Historic England is the public body that champions and protects England's historic places, from listed buildings to ancient monuments.
Historic England is the government's statutory adviser on England's historic environment, which means the old buildings, monuments, parks, gardens and archaeological sites that people value. It lists buildings, schedules monuments, registers parks and gardens, advises central and local government, gives grants and looks after archives. It maintains the National Heritage List for England, the official register of protected heritage, and publishes an annual Heritage at Risk survey, which is one of the UK government's official statistics. Architects, planners and conservation specialists use its guidance when they work on older buildings.
Historic England describes itself as a public body that champions and protects England's historic places. It was created under the National Heritage Act 1983 and operated as English Heritage from April 1984. On 1 April 2015 it was renamed Historic England, when the National Heritage Collection of sites moved to a separate charity, the English Heritage Trust. Its governing board is the Commission, which oversees its work, and it is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It also says it runs inclusion, diversity and equality work to engage people from different backgrounds.
Its headquarters is in Swindon, at The Engine House, Fire Fly Avenue, and Wikipedia reports 964 full-time equivalent employees. Search results also point to regional offices, including a South West and a West Midlands office, though we did not open those pages, so the full office list is a gap. Wikipedia names Co-Chief Executives Claudia Kenyatta and Emma Squire, but also repeats an older line about Duncan Wilson leading the executive team since 2015, so please check the current leadership on its own website.
Staff roles are very varied. Historic England employs inspectors of ancient monuments and historic buildings, archaeologists, architectural historians, conservation architects and engineers, planners, scientists, archivists, photographers, policy advisers and communications and digital staff, among others. Its own pages say it is led by a Chief Executive with an Executive Team from five operational groups. The organisation's pages we read do not describe its working culture, so we have not guessed at it.
For a student, Historic England shows how architecture, history and planning meet. If you like old buildings, archaeology, history or geography, careers in heritage and conservation are one way to turn that interest into a job. Its website explains how its listing system works and what training routes exist; check it for its current vacancies, which we did not look at.
Website: historicengland.org.uk
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