Registered Battlefields (UK)

Battlefields are the final resting place for thousands of unknown soldiers, both nobles and commoners, whose lives were sacrificed in making of the history of their country. These historic assets are an intrinsic part of a nation’s identity and consciousness. They inspire strong emotions and live on in stories, poetry and music. However, the history relating to them is often hard to unravel, as there is often little to see above ground and the historical record is usually written by the victors. The UK has many historic battlefield sites, some of which have legal protection through heritage protection legislation (as scheduled monuments, listed buildings, gardens and designed landscapes, or as conservation areas) whilst others are protected through landscape legislation (such as National Parks, National Scenic Areas and areas designated for local landscape value). More recently, some archaeologists prefer the term "site of conflict" to "battlefield", because of the difficulty in defining the geographical extent of a site.

In England, the Register of Historic Battlefields lists the sites of 43 of the most important military battles on English soil. It is maintained by English Heritage.Historic Scotland is responsible for the Inventory of Historic Battlefields. There are currently 17 battlefields on the Inventory. In Wales, the Welsh Ministers proposed in March 2011 that Cadw also compiles a non-statutory register of historic battlefields. The consultation period ends on 10 June 2011. There is currently no battlefield register or statutory protection for such sites in Northern Ireland.

The legislation to protect historic battlefields is relatively recent, and arose following several key incidents involving important sites e.g. the discovery in 1997 of an unprotected mass grave of soldiers who fought at the 1461 Battle of Towton and a large metal detector rally held on the battlefield of Marston Moor in 2003.

Battlefield sites in England are material considerations in the planning process and are designated by Historic England and put onto the Register of Historic Battlefields under powers conferred under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act, 1983 (as amended). This legislation did not confer a specific responsibility to create a register of battlefields, (only a register for historic parks and gardens), but a joint project between English Heritage, the National Army Museum and the Battlefields Trust in 1995 created a register. In 2011 this registered was incorporated into the National Heritage List for England, administered by Historic England.

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Wikipedia