Images of England - Contents

Contents

The searchable database includes a range of items, not just houses and churches. The term ‘Listed Building’ includes war memorials, letter boxes, bridges, tombs, telephone boxes and milestones and much more. Each entry on the database consists of a single, representative photograph and a text listing, written by historic building experts within English Heritage.

However, some records state ‘no image available’. This may be for a variety of reasons, e.g., because the building no longer existed, it could not be found or the photograph did not pass the quality assurance process. Pictures of prisons had a different treatment as it is illegal to take or attempt to take a photograph of any building that is, or is associated with, one of HM Prisons. Photographs of Listed Prisons were taken with permission from the Prison Service as part of a major recording project by the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (now part of English Heritage).

In some instances a house owner did not give permission for the photograph to be taken on their private land, or may have asked to be included in the exemption scheme. In early 2002, the Country Landowners Association (now Country Land and Business Association) raised concerns over the security implications of photographs of residential properties made available on the Images of England website. In response, English Heritage introduced an exemption scheme whereby owners of listed buildings with a maximum of two households were able to register for an exclusion from the database until 2013. The photographs of the properties were still taken, where visible from public land, and are stored in the NMR archive.