Our Historic Countryside

The landscape itself is the only evidence we have for most of human history. Its archaeological sites, its traditional buildings and its patterns of field, wood and parkland reflect the long and complex story of our ancestors. Every farmstead and estate in England has played its part in this story.

As agriculture has intensified and farm machinery become more powerful, many historic sites and buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Traditional field boundaries and field patterns have often become less relevant to modern farming operations. Many have been lost or neglected and distinctive features, such as parkland and field trees, have declined. Nevertheless, these features are still fundamental to the character of the countryside and to its appeal to residents and visitors alike.

Entry Level and Organic Entry Level Environmental Stewardship provide a challenging new opportunity to conserve the heritage and character of your farm for future generations.

Agriculture and the Historic Environment

Historic features are both fragile and, once lost, irreplaceable. Wherever possible, we should try to avoid damaging important sites or allowing them to decay.

Lack of regular maintenance is a major cause of loss for many historic features such as traditional field boundaries and historic buildings. Once this is allowed to lapse, subsequent repairs are likely to be costly. As a result, many such features are at risk.

For archaeological sites, the most severe problem is the damage caused by intensive arable cultivation. This includes the conversion to arable land of well-preserved sites previously under grassland; the gradual encroachment of cultivation on sites surviving as 'islands' in arable fields; the continuing erosive effect of repetitive cultivation; the introduction of certain crops requiring deeper than previous cultivation; and the provision of new agricultural drainage.

The best management for archaeological sites is under permanent pasture, but even here problems can be caused by scrub growth, over-grazing, and grassland improvement.

Lack of upkeep is also a threat to many traditional parkland landscapes, and encroachment by arable cultivation threatens the future of many field trees, which are often a distinctive landscape feature.

How Can The Entry Levels Of Environmental Stewardship Help?

The Entry Levels of Environmental Stewardship now mean that conserving the historic character of your farm for future generations can more readily be part of the overall stewardship of your land.

The scheme offers a series of management options designed to prevent further damage and to improve the condition of many archaeological sites and features.

This leaflet is designed to be read alongside Defra’s Entry Level Stewardship and Organic Entry Level Scheme handbooks which provide a full list of the options (prefaced respectively by E or O) designed to protect historic features. The handbooks are available at www.defra.gov.uk/erdp/schemes/es. They include options to manage sites under permanent grassland; to reduce damaging scrub on archaeological sites; to reduce the impact of cultivation on sites under the plough; or to remove sites from cultivation completely. Options to create margins or 'buffer strips' around sensitive areas also provide an important way to protect archaeological sites surviving as 'islands' in arable fields.

Other options for the management of trees, woodland and field boundaries (EB/OB 1–11 and EC/OC1–4) will also make an important contribution to preserving historic landscape character.

More complex projects, such as restoring parkland, major repairs to derelict farm buildings or site interpretation, can be funded by Higher Level Environmental Stewardship. If you do not choose to adopt Entry Level options for historic features on your farm, you may still be able to enter them into Higher Level Stewardship.

How Will I Know What To Manage?

The Environmental Information Base Map provided by Defra is intended to help you identify the location of high priority features on your land that would benefit from the introduction of some of the scheme options. Historic features shown on the map might include Scheduled Monuments, Selected National Heritage Dataset sites, or Registered Parks and Gardens. The base map will also be accompanied by a short description of each historic feature shown.

Scheduled Monuments

Scheduled monuments, depicted in purple cross-hatching on your map, are nationally important sites protected by law. The maps show the extent of the protected area, but surviving features may extend beyond this, so you may wish to apply the management options across a larger area than that depicted on the map. Metal detecting is not allowed within the protected areas without a license from English Heritage.

Do I Need Permission To Carry Out Work On Scheduled Monuments?

Provided you do not disturb the ground in order to carry out scheme options, you will not require consent to carry out works within scheduled monuments. If you are contemplating works that disturb the ground, you must contact English Heritage. More information is provided in the leaflet Scheduled Monuments: A guide for owners and occupiers, available on this website.

Selected National Heritage Dataset

The sites shown in red broken hatching represent a selection of other important archaeological features that would benefit from management under the scheme. Sites will not always be visible above ground but, if they are shown on the map, they are eligible for management through the scheme. A basic description of each site is included with the Environmental Information Base Map. More information may be available via your local authority Archaeological Service or Historic Environment Record, contact details for which are available via the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers or at www.pastscape.org.

Registered Parks & Gardens and Registered Battlefields

These are designed landscapes and historic battlefields considered to be of national importance and included in English Heritage’s Register. Given the extent of these designations, it will probably not be appropriate to manage them in their entirety using ELS or OELS options, but individual elements, such as trees, visible earthworks and boundaries, can be brought into beneficial management. More extensive programmes of work, such as restoration, may be possible under Higher Level Environmental Stewardship, but must always be based upon a conservation management plan. Further advice on managing parkland is provided in the leaflet Farming the historic landscape: Caring for historic parks available on this website.

Which Options Should I Choose For Historic Sites Under Arable Cultivation?

Where archaeological sites are in cultivated land, there is a range of possible options. All of these options will deliver advantages, but some are more beneficial than others.  Continued arable cultivation of archaeological sites – even where these are buried and invisible on the ground – gradually causes increasing damage. The most beneficial management option for sites under the plough is therefore Option ED/OD2, which completely removes them from cultivation.

The areas shown in purple or red hatching on the Defra information map are the minimum recommended for each archaeological site, but you can choose the extent of land that you wish to take out of cultivation to best suit your farming operation. If you choose to take more land out of cultivation than the areas mapped, you can still include the additional area in your scheme points total.

All sites removed from cultivation should subsequently be maintained as well managed grassland to prevent damaging scrub growth.

Where sites survive as an upstanding island surrounded by cultivation and where wholesale removal from cultivation is not feasible, creation of a 'buffer strip' using Options EE/OE1, EE/OE2 or EE/OE3 prevents further encroachment by the plough and provides protection for buried features. The widest margin will provide the greatest protection. The width of any margin should always be measured from the base of the visible earthwork. Similar options EE/OE 7 and EE/OE 8 can be used to protect water features with historic value.

Sites surviving under arable cultivation can also be protected by reducing cultivation depth to a maximum of four inches (10 centimetres) using Option ED/OD3. This option can also be combined with the buffer strip options to create margins around upstanding island sites to provide further protection.

More detailed advice on managing archaeological sites in cultivated land is provided in the leaflet Farming the historic landscape: Caring for archaeological sites on arable land available on this website.

Which Options Should I Choose For Historic Sites Under Grassland?

The best agricultural management option for archaeological sites and landscapes, to conserve them for present and future generations, is under grassland free from scrub growth, overgrazing or localised erosion. If you are claiming scheme grassland Options EK/OK2 or EK/OK3 in lowlands outside the LFAs, or EL/OL2 or EL/OL3 in LFAs, you can claim a supplement for managing those archaeological sites shown on the Defra environmental information map under scheme Option ED/OD5, provided you follow its simple management prescription.

Option ED/OD4 also provides a payment in cases where you manage scrub to prevent it encroaching onto the mapped archaeological sites. Scrub causes significant damage to archaeological sites through root penetration, providing cover for burrowing animals and shelter for livestock. It is therefore desirable to reduce the amount of scrub and bracken on an archaeological site to reduce this damage and maintain the visibility of earthworks. Scrub can have an ecological importance, and the impact of scrub clearance on any nature conservation interests should be considered before commencing work. Extensive clearance should be phased. Scrub should not be removed by mechanical means, as this could damage the archaeology beneath, and for Scheduled Monuments, mechanical removal would require formal consent from English Heritage. Instead, stumps should simply be cut close to ground level and, where not in Organic Entry Level Environmental Stewardship, treated with herbicide to prevent re-growth.

Detailed advice on managing archaeological sites in grassland is provided in the leaflet Farming the historic landscape: Caring for archaeological sites in grassland available on this website.

What Should I Do To Protect Historic Features If I Enter The Entry Level Environmental Stewardship?

Entry into the scheme requires you to conform to certain simple requirements as a condition of grant. If you have historic features (as shown on your information map supplied by Defra) you must meet the following scheme conditions. These conditions apply to all historic features identified on your map, not just to those that you have chosen to manage under Entry Level Stewardship:

• Do not cause ground disturbance on known and currently uncultivated archaeological sites.
• Do not sub-soil or de-stone on areas containing known archaeological sites (shown on your information map supplied by Defra) unless these operations have been demonstrably undertaken as a routine in the past 5 years.
• Do not deliberately plough more deeply or undertake additional drainage on those areas already under cultivation containing known archaeological sites (shown on your environmental information map provided by Defra).
• Do not run free-range pigs on archaeological sites (shown on your information map provided by Defra).
• Do not remove any useable building stone, walling stone or traditional roofing material from the land, except materials produced from established quarries.
• Do not damage, demolish or remove stone from substantially complete ruined traditional farm buildings or field boundaries.
• Where you are claiming Single Payment Scheme, you must also comply with the GAEC Cross Compliance and Statutory Management Requirements.

Where Can I Go For More Advice?

The environmental information map provided by Defra should have identified all of the sites on your land most suited to protection under the scheme. Your land may, however, contain many more historic sites and features.

If you require more detailed advice on the historic features on your land or more specific advice on site management, your local authority's Archaeological Service or Historic Environment Record can usually provide assistance in the first instance. Contact addresses can be obtained through the website of the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers at www.algao.org.uk.

English Heritage: Your local English Heritage Regional Office can advise you on the management of Scheduled Monuments. A list of regional offices is available on this website's Contact Us web page.

Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group advisers work closely with Local Authority Archaeologists and are able to offer practical advice on the integration of all aspects of farm conservation management. A list of regional offices is available on the FWAG website.

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