In the United Kingdom, ascheduled monument is a 'nationally important'archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protectingheritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term ‘designation’. The protection given to scheduled monuments is given under theAncient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979,[1] which is a different law from that used forlisted buildings (which fall within the town and country planning system).[1] A heritage asset is a part of the historic environment that is valued because of its historic, archaeological, architectural or artistic interest.[2] These are judged to be important enough to have extra legal protection through designation.
There are about 20,000 scheduled monuments in England representing about 37,000 heritage assets.[3] Of the tens of thousands of scheduled monuments in the UK, most are inconspicuous archaeological sites, but some are largeruins. According to the 1979 Act, a monument cannot be a structure which is occupied as a dwelling, used as a place of worship or protected under theProtection of Wrecks Act 1973. A protected historic asset that is occupied would be designated as a listed building.
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