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English Heritage, the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, was set up under the National Heritage Act, 1983. A wide variety of sites are in the care of English Heritage and are presented with informative displays, exhibitions, and occasional re-enactments of historic events.
English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) with a broad remit of managing the historic environment of England. It was set up under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983. Its functions had previously been undertaken by part of the Department of the Environment. The 1983 Act also dissolved the body that had hitherto provided advice — the Ancient Monuments Board for England. The former Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) was merged with English Heritage on 1 April 1999.[1]
Its best known role is as the steward of a large number of significant historical and archaeological sites, from Stonehenge to the world's earliest iron bridge. However it has major responsibilities in conservation, giving advice, registering and protecting the historic environment. It also maintains a public archive, the National Monuments Record (NMR).
By caring for the built environment, English Heritage complements the work of Natural England which aims to protect the natural environment. Both advise the relevant Secretary of State on policy and in individual cases such as registering Listed buildings and Scheduled Ancient Monuments in EH's case. English Heritage has direct ownership over some historic sites and also liaises with private owners of sites that are managed under guardianship arrangements.
English Heritage describes itself in these terms:
English Heritage is thus an unelected quango with a considerable degree of power and access to public money derived from taxation. At some of its properties it charges admission fees to supplement its government funding.
It may be contrasted with the National Trust which is an independent registered charity operating in the same sector.
Members of the public are able, and encouraged, to join English Heritage. Membership confers benefits such as free admission to its properties. However, it does not give the member a say in the running of the organisation. This policy is common for similar organisations, such as the National Trust.
Images of England is an English Heritage project intended to create a freely accessible online database of the 370,000 listed properties in England. Each database entry includes a representative photograph and a description of the building written by an expert architectural historian.
In 1999 there was some controversy regarding sites in Cornwall under the care of English Heritage. The Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament (in fact not a parliament at all, but a pressure group) wrote to English Heritage asking them to remove all signs bearing their name from Cornish sites by July 1999 as they regard the ancient sites as Cornish heritage, not English. Over eleven months members of the Cornish Stannary removed 18 signs and a letter was sent to English Heritage saying "The signs have been confiscated and held as evidence of English cultural aggression in Cornwall. Such racially motivated signs are deeply offensive and cause distress to many Cornish people". [2]
On January 18, 2002, at Truro Crown Court, three members of the group agreed to return the signs and pay £4,500 in compensation to English Heritage and to be bound over to keep the peace. In return, the prosecution dropped charges of conspiracy to cause criminal damage.
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 | British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "English Heritage". Read more |
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