On and off the list
A TOTAL of 159 sites have been added—and 203 sites removed—in a year that marks the 25th anniversary of Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register. First launched in 1998, originally as the Buildings at Risk Register, it was administered by English Heritage before some of its functions were transferred to the newly created Historic England in 2015. This is a relatively short period in the story of State involvement in heritage protection: the first Ancient Monuments Protection Act was passed in 1882, although its ‘schedule’ essentially applied to prehistoric sites, before a further Act of 1900 extended the schedule to allow the inclusion of Romano-British and medieval monuments. The listing of buildings of special historic interest was established via the Town and Country Planning Acts of 1944 and 1947, but, by the end of the 20th century, the number of listed or scheduled sites was approaching an unwieldy 350,000. The At Risk Register was subsequently established to provide a sharper point of focus and, according to Historic England’s CEO Duncan Wilson, ‘to shine a light on historic sites most in need of funding and help’.
Historic England says some 6,800 entries have been removed over 25 years, equating to about 75% of those on the original list. One of those is Cresswell Tower, Northumberland, an early entrant that was recently deemed saved and removed from the Register. It is recognised as an unusually complete example of a pele tower (or tower house), says Barry Mead, archaeologist and local historian. Defensive strongholds were built by nobility below the castle-owning rank between 1350 and 1600 to serve as retreats from the lawless clans on either side of the England-Scotland border; about 175 of these
