Figures and plans a Heritage Statement has to carry
A heritage argument is tested on its drawings. Here is the figure set a conservation officer expects, how to grade significance on a plan, and how to key it all together.
A Heritage Statement without drawings is an opinion. The figures are what let a conservation officer test your conclusion, and on a listed building application the figure set usually carries more weight than the prose. At minimum, expect to produce an asset location plan, a historic map regression, a phasing or significance plan keyed by colour, photographs numbered and keyed to a plan, and annotated drawings showing exactly which fabric is affected.
Produce them as numbered figures with captions and sources, bound into the statement or appended with a figure list. Loose images dropped into the text do not survive the officer's copy and paste into a committee report.
Why a heritage argument fails without drawings
The assessment the officer has to make is about a specific building and specific fabric. A statement that describes significance in general terms and then describes the works in general terms leaves the officer to work out the connection, and they will resolve any doubt against you.
Figures close that gap. A plan shaded by level of significance, with the proposed interventions overlaid, answers the question directly: this wall is of low significance and it is the one coming out.
There is a second reason, less obvious. Figures force the author to look. Drawing a phasing plan reveals that the rear range is later than the front, which often changes the design before the application is made. Our page on a Heritage Statement sets out the written sections that the figures have to support.
Historic map regression and how to present it
Map regression establishes how the building and its plot changed over time. Work backwards from the current survey through the available editions, and present them at a consistent scale and orientation.
A workable sequence for most English sites:
- the current Ordnance Survey base or your measured survey
- mid-twentieth century OS editions
- late nineteenth and early twentieth century County Series editions
- tithe and enclosure mapping where it exists
- estate or borough mapping, where the archive holds it
Present each at the same scale with the application site outlined in the same colour on every sheet. That single discipline makes change legible, and without it the reader is reorienting on every page.
Caption each map with its title, surveyed or published date, and the source. Add a short line of interpretation under each: what appeared, what went, what moved. Three sentences of interpretation beat a page of maps with no commentary.
Where the archive gap matters, say so. A plot with no useful mapping before the 1870s is a fact about the evidence, and stating it is better than implying the building began then.
Asset location plan and the study area
One plan should show the application site, every designated asset within the study area, and the boundaries of any conservation area or registered park. Label each asset with its name, grade and list entry number from the National Heritage List for England.
Define the study area and justify it in a sentence. Distance alone is not the test, so a plan that shows everything within a fixed radius and nothing beyond it invites the question of what was excluded.
Where the scheme affects setting, add a second plan showing the viewpoints and the direction of each view. That plan and the photographs have to use the same numbering, or the reader loses the thread immediately.
Colour coded significance plans
A significance plan grades the fabric. Use a small number of categories, define them in a key, and apply them room by room or element by element rather than floor by floor.
| Category | Typical content | What it signals |
|---|---|---|
| High | Primary historic plan form, original structure, early joinery and plasterwork | Avoid intervention |
| Medium | Secondary historic fabric, later but well-made alterations | Intervention needs justification |
| Low | Modern partitions, later service runs, poor repairs | Change readily acceptable |
| Intrusive | Fabric that obscures or harms significance | Removal may be a benefit |
Be honest about the intrusive category. Identifying a 1970s bathroom insertion as intrusive, and proposing its removal, is a genuine benefit to weigh in the balance, and officers notice when an applicant finds one.
Pair the significance plan with a phasing plan where the building has more than two periods. The phasing plan explains the significance plan, and together they tell the officer why a particular wall matters.
Apply the same grading to external elevations as well as internal plans. Elevation grading is where roof alterations and new openings get argued.
Photographs keyed to a plan
Number every photograph, put the number and an arrow on a plan, and caption each image with what it shows and the date taken. Direction of view matters as much as the subject.
Cover the exterior from each side, the setting from the agreed viewpoints, every room affected by the works, and close-up detail of any fabric to be removed or altered. Where a defect justifies intervention, photograph the defect.
Three habits improve a photographic record:
- Shoot in even light and avoid images where the subject is in deep shade.
- Include a scale object in close-up shots of fabric or detail.
- Keep a complete record, including rooms you consider unaffected, because that is the first thing an officer asks about.
For buildings where a formal record is required by condition, the standard rises and the work becomes a recording exercise in its own right. Our page on Historic Building Recording covers the levels councils specify, and a pre-redevelopment audit of materials often runs alongside it, as our note on material reuse auditing explains.
Proposed works annotated on existing fabric
The most useful drawing in a heritage statement is the existing plan with the works marked on it. Not the proposed plan. The existing plan, with removals, openings and new structure overlaid so the reader sees what is being lost.
Use a consistent convention: one hatch for fabric removed, one for new work, one for repair in situ, defined in a key. Number each intervention and carry those numbers into a schedule of works in the text, so intervention 7 in the table is intervention 7 on the drawing.
A schedule of works keyed this way also serves the application. It gives the officer the list of items to condition and gives the contractor the list to price, which removes a later argument about whether something was approved.
Where the works affect structure, say which drawing the structural information sits on. A Design and Access Statement can carry the design rationale, but the heritage figures should still show the fabric consequence.
Figure numbering and captions
Number figures sequentially through the document, with a figure list after the contents. Every figure needs a caption, a scale bar or stated scale, a north point on plans, and a source line.
Sources matter for two reasons. Attribution is required where you reproduce archive or mapping material under licence, and a reader needs to know whether a plan is a measured survey or a sketch. State which.
Keep the figures at a usable size. A significance plan reduced to fit a portrait page becomes unreadable, and an officer who cannot read it will not rely on it. Use landscape pages or a separate drawing pack, and make sure the pack is listed on the application form so it is not lost at validation.
Last point, and it is the one that loses applications: check that the figures agree with the text. A statement describing a wall as later addition while the phasing plan shows it as primary fabric undermines everything else in the document.
Browse the PlanScope report types by category and draft the written sections while your measured survey and photography are being prepared. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.
Frequently asked questions
How many historic maps should a regression include?
Enough to show the changes that matter, usually four to six editions from the current survey back to the earliest useful mapping. Present each at the same scale and orientation with the site outlined in one consistent colour, and add two or three sentences of interpretation under each. Where early mapping does not exist, say so.
What categories should a significance plan use?
A small set, defined in a key: high, medium, low and intrusive works well for most buildings. Apply the grading element by element rather than floor by floor, and grade external elevations as well as internal plans. Identifying intrusive later fabric whose removal would be a benefit strengthens the case rather than weakening it.
Should the works be drawn on existing or proposed plans?
Both, but the figure that does the heavy lifting is the existing plan with removals, new openings and new structure overlaid. That shows what is being lost. Use a consistent hatch convention, number each intervention, and carry the same numbers into a schedule of works in the text.
Do photographs need to be keyed to a plan?
Yes. Number each image, mark the position and direction of view on a plan with the same number, and caption the image with subject and date. Cover every room affected, the exterior from each side, and close-up detail of fabric to be altered. Include a scale object in detail shots.
Does a figure list matter at validation?
It helps. List the figures after the contents page and make sure any separate drawing pack is listed on the application form, so plans are not missing when the application is checked. A figure set that is unreadable at the size submitted is treated much the same as a figure set that is absent.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.