Historic England Archive
[4] Between the declaration of war in 1939 and the first London air-raids in 1940 many moveable works of art, archives and antiquities were evacuated to the relative safety of the countryside.
For example, the contents of the National Gallery were taken to country houses, slate mines and quarries in Wales[5] However, buildings could not be protected in this way, so steps were taken to collect architectural plans, drawings, photographs and other records.
The RCHME worked closely with the NBR to carry out the extensive photographic recording of the towns in the eastern and southern counties at risk from enemy action.
Although there were other voluntary and academic bodies at the time that collected some architectural records (including the RCHME, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the London Survey Committee), they were apparently deemed to be too small or narrowly focused for the sort of comprehensive venture that seemed necessary in the chaos of wartime Britain.
[6] The 1950s also saw the start of aerial photography to discover and record ancient sites, as more intensive agriculture, forestry and gravel extraction threatened historic remains on "marginal land".
)[10] The demolition of the Euston Arch[11] and City of London Coal Exchange demonstrated the lack of regard there was at the time for (then) unfashionable Victorian architecture and the importance of keeping records of their existence.
[8] In 1992 the commission's terms of reference was extended to include responsibility for creating a central national record of historic wrecks and other archaeological sites within the 12-mile coastal limit.
The collections are not only used by historians, architects and designers seeking inspiration but also by family history researchers looking for photographs of where their ancestors lived and worked.
[16] The scope and content of the material is wide-ranging – modern and historic photography, including coverage of the whole of England in aerial photographs; information on most known archaeological sites and listed buildings; complete sets of Country Life magazine; Victoria County Histories; the Council of British Archaeology's Industrial Archaeology index; Professor Goodhart-Rendel's personal index of late 19th century churches; the typescript report, photographs and drawings of Lt Col G W Meates's Lullingstone Roman villa excavation; and much more.
All of this material is available for public viewing and a substantial number of images from the Historic England Archive are now available online and free to access.
[18] There are also more esoteric collections acquired from, or donated by, individuals who were particularly interested in specialist topics such as medieval stained glass, public parks or windmills.
The archive also holds more than two million vertical (bird's-eye view) aerial photographs, covering the whole of England, including near-complete coverage taken by the RAF in 1946–48, whose Crown copyright expired 50 years after the images were created.
The Historic England Archive offers a remote enquiry service providing a comprehensive search for information on areas of interest.
