All Of England’s Grade II Listed Buildings To Be Surveyed

It will be one of the biggest surveys ever undertaken, but English Heritage feels that it is one that is long overdue. All of England's Grade II listed buildings are to be surveyed for the first time, and the charity is putting out a call for an "army of volunteers" to determine which of the 345,000 are at risk from neglect.

Big Mill at Leek

When a pilot scheme was undertaken as part of the well publicised “at risk” survey, it was found that over 700 buildings were identified as needing attention. English Heritage itself only collects information on buildings within London.

Commenting in the first ever survey of this magnitude, Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage said, "For English Heritage it means we will eventually get, for the first time, a complete picture of the condition of all England's listed heritage,"

He added: "We can use this information to decide how best to deploy our national expertise to help owners and all those tackling heritage at risk on the ground."

The pilot scheme previously mentioned involved 350 volunteers inspecting more than 5,000 Grade II listed buildings. They found that 4.2% were at risk and 10.1% were vulnerable. The pilot schemes surveyed buildings in a number of areas.

Prominent among those found to be in need of urgent attention were The Ruins of Old Buckingham House, in Shoreham-by-Sea, in West Sussex. The original building, built in 1820, was badly damaged by fire in 1910. English Heritage said the surviving structures were in increasingly poor condition.

Other sites highlighted by the volunteers were Big Mill in Leek, Staffordshire, Llanthony Provender Mill, in Gloucestershire and the western lock on the Northern By-Pass Channel at Appley Locks, in Lancashire. The announcement seeking volunteers came as the At Risk Register 2013 was published.

Volunteers received a day and a half’s training, and had surveyed an average of 13 buildings per day. The eighteenth century built former YMCA building in Whitehaven, Cumbria, had been highlighted during a survey in that area. The spotlight also fell on the former Methodist Church in the town, which was designed by architect TL Banks. It was built in 1877 but has deteriorated and now stands with broken windows and crumbling stonework, English Heritage said.

David Day, who volunteered in Whitehaven, said: "Many of us are concerned about the neglect of local buildings that are crucial features of our town. We are worried that we will literally lose sight of the past and in so doing we lose the chance to understand the present."

Ann Buck, a volunteer in north Norfolk, said: "These buildings are our heritage and the fact that we have lost so many is tragic. English Heritage and the National Trust are the last resort for a lot of them, we are never the owners of such buildings, just the custodians."

English Heritage said that there was a starting point to be used, as some councils already kept lists of structures and what condition they were in, which the volunteers would help to update. Otherwise, they would expect to have to create a list from scratch. The number of Grade II structures judged to be in need of some repair is expected to grow as a result.

Mr. Thurley said: "We will have a grass-roots network to spread understanding and appreciation of local heritage so that less of [the buildings] become at risk in the first place. One pilot project even passed details of buildings found to be vacant and vulnerable to the police and fire services, making them better aware of places likely to attract crime."

The project is being launched at the Granary Building in central London – which is a Grade II building that has been rescued from dereliction as part of the redevelopment of the King's Cross railway lands. English Heritage said it hoped to begin recruiting for the first full surveys next autumn and asked would-be volunteers to contact its customer services department.

                   Find out all about volunteering to help with the English Heritage Survey