Help and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The Heritage Gateway is the only place where you can search across national and local Historic Environment Records (HER) datasets to find an overview of England’s historic environment.
Heritage Gateway provides access to summary records of national and local Historic Environment Record datasets.
The original Heritage Gateway website was launched over 15 years ago by by Historic England’s predecessor English Heritage.
Heritage Gateway has over 30 local Historic Environment Records providing summary records to view. However not all HERs provide data to Heritage Gateway.
Please see the Historic Environment Record contacts page for contact details of your local Historic Environment Record.
These are the datasets that were on the original Heritage Gateway but are not currently on the new one. Some may be in progress with onboarding and some may join at a later date.
- Berkshire Archaeology HER
- Cambridgeshire HER
- Cheshire HER
- City of York HER
- Colchester HER
- Cornwall and Isles of Scilly HER
- Coventry HER
- Derbyshire HER
- Dudley HER
- East Sussex HER
- Essex HER
- Exeter HER
- Greater London HER
- Herefordshire HER
- East Riding and Hull HER
- Kent County Council HER
- Leicester City HER
- Milton Keynes HER
- Norfolk HER
- North Yorkshire Council HER
- Northumberland HER
- Sandwell HER
- South Yorkshire HER
- Staffordshire HER
- Suffolk HER
- Tyne and Wear HER
- Warwickshire HER
- West Sussex County Council HER
- Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority HER
National Datasets
No, Heritage Gateway provides summary records only. Local Historic Environment Records (HERs) contain much more detailed information than is available on the Heritage Gateway.
Please note: Heritage Gateway records are not authorised for commercial reuse of the information and should not be used for legal or planning purposes. Please contact the relevant HER for their full records as part of a licensed search, and for all queries relating to their records, including terms and conditions.
To contact a Historic Environment Record, please see the A-Z of HER contacts for contact details and further information.
The Heritage Gateway delivers a shared national overview about the historic environment, on behalf of a large partnership of data providers. Its improvement is a key element of a broader programme to simplify access to heritage information.
The original Heritage Gateway website was launched over 15 years ago by Historic England's predecessor, English Heritage, in partnership with the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers.
The website was redeveloped to meet modern standards and user expectations: the legacy site did not meet cyber security or accessibility standards, and it delivered a poor user experience.’
If you have spotted an error in a record on the Heritage Gateway, please report this to the resource provider. Individual records will state the resource provider, usually the name of a local authority or contact details.
If you would like to report an error on the National Heritage List for England, please take a look at the amending an entry on the Heritage List page on the Historic England website.
Tips for using the Beta search
PHRASE:
- use “ ”
- any result which matches that exact phrase
- for example, "dover castle" – would match results with the phrase [dover castle]
OR:
- use |
- any results which match either word
- for example, dover | castle – would match results which contain [dover] OR [castle]
NOT:
- use –
- any results which do not contain that word
- for example, -castle – would exclude results which contain the word [castle]
PREFIX:
- use *
- any results which start or end with a term
- for example, moor* - would match moorland, moore, moorcourt and so on
AND (default):
- use +
- any result which has a match for both words
- for example, dover +castle – would match results with both [dover] AND [castle]
- NOTE: the search uses AND as a default, so writing [dover castle] is the same as writing [dover +castle]
Monument type
This relates to the built and buried heritage of the British Isles and is used for recording sites, monuments, buildings and structures (for example beer cellar, barn, railway hotel).
For a full list, go to FISH Monument Types Thesaurus
Object materials
Materials used more generally for objects found in findspots
For a full list, go to FISH Object Materials Thesaurus
Evidence
Terminology covering the existing physical remains of a monument, or the means by which a monument has been identified where no physical remains exist (for edample placename evidence, soilmark, surface deposit).
For a full list, go to FISH Evidence Thesaurus
Maritime craft
Craft types which survive as wrecks for Historic England’s maritime record and can be used to describe types of ship (for example block ship, rescue vessel, net layer).
For a full list, go to FISH Maritime Craft Thesaurus
Historic aircraft
Indexing terminology for the recording of aircraft remains and crash sites, listing aircraft types by form, function and manufacturer (for example Atlas, Target, Westland).
Full a full list, go to FISH Historic Aircraft Thesaurus
They will be available to view on the National Heritage List for England from mid September onwards.
Designation Decision Records from 2012 onwards were previously available through the Heritage Gateway.
Please contact Listing.Enquiries@HistoricEngland.org.uk for queries relating to listing and Designation Decision Records.
Data from the Parks and Gardens Database will be available soon. We will update this FAQ once more information is available.
Summary records from the NHLE will be included on the Heritage Gateway soon.
Search the National Heritage List for England to find listed buildings, monuments, battlefields and more.
Please contact HeritageListEnquiries@historicengland.org.uk for queries relating to the NHLE.
The Excavation Index is a closed dataset and is archived with the Archaeological Data Service (ADS). Excavation Index records can be searched via the Search data – Archaeology Data Service catalogue webpage.
The NGRs supplied to the Gateway vary in precision, ranging from 6 to 10 figures. Where an NGR is less than 10 figures, zeros are added to create a full reference for display purposes, which may make the location appear more precise than it is.
The Record Last Updated field usually states when records were last edited. But for some older records it has the date when they were migrated from a previous database (1st May 2020). If you need to know record audit histories, please contact Historic England.
Historic England Research Records are derived from the National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE).
Currently, NRHE records are in the process of being transferred from Historic England to local Historic Environment Records (HERs), to reduce record duplication, remove discrepancies, and improve access. Find out more about the transfer here.
Please contact the relevant HER for the most up to date local heritage information.
The up-to-date dataset for the Marine HER will be available on the Heritage Gateway in 2027. Please contact the Marine HER for further information about recently added marine heritage data.
Please contact the Marine HER for the most up to date marine heritage information.
If you have any questions or comments about the Heritage Gateway, please do not hesitate to email us at the email address below and we will be happy to help.