This thesis examines the evidence for the decline and survival of historic landed estates since the end of the nineteenth century. The focus is on the processes of adaptation undergone by those estates that have survived over the post-war period. These processes are described in this study as a 'compromise' of 'traditional' landed estate characteristics. The particular approach taken by this research is to focus on the manipulation of property rights as a way of comprehending estate survival strategies. The work observes how various forms of legislation and the emergence of other powerful interest groups have acted to increasingly constrain the rights of rural landowners. A conceptual framework indicates how wide-ranging political, economic and social changes, and alterations to family circumstances, are reflected in the changing division and sub-division of owner, occupier and user rights over historic landed estates. The research is based on a micro-level investigation of an estate in south-east Devon. It examines how the political activities of the estate's owners represent attempts made by them to publicise their position and to defend their property rights. Subsequently, the study investigates the evolution of the estate over the post-war period in terms of its ownership and management, size, occupancy, economic activities, and local relations. Particular attention is paid to a series of 'critical' moments when changing circumstances required the formulation of major survival strategies. The study examines the central place of property rights and their accompanying responsibilities, observing how the allocation and re-allocation of property rights has become particularly fluid, complex and contested, and how the manipulation of property rights represents the response of estate owners to both opportunities and threats. The findings of the case study are also considered more broadly, that is, in relation to the position of rural landowners in general in the late twentieth century countryside