Heritage
We are custodians of a truly impressive aspect of our national heritage. We own the third largest estate of listed structures in the United Kingdom and have begun to develop partners to help us preserve our remarkable historical structures.
Our heritage assets comprise:
- 2819 listed buildings
- 98 scheduled monuments
- 311 conservation areas
- thousands of archaeological sites
In addition, our waterways adjoin or pass through:
- six World Heritage Sites
- nine historic battlefields
- 63 registered historic parks and gardens
- 3 National Parks
Understanding and appreciating the waterways heritage is important for everyone employed by British Waterways and we are constantly working to improve our corporate knowledge and expertise. We have heritage advisors working at each of our nine waterway units, as well as a Head of Heritage. Our contractors and bank staff continue to work to high standards on our historic buildings and structures, often putting into practice skills and knowledge gained on our own waterway-based heritage training courses.
Find out more about waterway heritage
Download the 2011 waterway heritage report.
New publication: England's Historic Waterways: A working heritage
Downloadable in three parts
- English Waterways Part 1 [6.7MB PDF]
- English Waterways Part 2 [6.8MB PDF]
- English Waterways Part 3 [5.4MB PDF]
A joint publication from British Waterways and English Heritage, this document is aimed at architects, planners and developers and is intended as an antidote to the spread of mediocrity and neglect.
On 13 October 2009, British Waterways and English Heritage launched England's Historic Waterways with a breakfast debate hosted by Paul Finch, programme director for the World Architecture Festival, and other leading figures from the regeneration sector. You can listen to the debate (due to technical issues the speakers introductions are missing from this download).