CONTEXT 188 : JUNE 2026 15 INFRASTRUCTURE In a case that is emblematic of the ‘antiquarian prejudice’ that pervaded the early lists, Milestone House at Yoxford, Suffolk (given seven sentences in the 2015 Pevsner) is unlisted, whereas the nearby diminutive contemporary milestone, from which it takes its name, is on the lists. (Photo: James Darwen) See http:// historicengland.org. uk/listing/the-list/ about-the-list/ saunders-report MATTHEW SAUNDERS Reviewing the listing process Historic England commissioned a report to make recommendations about how its listing work, its process and the selection criteria could be improved. In 2018, Historic England commissioned me to work with the amenity sector to review certain aspects of its listing work, including the National Heritage List for England (NHLE), its process and the selection criteria. My report was published in 2021. It was the commission of a lifetime! For 45 years, until I ‘retired’ in 2018, the listing regime was the bedrock to my professional life, and now I was being commissioned to advise on how it might be honed, both with my own thoughts and those of my fellow national amenity societies. In addition to the centrally driven resurveys, notably that promoted by Michael Heseltine, the societies have been the principal champions of the lists, alongside Historic England (English Heritage as was). Much of the casework of the Twentieth Century Society and the Victorian Society still revolves around applications for spot (reactive) listing, while SPAB was the force behind a great deal of the early legislation. Despite five concerted attempts in my working life to trim it back, the role of the societies as formal consultees on listed building consent has survived. The UK remains unique in the world in the statutory involvement of the voluntary movement in the planning system, and in the breadth of listing. Nowhere, not even Italy, by some yardsticks, has as many entrants on the lists, and hardly any display the range of cultural imagination that we do. I particularly enjoyed pulling together examples of building types that have been protected. As at 2021 the lists included, for example, 5,880 bridges, 1,058 lamp-posts, 198 stocks, 92 bandstands and five ships’ figureheads. There is derring-do in the system, with the occasional spotlisting being served even after the demolition men have arrived. There is academic sophistication: at their best the revised schedules of the last 20 years have been exemplary, and almost always the most thorough account of the Grade II concerned. Has listing worked? Yes, on the whole. It is a crude measure, but had there been no necessity to seek consent, the 8,600 structures affected by the listed building consent applications for total demolition in the last 50 years would now be piles of rubble. Listing has been vital in transforming the attitudes of two generations THE LISTING PROCESS IN ENGLAND
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