Legal info about 'Church' pavement

Following up on yesterday's intriguing tale about 'Who owns the church pavement?'. we have received the following information:

"English law does not allow the giving of land in the way described.

"There has to be "consideration" from the other party, which must be money or money's worth. Even £1 will do. And more importantly perhaps, any land transfer has to be evidence by a written deed.

"Nowadays, of course, such transfers also have to be registered. So, if no deeds come to light, I would suggest that the land might have been handed over unofficially to church and/or parish to use for their benefit, but it probably still actually belongs to the successors of the vicar who bought it.

"More cats amongst pigeons?"

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