Special status and protection is given to the oldest sites and structures in the district by their designation by English Heritage as scheduled ancient monuments. Leeds has 58 such sites and a list of these is given in the downloadable document below. Maps of the monuments are also being added.
Notable examples are the Grim's Ditch earthwork at Colton, Harewood and Rothwell Castles and the deserted medieval villages of Potterton and Owlcotes. The number of scheduled ancient monuments continues to grow as we learn to appreciate more from our past.
As well as these scheduled sites, there are many more areas of archaeological importance, which need to be considered when development is proposed.
We work closely with the West Yorkshire Archaeological Advisory Service at Wakefield who will recommend appropriate methods of recording and control to protect archaeological sites.
WYAAS have identified many additional sites of archaeological importance and the list of these "Class II" sites is given in the link on this page.
Scheduled ancient monuments are strictly controlled by English Heritage. As with listed buildings, works to alter, extend or demolish them need consent but so do most works of maintenance.
We are not normally directly involved in the processing of applications for scheduled monument consent. As the owner of several, including most notably Kirkstall Abbey, we have first hand experience of their management.