The National Heritage List for England documents the connections of more than 40 listed places with the slave trade and abolition.
Contested Heritage in Listing
This page explains how we approach contested heritage on the National Heritage List for England, the official, up to date register of all nationally protected historic buildings and sites in England.
England has a very rich but complex history. Our buildings, monuments and places sometimes bring us face to face with parts of our history that can be painful or shameful by today's standards. For more information on our approach, please see our statement on Contested Heritage.
When we become aware of a site on the National Heritage List for England that has become contested, we will re-examine our understanding through careful research, and assess what action to take. These actions might include amending the list entry to add additional context or explaining how research has changed our knowledge of a person, group of people, event or place, adding new layers of understanding.
Many older list entries, added to the National Heritage List for England before the 2000s, may include a description but no contextual information. We therefore recognise that some of our older list entries may not include references to aspects of contested heritage that are now widely understood .
Research projects such as the Slave Trade and Abolition project have helped us address connections to the enslavement of people, such as buildings funded through the economy of transatlantic slavery. As part of the project, list entries were updated to make these connections explicit, and some sites were upgraded in recognition of their connection to the abolition movement.
We are now revisiting list entries where extra context or interpretation is required, and the same careful research happens for this process as when assessing new places for listing.
Read Historic England’s statement addressing Sculptor Eric Gill’s legacy and abusive behaviour.
