The Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England 1984-2015: a Personal Essay

摘要

This is a personal reflection from someone who was closely involved, perhaps too closely involved to take a dispassionate view, during the first twenty-one years of the Commission's existence, and who for the last ten years has been a sympathetic but probably ill-informed spectator. Its main theme is English Heritage's emergence as a public voice in defence of the historic environment, first, from its early days, dealing with casework, and, later, in its strategic engagement with public policy. I also look at its role in property management, and the way this has interacted with its other conservation responsibilities, and at its role in promoting the concept of historic landscape. I am conscious that this inevitably neglects other significant areas of the Commission's work, not least its responsibility since 1999 for the National Monuments Record, and the major impact of developer-funded archaeology following the publication of PPG16. The division of the former English Heritage into two bodies has provided the occasion for these reflections.