What Are Scheduled Monuments?

What are the criteria for scheduling monuments and sites?

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s document Scheduled Monuments & nationally important but non-scheduled monuments (2013) sets out the non-statutory criteria for assessing the importance of a monument and considering whether it should be scheduled. The policy of the Secretary of State is to select Scheduled Monuments on the basis of their archaeological or historical interest; their management needs may also be taken into account. Some sites are not suitable for scheduling, for instance buildings that people live in.

Archaeological interest is about the potential interest in carrying out expert investigations at some point into the evidence places hold, or potentially may hold, of past human activity. Monuments with archaeological interest form a primary source of evidence relating to the substance and evolution of places, plus the people and cultures that made them. 

Historic interest is about how the present can be connected through a place to past people, events and aspects of life. Monuments with historic interest provide a material record of our nation’s prehistory and history, whether by association or through illustration. 

These principles should not be considered definitive, but as indicators that contribute to a broader judgment based on individual circumstances. Other factors, such as the contribution of monuments to the character of today’s landscape or the historic landscape, can also be important considerations. 

Even nationally important sites are scheduled only if this is the best means of protecting them. Sometimes, for example in town and city centres, the most practical way to protect sites - from building development and road schemes - is to use the system of local authority control over planning applications. Local Planning Authorities can make sure that development proposals take archaeology fully into account. 

Buildings and standing structures of historic interest are also generally best protected by listing. Our aim is to recommend the most appropriate form of protection in place for the building or site to the Secretary of State. 

There is guidance available on a wide range of sites in our series of Scheduling Selection Guides. These guides are divided into categories ranging from Agriculture to Utilities and complement the listing selection guides for buildings. In each guide, a historical introduction is followed by a consideration of protection issues, together with sources of further information. It should be noted that in scheduling decisions the Department for Culture, Media & Sport’s 2013 document referred to above takes precedence over the scheduling selection guides. 

Looking after scheduled monuments

Scheduling does not imply that monuments are being poorly managed or that they are under threat and it does not impose a legal obligation to undertake any additional management of the monument. If required, we may be able to help you with expert advice, often from our locally based Heritage at Risk Project Officers. 

If you are the owner of a scheduled monument (or are acting on behalf of the owner) and you wish to carry out works to the monument, you will need to apply for prior written permission from the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. This is for works either above or below ground level. The procedure is known as Scheduled Monument Consent or SMC. 'Works' are defined by the 1979 Act as demolishing, destroying, damaging, removing, repairing, altering, adding to, flooding or tipping material onto the monument. To avoid the possibility of damaging a monument, and therefore carrying out unlawful works, you are strongly advised to consult us while in the early planning stages of any intended works. 

Certain development works to your property may require planning permission from your local authority but obtaining planning permission does not remove the need for Scheduled Monument Consent. 

Carrying out works to a scheduled monument without a grant of Scheduled Monument Consent is a criminal offence. Metal detecting on a scheduled monument is also a criminal offence without a licence from Historic England.

Scheduling does not affect your freehold title or other legal interests in the land. If a monument is scheduled this does not give the general public any new rights of public access. A good general rule with archaeological sites is the less disturbance of the ground the better. 

Did you know?

• Scheduled monuments are not always ancient, or visible above ground.
• There are over 200 categories of monuments on the schedule.
• Monuments on the schedule range from prehistoric standing stones and burial mounds, through to the many types of medieval site - castles, monasteries, abandoned farmsteads and villages - to the more recent results of human activity, such as collieries.
• Only deliberately created structures, features and remains can be scheduled.
• Kits Coty House, a Neolithic long barrow in Kent, was the first site to be legally protected when it was taken into state guardianship in 1883 on what became the Schedule of Monuments.
• The physical remains of Cold War infrastructure can be found across the country. Some of these sites may be scheduled, such as the Cruise missile shelter complex at Greenham Common Airbase. During the 1980s the complex became known internationally as the site of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, a major protest against the siting of cruise missiles. The Women’s Peace Camp inspired similar action for nuclear disarmament across Europe and further afield.