On Wednesday the lord of Walthamstow, an 82-year-old retired estate agent named Phillip Leigh, is putting his title up for auction. His is one of about 2,000 nominal lordships. You might be able to buy a peer, but you can’t buy a peerage. A lordship is not a peerage. It doesn’t come with a place in the House of Lords, there’s no land, and, although they are known as “lord of the manor” titles, there’s also no manor.
Still, as Leigh is quick to point out, unlike many off-the-peg lordships, his one goes back a long way.
