Glebe

Glebe land historically formed part of the permanent endowment property of each parish.

It belonged to the incumbent, and was used to generate an income for the incumbent to fund his living. Different parishes enjoyed variable levels of endowment, with the result that some livings were much more valuable than others. In 1976 the Endowment and Glebe Measure was passed by General Synod to transfer all glebe property to the Diocesan Board of Finance, and to make the Diocesan Board of Finance responsible for payment of a standard stipend to all stipendiary clergy within the diocese. The transfer took place on 1 April 1978, since when all glebe property has been in the ownership of the relevant Diocesan Board of Finance, held in its diocesan stipends fund.

Each diocese has a different level of glebe endowment, some rural dioceses having many thousands of acres of glebe land, whilst others have relatively little.

Diocesan Boards of Finance now hold glebe property subject to part 2 of the Church Property Measure 2018. The Measure imposes some conditions on dealings with glebe property, but generally the DBF will be free to let glebe property to generate rental income or to develop, exchange or sell it. The historic requirements for consent from patrons or the Church Commissioners to disposals of glebe property has now been repealed.

A DBF may set up a wholly owned subsidiary company for the purposes of holding or managing glebe property under s17 of the Church Property Measure 2018, which also enables the DBF to manage glebe property by a committee of the DBF or of its Parsonages Board.