Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England

Critics, including David Murray in his Archaeological Survey of the United Kingdom (1896) and Gerard Baldwin Brown in his Care of Ancient Monuments (1905), had argued that, for the legislation to be effective, a detailed list of significant monuments needed to be compiled, and had made unfavourable comparisons between the policies of Britain and its European neighbours.

[2] Under the terms of its warrant, the Commission's remit was "to make an inventory of the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions connected with or illustrative of the contemporary culture, civilization and conditions of life of the people of England, excluding Monmouthshire, from the earliest times to the year 1700, and to specify those which seem most worthy of preservation".

[4] A new warrant of 29 March 1946 gave the Commissioners discretion to undertake recording beyond 1714, and an informal terminal date of 1850 was adopted.

Some 40 inventory volumes were published over the next 70 years, before the project was wound down, in favour of more thematic publications, in the early 1980s.

Although originally independent of the RCHME, the two bodies shared premises and frequently worked in close collaboration.

At this point it was renamed the National Monuments Record (NMR) to reflect the fact that its remit was archaeological as well as architectural.