Recent Military Heritage

Protection and Management

Some of the sites identified through our research programmes have been protected, either through listing (typically where they continue in use) or scheduling (some of these sites have been selected where management out of everyday use is the preferred outcome). These sites have been selected following a survey which has used aerial photographic evidence to document the survival of known wartime sites. Surprisingly for such a recent period, and with sites as robust as these, very little remains. For example, 105 of the original 242 World War II radar stations have been removed, and only 14 of those that survive can be described as anywhere near complete. For the substantially-built Heavy Anti-aircraft gunsites from World War II, over 1000 were built of which at least 790 have since been removed. Coast batteries have fared rather better as many of these were built into earlier historic forts that already had a measure of protection. Some sites have been protected as a result of thematic listing surveys, examples include Ordnance yards and Naval dockyards. The way these and other sites are protected may change in the future however, as the current Heritage Protection Review reaches its conclusion.

But designation isn't the only mechanism for managing these sites. English Heritage has issued guidance on the management of historic military aviation sites. Annex 3 of this guidance lists 26 'key' sites. These are the sites that retain the best-preserved airfield landscapes and/or most historically significant groups of original buildings. We have also recently used characterisation as the basis for determining future management needs at RAF Scampton and Bletchley Park.