Heritage and Conservation

North Warwickshire carries a significant wealth of heritage and historic character. Our planning policies seek to retain and enhance these features through designations, such as Conservation Areas, Listed Buildings and Scheduled Ancient Monuments, as well as encouraging the careful consideration of the impact of proposed developments on such features or areas.

What is a Conservation Area?

A Conservation Area is "an area of special architectural or historic interest the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance". The main purpose of creating a Conservation Area is to preserve or enhance this character or appearance through planning and other environmental measures. These include controlling the demolition of buildings and paying special attention to building design and quality issues when determining planning applications that affect Conservation Areas.

Is my property in a Conservation Area?

North Warwickshire has 10 Conservation Areas. These areas are of special architectural or historic interest. Within these areas we will seek to preserve and enhance their character and appearance. You can view all the Conservation Areas on our interactive Local Plan map. You can also download maps of these conservation areas and check whether your property lies within one here.

Conservation Area Appraisals

A Conservation Area Appraisal was completed in December 2006 in respect of extending the Atherstone designation to include parts of Church Walk, South Street, Vicarage Close and Witherley Road to the south east of the town centre. You can read more about Conservation Area Appraisals here.

What is a Listed Building?

A listed building is a building of special architectural or historic interest. It is a nationally used status, applied to around half a million buildings in the UK.

A listed building may not be demolished, extended or altered without permission from the Council. Owners of listed buildings are responsible for their repair and maintenance. They can face criminal prosecution if they fail to do so or if they perform unauthorised alterations. Although most structures appearing on the lists are buildings, other structures such as bridges, monuments, sculptures, war memorials, and even milestones and mileposts may also be listed. Exemption is provided for some churches in current use for worship, although in such cases the church organisation operates its own procedures, equivalent to that for Listed Buildings.

Is my property Listed?

There are some 586 listed buildings and structures in North Warwickshire, and you can view details of them on the English Heritage search facility (please search by village/town name, then use the query tool to click on the relevant Listed Building icon).

Buildings are classified to show their relative importance: Grade I, Grade II* or Grade II. You can find out more about the process of seeking a listing for a building or structure here.

In determining whether Listed Building Consent is necessary for a proposed development, regard should be had to type of building or structure, the curtilage, and the date of Listing. A Listed Building is defined in the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act as the building itself (termed 'the principal Listed Building'), any object or structure fixed to the principal Listed Building , and any object or structure within the curtilage of the principal building which, although not fixed to it, forms part of the land and has done so since 1st July 1948.

Curtilage has to be considered on a case by case basis. Please check with the Development Control team if you are in any doubt about the extent of curtilage to the principal Listed Building and whether the building or structure falls within it.

What is a Scheduled Ancient Monument?

A scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. This protection given to scheduled monuments is separate to the Planning system, and is defined in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

Protection is afforded to 26 Ancient Monuments in North Warwickshire. The list is complied and maintained by English Heritage. You can view the Borough's ancient monuments here.

Further advice on Scheduled Ancient Monuments can be sought from Warwickshire Museum Services on 01926 412278.