Using the Historic Environment Record to research castles

What is the Historic Environment Record (HER)?

Sometimes known as the sites and monuments record each county maintains a HER. They are lists of all the known archaeological sites in the area.

They are used as a data base to help inform management and research, as well as being a vital tool within planning and development control

They are maintained by local authorities.

Step 1: Go to the www.heritagegateway.org.uk

Step 2. Type ‘Castle’ and press enter.

Using the Historic Environment Record to research castles

Step 3: You should now have a results page that looks a bit like this

Open up the results for the county you are interested in by clicking on the place name and then click on view all HER results

Using the Historic Environment Record to research castles

Step 4: This will bring you up all the results for historic sites that mention the word castle.

Be warned, this does not mean that they are a castle!

Step 5:

Open up a result to read more

Using the Historic Environment Record to research castles

Can you find a castle that has been excavated?

Can you find a record that is not a castle?

Can you find a record of a motte and bailey castle?

Use the more detailed to search to see if you can find a castle within 10km of your home

What is the date of this castle?

How do we know about the history of this castle?

Does any of it still remain above the ground?

Using the Historic Environment Record to research castles