Help and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The Heritage Gateway is the only place where you can search across national and local Historic Environment Records (HER) datasets to find an overview of England’s historic environment.

Heritage Gateway provides access to summary records of national and local Historic Environment Record datasets.

The original Heritage Gateway website was launched over 15 years ago by Historic England in partnership with the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers.

Heritage Gateway has over 50 local Historic Environment Records providing summary records to view. However not all HERs provide data to Heritage Gateway.

Please see the Historic Environment Record contacts page for contact details of your local Historic Environment Record.

No, Heritage Gateway provides summary records only. Local Historic Environment Records (HERs) contain much more detailed information than is available on the Heritage Gateway.

Please note: Heritage Gateway records are not authorised for commercial reuse of the information and should not be used for legal or planning purposes. Please contact the relevant HER for their full records as part of a licensed search, and for all queries relating to their records, including terms and conditions.

To contact a Historic Environment Record, please see the A-Z of HER contacts for contact details and further information.

In line with HIAS (Heritage Information Access Simplified) Principle 5: The national overview of records about the historic environment should continue to be delivered online through the Heritage Gateway.

Following over 15 years of operation the Heritage Gateway website needed updating to improve user experience, accessibility and cyber security. Historic England in partnership with data providers has been working on developing a new Heritage Gateway.

If you have spotted an error in a record on the Heritage Gateway, please report this to the resource provider. Individual records will state the resource provider, usually the name of a local authority or contact details.

If you would like to report an error on the National Heritage List for England, please take a look at the amending an entry on the Heritage List page on the Historic England website.

If you would like to report an error on a Designation Decision record, please contact us using the information below.

Tips for using the Beta search

PHRASE:

• use “ ”
• any result which matches that exact phrase
• for example, "dover castle" – would match results with the phrase [dover castle]

OR:

• use |
• any results which match either word
• for example, dover | castle – would match results which contain [dover] OR [castle]

NOT:

• use –
• any results which do not contain that word
• for example, -castle – would exclude results which contain the word [castle]

PREFIX:

• use *
• any results which start or end with a term
• for example, moor* - would match moorland, moore, moorcourt and so on

AND (default):

• use +
• any result which has a match for both words
• for example, dover +castle – would match results with both [dover] AND [castle]
• NOTE: the search uses AND as a default, so writing [dover castle] is the same as writing [dover +castle]

Monument type

This relates to the built and buried heritage of the British Isles and is used for recording sites, monuments, buildings and structures (for example beer cellar, macula, railway hotel)

For a full list, go to FISH Monument Types Thesaurus

Object materials

Materials used more generally for objects found in findspots

For a full list, go to FISH Object Materials Thesaurus

Evidence

Terminology covering the existing physical remains of a monument, or the means by which a monument has been identified where no physical remains exist (for edample placename evidence, soilmark, surface deposit).

For a full list, go to FISH Evidence Thesaurus

Maritime craft

Craft types which survive as wrecks for Historic England’s maritime record and can be used to describe types of ship (for example block ship, rescue vessel, net layer).

For a full list, go to FISH Maritime Craft Thesaurus

Historic aircraft

Indexing terminology for the recording of aircraft remains and crash sites, listing aircraft types by form, function and manufacturer (for example Atlas, Target, Westland).

Full a full list, go to FISH Historic Aircraft Thesaurus

How can I access Designation Decision Records?

Designation Decision Records from 2012 onwards were previously available through the Heritage Gateway. They are not included in the new Heritage Gateway and will instead be accessible via a new platform.

Please contact [email protected] for queries relating to listing and Designation Decision Records.

Data from the Parks and Gardens Database will be available soon. We will update this FAQ once more information is available.

Summary records from the NHLE will be included on the Heritage Gateway soon.

Search the National Heritage List for England to find listed buildings, monuments, battlefields and more.

Please contact [email protected] for queries relating to the NHLE.

The Excavation Index is a closed dataset and is archived with the Archaeological Data Service (ADS). Excavation Index records can be searched via the Search data – Archaeology Data Service catalogue webpage.

If you have any questions or comments about the Heritage Gateway, please do not hesitate to email us at the email address below and we will be happy to help.