Searching a Historic Environment Record before you apply
The Historic Environment Record holds the local archaeological and heritage data that national lists do not. Here is how to request a search and what to do with the results.
A Historic Environment Record search is the first heritage constraints check worth paying for, and most applicants run it far too late. The HER is the county or unitary authority's database of archaeological sites, historic buildings, find spots and previous fieldwork, and it holds material that never reaches the national lists. Ordering an HER search before the layout is fixed costs a modest fee and a few weeks. Ordering it after refusal costs a redesign.
National policy expects applicants to describe the significance of any heritage asset affected, including any contribution made by setting, and to submit a desk-based assessment where a site has archaeological potential. The HER is where that evidence starts.
What an HER holds and who keeps it
Historic Environment Records are maintained by county councils, unitary authorities and National Park authorities, usually within the historic environment or archaeology team that advises the local planning authority on applications. The record is not a planning register. It is a curated dataset of what is known about the historic environment across the area.
A typical record set includes:
- monument records describing known sites, from ring ditches and field systems to lost buildings
- event records describing previous archaeological work, including evaluations that found nothing
- find spot records from metal detecting, fieldwalking and chance discoveries
- historic building records, including locally listed and unlisted buildings of interest
- historic landscape characterisation, showing how field patterns and settlement developed
- copies of the statutory designations, with local mapping that is often more precise than the national version
In London the Greater London HER also carries Archaeological Priority Areas, which many boroughs use directly as the trigger for requiring an assessment.
Making the request
Contact the HER officer for the county or unitary authority covering the site, not the district planning department. Most publish an enquiry form and a charging schedule.
Give them a red line plan, a grid reference and a search radius. Five hundred metres is a reasonable default for a small site, extended to one kilometre where setting is likely to matter or where the site sits on a river terrace, a ridge or another position that attracts prehistoric activity. Say what the proposal is. An HER officer who knows you are proposing a basement will flag different records from one who thinks you are replacing a roof.
Most HERs charge for commercial enquiries and many provide non-commercial searches free for research or education. Check the published schedule rather than assuming. Turnaround varies widely between authorities, so allow several weeks and ask for a date when you place the request.
Reading what comes back
The output is usually a spreadsheet or report of records with a map, and it takes practice to interpret.
Monument records carry a period and a confidence. "Cropmark of possible enclosure, Iron Age" is an interpretation of an aerial photograph, not a proven site, and the word possible is doing real work. Treat it as a prompt for evaluation rather than a fact.
Event records are the ones people skip and should not. An evaluation carried out 200 metres away in 2009 that found undisturbed alluvium at 1.2 metres tells you more about your site than a monument record half a mile off. Negative results matter as much as positive ones, because they let you argue that potential is lower than the mapping suggests.
Watch the grid reference precision. Older records digitised from paper maps can be accurate only to 100 metres, and a monument plotted apparently on your boundary may sit well outside it. The HER officer will tell you the precision if you ask.
Combining the HER with national datasets
The HER is local. Pair it with the national sources, because each covers something the others do not.
| Source | What it gives you |
|---|---|
| National Heritage List for England | Listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, protected wrecks |
| planning.data.gov.uk | Conservation area and designation boundaries as mapped data |
| MAGIC | Scheduled monuments and registered parks alongside environmental designations |
| Historic Environment Record | Undesignated sites, previous fieldwork, find spots, local characterisation |
Undesignated assets are the reason to bother. National policy treats non-designated heritage assets as a material consideration, and the HER is generally the only place they are recorded. An officer can refuse a scheme on harm to an asset that appears on no statutory list at all.
Turning results into a site plan
The step most applicants miss is spatial. Take the HER records and plot them onto the site plan at the same scale as the proposed layout, with the precision buffer shown around each point.
That drawing does three things. It shows where the archaeologically sensitive areas fall relative to the built footprint. It shows which parts of the site have already been disturbed by previous development, services or quarrying, which reduces potential. And it lets you move a soakaway or an attenuation tank out of the one corner where anything survives.
Deep intervention is what triggers archaeological conditions. Piled foundations, basements, attenuation tanks and service trenches reach undisturbed levels where slabs and strip footings often do not. A layout that concentrates deep works on previously disturbed ground can change the mitigation from trial trenching to a watching brief.
Where the search feeds the documents
The HER output becomes the baseline of an Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment, which sets out the known and potential resource, assesses the effect of the proposal and recommends mitigation. Where standing buildings are affected, it also informs the scope of Historic Building Recording and the level at which the county archaeologist will expect it.
Where the issue is designated heritage rather than buried archaeology, the same material supports the Heritage Statement, which has to establish significance before it can assess harm.
PlanScope drafts those documents from your site information and flags where site-specific facts are missing rather than filling the gaps. The HER results are exactly the kind of input that turns a generic draft into a usable one.
When to bring in a specialist
Run the search yourself. Interpret it with help if any of the following apply: the site lies within an Archaeological Priority Area or a scheduled monument's setting, the HER returns cropmark evidence within the red line, the proposal involves basements or piling, or the county archaeologist has already asked for evaluation on a neighbouring site.
Desk-based assessments prepared to the CIfA standard are what curators expect, and councils usually look for a suitably qualified author. Professional review is strongly advised even where the initial data gathering is done in house. You can find reviewers through the professional directory.
Illustrative example: a rear garden site in a market town, 300 metres from the medieval core. The HER returns two monument records for the historic street frontage, one event record for a 2014 evaluation in the adjoining garden that found nineteenth-century made ground to 1.8 metres, and a find spot of Roman pottery 400 metres north. The evaluation record is the useful one. It supports an argument that the rear plots were quarried and backfilled, and the county archaeologist accepts a watching brief rather than trenching.
This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Historic Environment Record?
It is the local database of archaeological sites, historic buildings, find spots and previous fieldwork, maintained by a county council, unitary authority or National Park authority. It records undesignated assets that appear on no national list, along with local mapping of designations. Councils rely on it when deciding whether to ask for archaeological assessment or evaluation.
How much does an HER search cost?
Most Historic Environment Records charge for commercial enquiries and publish a schedule of fees, often with a lower rate or no charge for academic and personal research. Rates vary between authorities. Check the published charging schedule for the county or unitary authority covering your site and ask for the expected turnaround when you place the request.
What search radius should I ask for?
Five hundred metres is a sensible default for a small site. Extend it to one kilometre where setting is likely to be an issue, where the site sits on a river terrace or ridge, or where the proposal is large enough that its effects reach beyond the boundary. The HER officer will advise if you describe the proposal.
Is an HER search the same as a desk-based assessment?
No. The search supplies raw records. A desk-based assessment interprets them alongside historic maps, geology, aerial photography and previous land use, assesses the archaeological potential and the effect of the proposal, and recommends mitigation. Councils and county archaeologists expect an assessment prepared to a recognised professional standard, not a copy of the search output.
Do I still need an HER search if the site has no listed buildings?
Usually yes. Buried archaeology and non-designated heritage assets rarely appear on national lists, and both are material considerations. A site with no designations can still sit within an area of known archaeological potential, and finding that out before the layout is fixed is far less disruptive than being told at consultation stage.
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.