Who looks after English Heritage?
Castles, palaces, historic houses, great prehistoric monuments,
pretty country houses or town centres with a collection of
buildings from many centuries; these are images conjured up
when people think of England. These images have been
portrayed
in thousands of magazines, brochures and television
programmes. Tourists come to England to visit such places,
while the people who live there perhaps take them for granted.
Many, though, never ask the question "Who looks after the
'heritage'?" or the even more important question "What do we
mean by 'heritage'?" Are we looking to the past, or to the future?
English Heritage was set up by the government in 1984 as an
independent agency, to be responsible for advising the
government on all heritage issues and to manage over four
hundred historic properties. The state's responsibility for looking
after the country's heritage goes back as far as an Act of
Parliament passed in 1882.
English Heritage is as much about people as it is about
buildings — the aim of the organisation is to protect the heritage
for the enrichment of present and future generations.
The organisation carries out a wide range of work, yet many
people even in England are unaware of how broad the
responsibilities are.
The aspect of English Heritage's work that many people,
including visitors to the country, know most about, is the
management of our historic properties. One of the most famous
of these springs easily to mind. Stonehenge is probably the best
known site that English Heritage cares for. Around seven
hundred thousand visitors come to this prehistoric site every year.
Some visitors are disappointed; when they reach the focus of
their visit, they find that they are unable to go right up to the
stones, or wander amongst them. Some go away feeling that there
must be more to Stonehenge than this; and they are right. Many
people visit Stonehenge, and go on their way unaware that the
stone circle is in fact only a small part of an important prehistoric
landscape. The problems of Stonehenge show many of the
difficulties that face English Heritage and other conservation
organisations across the world, first of all the balancing of the
needs and expectations of visitors with the need to protect the
site. As visitors become more and more sophisticated, they
demand more and more in the way of facilities and entertainment
at the places they choose to visit. Places that do not provide these
facilities do not attract visitors, or are felt to be failing them.
Fewer visitors would mean fewer feet to erode the grass around
the stones at Stonehenge, but would also mean less income for
the organisation to spend on the conservation of it and other sites.
English Heritage has to bear this and many other factors in mind
when deciding how best to preserve and present Stonehenge for
the future.
Visitors from the continent landing at Dover in the south east
corner of England are shown to the imposing site of Dover
Castle, which towers over the town of Dover itself. The twelfthcentury keep dominates the site, and many of the two hundred
thousand visitors a year assume that the keep is the castle.
However, as the castle was adapted over the centuries to meet the
changing needs of warfare, even in the twentieth century,
buildings were added and altered according to the technology of
the day. The castle was used in the Second World War; the
Allied evacuation of Dunkirk was directed from secret tunnels
deep in the white cliffs, and members of the army, navy and air
force were stationed there. Now visitors are able to see the
underground rooms where so much dramatic activity went on.
Even as recently as the 1960s the castle had a defensive role to
play; another complex of tunnels housed the regional seat of
government, which would only have been used if Britain had
been attacked by nuclear weapons. It was not until the 1980s that
the Ministry of Defence withdrew its interest in this group of
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tunnels, and handed them to English Heritage. It is hoped that
this complex too will be opened to the public.
Many English Heritage sides contain collections of objects and
paintings of major importance. Rembrandt's self-portrait at
Kenwood in London is only one of the many paintings that are
housed there. Queen Victoria's seaside home at Osborne on the
Isle of Wight is crammed with memorabilia of her family and
gifts from all parts of her empire. Brodsworth in Yorkshire in the
north of England is a relic of the nineteenth century, containing
seventeen thousand objects illustrating every aspect of life of the
period. The recording and conservation of paintings and objects
is a vital part of the organisation's work. The most modern
research and conservation techniques are used by the ancient
monuments laboratory, and curators are responsible for the dayto-day care of the items.
Not all the sites run by English Heritage are large, famous or
attract huge numbers of visitors each year. Many are small,
isolated fragments of the past; ruins of abbeys such as Netley
Abbey in Hampshire in the south of England, Stokesay Castle on
the border between England and Wales, or the prehistoric
remains at Kits Coty in Kent. Many smaller sites can be visited
free of charge at any time; there is no fence and locked gate
keeping people out, no one to collect an entry fee from visitors.
Yet these sites, just like Dover Castle and Stonehenge, have to be
looked after. Safety checks have to be carried out and essential
repairs made, and conservation work has to be done if the
buildings are to be preserved for future generations. All this work
has to be carried out to very high standards, using materials and
techniques which are appropriate to the building and its age.
Over the years, the staff of English Heritage and its predecessors
has built up a store of knowledge and expertise in the care and
repair of old buildings.
The conservation of one of London's most famous monuments
— the Albert Memorial, erected in memory of the husband of
Queen Victoria — is now being carried out by English Heritage.
This is a mammoth task, which has involved careful dismantling
of the structure of the memorial, conserving and repairing the
pieces, and putting them back together.
The management and operation of its "own" sites is only one
aspect of the work of English Heritage. The conservation of
England's broader historic environment is another of the
organisation's responsibilities. Experts cover every region of the
country. Their job is to identify important historic sites, to give
advice and guidance to owners and others to look after the built
heritage, and to give grants to support this care. Every year,
English Heritage spends over 40 million on grants to around
1,600 applicants. Grants can range from 300 for conserving a
church brass to over 1,4 million for the restoration of entire
eighteenth-century terrace. Grants have been used to save
medieval castles, Victorian schools and Art Deco cinemas.
English Heritage oversees archaeological projects all over
England, undertaking fieldwork and providing expertise as well
as funds. In 1995, an excavation funded by English Heritage
discovered the oldest human remains ever found in Europe.
"Boxgrove Man" was named after the area in West Sussex where
he was found, and his chinbone and two teeth are thought to be
around half a million years old. An education project, funded and
organised by English Heritage's Education Service, enabled
groups of pupils and students to visit the excavation and talk to
the archaeologists about their work and the importance of the
finds. English Heritage takes its educational role very seriously,
providing free visits to all its sites for educational groups, and
developing a wide range of teaching materials including books,
videos and computer programmes, all aimed at helping teachers
to use the historic environment with their pupils and students of
all ages. These resources have won English Heritage the
reputation of a world leader in the field of education.
Jennie Fordham
Education Officer,
South East and London
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