The Listing of Buildings - Trust Annual Report 1971
The listing of buildings of architectural and historical importance throughout the country, for the guidance of Local Authorities, was a requirement of the Town and Country Planning Act of 1944. The process was continued in the Acts of 1947, 1962 and 1968. The lists are now being revised and the work in Winchester has now been completed by the Department of the Environment's Inspectors.
Since the Act of 1968 the rate of demolition has decreased and there is now a strict procedure to be followed. An advertisement has to be placed on the building and in the Press. Five national preservation societies and the local amenity society have to be informed. A strong opposition can now save threatened buildings and the role of such bodies as the Winchester Preservation Trust is very important.
Many more buildings are listed because of their architectural importance rather than because of their historical interest. The term "building" includes any structure or part thereof. The lists include all buildings before 1700, most of good quality between 1700 and 1831, and very good buildings of the period 1830-1914. On the lists now being revised the grades are now I, II* and II. The number of listed buildings will probably be doubled. The old supplementary list is to be abolished, but the majority of buildings on it will now get greater protection by being up-graded. It is interesting to recall that the first Ancient Monuments Act was passed in 1882 and listed 29 monuments including Stonehenge, later taken over by the Board of Works.
A second Act in 1900 extended the listing from prehistoric to medieval buildings. In 1905 the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments came into existence but without offering any real protection to buildings at all. The consolidating Act of 1913 set up the three Ancient Monument Boards, for England, Wales and Scotland, but their control was limited and did not include either ecclesiastical or inhabited houses. This was the position up to 1939-1945 war when the present legislation began.
It is most important for local societies to do the work which the Act of 1968 expects them to do, because our age is probably the most destructive that has ever existed.