The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s,
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
s,
register of historic parks and gardens,
protected shipwrecks, and
registered battlefields. It is maintained by
Historic England
Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked w ...
, a government body, and brings together these different designations as a single resource even though they vary in the type of legal protection afforded to them. Although not designated by Historic England,
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
s also appear on the NHLE;
conservation areas do not appear since they are designated by the relevant local planning authority.
The passage of the
Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882
The Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (as it then was). It was introduced by John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, recognising the need for a governmental administrat ...
established the first part of what the list is today, by granting protection to 50
prehistoric monuments. Amendments to this act increased the levels of protection and added more monuments to the list. Beginning in 1948, the
Town and Country Planning Acts created the first listed buildings and the process for adding properties to it. , more than 600,000 properties are listed individually. Each year additional properties are added to the national list, via the registers that comprise the list.
The National Heritage List for England was launched in 2011 as the statutory list of all designated historic places including
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
s and
scheduled monument
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
s.
The list is managed by Historic England (formerly part of English Heritage), and is available as an online database with over 400,000 listed buildings,
registered parks, gardens and
battlefields,
protected shipwrecks and
scheduled monuments
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...
. A unique NHLE reference number is frequently used to refer to the related database entry; for example, 1285296 refers to
Douglas House, a
Grade II* listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...
in the London Borough of
Richmond upon Thames
The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...
.
See also
*
Local Heritage List A Local Heritage List is a formal process developed by Historic England to allow community groups, local authorities and other interested groups to identify local heritage assets that may not have been deemed sufficiently to be added to the National ...
*
List of heritage registers
This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many i ...
References
External links
Historic England.org: National Heritage List for England
Historic England
Databases in England
England-related lists
Heritage registers in England
Lists of monuments and memorials in the United Kingdom
2011 establishments in England
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