Historic England

I think we also look at it from a completely different perspective, which is we have the most outstanding access, because I'm grade one listed, to amazing, you know, amazing people, amazing advisors, support.

So although we're heavily constrained, I can just phone up Historic England and and get them on the phone.

I can see the conservation officer when I want to.

And that is not afforded to someone in a Grade 2 listed cottage.

It just means I have conversations along the way.

And my honest take is that if at Blenheim we can prove that change so long as it is incredibly well managed with a brilliant team on board and the philosophy.

So when I speak to Historic England, we always talk about what is the philosophy in this intervention? What is the philosophy? What are we trying to achieve by it? And if we both, if we all agree on that, then I'm hoping that then the conservation officers, Historic England, the team involved, that information will eventually trickle down so that, people who do have these abundant grade two listed cottages are steadily allowed to adapt them so long as they have a good team around them so you know we can improve windows uh we can increase gutters we can adapt them for a changing climate we can make them accessible we can make them useful um because if we continue to um on the sort of path that we're currently at and if we don't educate those who own it to prove that change can happen, but so long as you do it in the right way with the right team, I think you're going to end up seeing either a lot of houses argue that then, you know, you see it all the time, don't you, developers tearing down historic buildings because they don't fit with the, they can't be adapted, they can't be changed, therefore, you know, they're in the way and it's for the greater good to remove them and make way for more housing you know you see that so often especially with undesignated heritage assets um i think if we can change minds um and create a better structure a better framework uh for adaptation and i can only see that it's a good thing for everybody i

completely agree and i do wonder though what you've just said there about people tearing things down if the way that the system is set up so if a building comes down, it's 0% VAT and you put a new building and it's 5% VAT currently.

You know, professional archaeologists just haven't got the time to do all this often.

So contact Historic England, or if you're a county, contact your local museum, or contact your regional sites and monuments record, your historic environment record team as well.

And very often, I should think, without exception, the archaeologist at the end of the phone, at the end of the email, will be pleased to see what you've got and try and give you some feedback on what that is.

And quite often, you would have found something quite interesting and new.

First, the gloriously simple logistics.

A York day trip from London is one of the easiest big days out in England.

You walk into King's Cross, yes, the Harry Potter one, and you board a direct train run by the NLER, The fastest services do it in about an hour and 50 minutes.

Most take around two hours, and they run several times an hour.

You board a little car and you ride through a reconstructed Viking street, the sounds, the smells, the whole lot.

It is unapologetically theme park, and trust me, it's a highlight of the trip, made all the more wonderful, since the actual artifacts underneath it, they're the real thing.

If you ever wondered why half of England's place names sound Scandinavian, this is the room that answers your questions.

1066 changes everything.

from all over the UK and the world, actually all about different aspects of lime finishes.

And so, and then they've just in April did a conference with, in collaboration with Historic England in York.

And so I spoke at that about my dissertation research, which was, it was really nice because basically, like I say, it's almost all masonry building focused.

So I get to talk about timber frames in that world.

They've been repaired, restored, and repainted in colors based on evidence for their historic appearance.

And this summer, they were officially removed from Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register.

172 years old, and looking rather pleased with themselves.

But the thing they were built to accompany is gone.

The image staring back at me intently is Conquest Man, a meticulously reconstructed visage based on a 1,000-year-old skeleton found at the Church of St Peter's in Barton-on-Humber.

The face of Conquest Man has been revealed thanks to a research project combining the expertise of English Heritage, Historic England, the Crick Institute, the British Geological Survey, the University of Southampton, Muvis and Facelab.

And it has revealed some surprising results.

I had a chat with Kevin Booth, English Heritage's head curator of collections, to find out what their research has uncovered about the people living in Britain and their lives at the time of the Norman Conquest.