of England The overlord at the time was Hugh Lupus who was the Norman Earl of Chester, a title now held by the Prince of Wales.

The Ludloes, Molyneux and the Earls of Gloucester were among several families who held them, together with Tewkesbury Abbey, at different times in the Middle Ages.

They were joined with Campden early in the 17th century by rich silk merchant and money lender, Sir Baptist Hicks, who became Baron Hicks of Ilmington and Viscount Campden in 1628 after giving kings James I and Charles I £33,000-worth of loans.

The new lords and ladies will also be eligible for membership of the Manorial Society of Great Britain, founded in 1906, the governing body of which includes the Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot, the Earl of Shannon, Lord Sudeley and Sir Desmond de Silva QC.

This society holds functions throughout the year, including an annual reception at the House of Lords.

The Battle Bridge, in Berrington, is said to commemorate an early Anglo-Saxon battle fought there.

8:00am Friday 9th May 2008

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