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Scheduled ancient monuments

Information on areas of great historical and archaeological importance

What are scheduled ancient monuments?

Scheduled ancient monuments are areas of great historical and/or archaeological importance. Most of these are earthworks or unoccupied structures, often in a ruinous or semi-ruinous condition.

Historic England has the responsibility of giving legal protection to nationally important sites and monuments. These sites are added to a list, or 'schedule', as laid down in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act of 1979.

A monument in the list, known as scheduled, is protected against disturbance. It's against the law to carry out any work without the authority of the Secretary of State. Work will need Scheduled Monument Consent (SMC). The Secretary of State will not usually consent to work that might damage a scheduled site. But, scheduling doesn't guarantee a monument will be preserved exactly as it is forever.

Further Information

Further information can be found on the ​Historic England website, or on the Planning Portal Ancient Monuments website page. We also have a scheduled Ancient Monuments within West Norfolk document. This shows the scheduled ancient monuments in the area. You can find this at the bottom of this page.