ENGLISH HERITAGE EAST OF ENGLAND REGION

The Government's legal responsibility for the historic environment can be traced back to the Ancient Monuments Act of 1882. For the next 100 years the state continued to be involved in protecting the nation's built heritage through bodies and Government departments such as the Ministry of Works, the Historic Buildings Council, the Greater London Council and the Department of the Environment. In the early 1980s, Michael Heseltine, then Secretary of State for the Environment, proposed that the bulk of responsibility for the historic environment should be passed to a semi-autonomous agency or 'quango' that would be able to operate with greater efficiency and enterprise, free from day-to-day ministerial supervision. Consequently, in 1984, the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission - or to use its less formal name, 'English Heritage' - was created to secure the preservation and enhancement of the man-made heritage of England for the benefit of future generations.