English Heritage is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change.
This page gives an overview of the complex structure of environmental and cultural conservation in the United Kingdom.
Historic Scotland was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its understanding and enjoyment. Under the terms of a Bill of the Scottish Parliament published on 3 March 2014, Historic Scotland was dissolved and its functions were transferred to Historic Environment Scotland (HES) on 1 October 2015. HES also took over the functions of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
Cadw is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. Cadw works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage sites of Wales, to make them available for the public to visit, enjoy, and understand their significance. Cadw manages 127 state-owned properties and sites. It arranges events at its managed properties, provides lectures and teaching sessions, offers heritage walks, and hosts an online shop. Members of the public can become members of Cadw to gain membership privileges.
In the United Kingdom a listed building is a structure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, Cadw in Wales, and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in Northern Ireland. The term has also been used in the Republic of Ireland, where buildings are protected under the Planning and Development Act 2000, although the statutory term in Ireland is "protected structure".
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, established in 1908, is a Welsh Government sponsored body concerned with some aspects of the archaeological, architectural and historic environment of Wales. It is based in Aberystwyth.
Scran is a Scottish online resource for educational use by the public, schools, further education and higher education. It presents nearly 490,000 images and sounds contributed by museums, galleries, archives and the media. It was established as an educational charity in 1996 and is now part of Historic Environment Scotland, a registered charity and non-departmental government body.
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) was an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government that was "sponsored" [financed and with oversight] through Historic Scotland, an executive agency of the Scottish Government.
The National Monuments Record of Scotland (NMRS) was the term used for the archive of the sites, monuments and buildings of Scotland's past maintained by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The Commission was originally established by Royal Warrant in the reign of George VI "to make an inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilization and conditions of life of the people in Scotland from the earliest times to the year 1707, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation."
Canmore is an online database of information on over 320,000 archaeological sites, monuments, and buildings in Scotland. It was begun by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. Historic Environment Scotland has maintained it since 2015. The Canmore database is part of the National Record of the Historic Environment, formerly the National Monuments Record of Scotland and contains around 1.3 million catalogue entries. It includes marine monuments and designated official wreck sites, such as the wreck of HMS Pheasant (1916).
Aerofilms Ltd was the UK's first commercial aerial photography company, founded in 1919 by Francis Wills and Claude Graham White. Wills had served as an Observer with the Royal Naval Air Service during World War I, and was the driving force behind the expansion of the company from an office and a bathroom in Hendon to a business with major contracts in Africa and Asia as well as in the UK. Co-founder Graham-White was a pioneer aviator who had achieved fame by making the first night flight in 1910.
The Historic England Archive is the public archive of Historic England, located in The Engine House on Fire Fly Avenue in Swindon, formerly part of the Swindon Works of the Great Western Railway.
Historic England is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with protecting the historic environment of England by preserving and listing historic buildings, scheduling ancient monuments, registering historic parks and gardens and by advising central and local government.
Kenneth Arthur Steer, was a British archaeologist and British Army officer. During World War II, he saw active service in Italy and later served as a Monuments Man in Germany. From 1957 to 1978, he served as Secretary of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland.
Many parts of Scotland are protected in accordance with a number of national and international designations because of their environmental, historical or cultural value. Protected areas can be divided according to the type of resource which each seeks to protect. NatureScot has various roles in the delivery of many environmental designations in Scotland, i.e. those aimed at protecting flora and fauna, scenic qualities and geological features. Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designations that protect sites of historic and cultural importance. Some international designations, such as World Heritage Sites, can cover both categories of site.
This article gives an overview of the structure of environmental and cultural conservation in Scotland, a constituent country of the United Kingdom.
The National Collection of Aerial Photography is a photographic archive in Edinburgh, Scotland, containing 26 million aerial photographs of worldwide historic events and places. From 2008–2015 it was part of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland and since then it has been a sub-brand of Historic Environment Scotland. Many of the aerial reconnaissance photographs were taken during the Second World War and the Cold War, and were declassified and released by the Ministry of Defence. The collection also contains over 1.8 million aerial photographs of Scotland, during and in the years after the Second World War, as well as post-war Ordnance Survey, and over 10 million images of international sites as part of The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA). The collection contains both military declassified and non-military aerial photographs from over a dozen different national and international organisations.
