Heritage at Risk

In July 2008, English Heritage launched the first phase of a Domesday Book of the threatened parts of our cities, towns and countryside entitled Heritage at Risk. The first results of this new report reveal that overall, of England’s 70,000 protected heritage sites assessed so far, no fewer than 1 in 12 is at high risk of neglect or decay or inappropriate change. It also found that: 1 in 5 scheduled monuments is at high risk; 1 in 5 registered battlefields is at high risk; 1 in 5 protected wreck sites is at high risk; 1 in 14 registered parks, gardens and landscapes is at high risk; 1 in 30 Grade I and II* listed buildings is at high risk and1 in 40 Grade II listed buildings in London is at high risk.

English Heritage’s ambition is to create the first all-encompassing register of the country’s neglected or decaying historic treasures and introduce new ways to save them. Its Heritage at Risk project will make England the only country in the world to have a comprehensive knowledge of the state of its protected heritage and the analysis to save this precious and finite resource for the future.

The initiative is based on the success of English Heritage’s Buildings at Risk Register, published annually since 1998. The new Heritage At Risk Register aims to extend its winning formula (45% of entries have been saved since it began) to Grade II buildings, scheduled monuments, archaeology, historic landscapes, parks and gardens, listed places of worship, conservation areas, battlefields and even protected wreck sites off England’s coasts – every bit of designated heritage which is deemed to be at risk of loss through decay or damage.

External links

* [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/har Heritage at Risk]