What is the Schedule?

"Scheduling" is shorthand for the process through which nationally important sites and monuments are given legal protection by being placed on a list, or "schedule".  English Heritage takes the lead in identifying sites in England which should be placed on the schedule by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.  A schedule has been kept since 1882 of monuments whose preservation is given priority over other land uses.  The current legislation, the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, supports a formal system of Scheduled Monument Consent for any work to a designated monument.

Scheduling is the only legal protection specifically for archaeological sites.

Which sites are monuments?

The word "monument" covers the whole range of archaelogical sites.  Scheduled monuments are not always ancient, or visible above ground.  There are over 200 "classes" of monuments on the schedule and they range from prehistoric standing stones and burial mounds, through the many types of medieval site - castles, monasteries, abandoned farmsteads and villages - to the more recent results of human activity, such as colleries and wartime pillboxes.

Scheduled Ancient Monument Consent must be obtained from the Secretary of State before any alterations, additions, demolitions or repairs are carried out to a monument.

Ancient Monuments in the Borough of Great Yarmouth: