Other works and the historic environment

This guidance explains how to contact the Norfolk County Council Historic Environment teams about proposed works that fall outside the Town and Country Planning Acts or the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) application process, which may impact heritage assets, including below-ground archaeological remains.

Key points:

Any intrusive groundworks, regardless of scale, may affect below-ground archaeological remains.
If you have concerns about the impact of your scheme on historic remains, contact the Historic Environment Specialist Advice Team for formal advice.
In some instances, particularly small-scale works, formal advice may be enough to ensure that your proposed works do not harm buried remains.
For larger projects, or where required by grant conditions, you may need to review or reproduce information on recorded heritage assets held by the Norfolk Historic Environment Record (HER). The significance of recorded heritage assets varies and usually needs assessment by a heritage professional.

Requesting advice or formal comments

For advice or formal comments on the potential impact of your proposed works:

Email the Historic Environment Specialist Advice Team at [email protected] - Read our privacy notice to find out how we use your personal information.
The team will check the Norfolk Historic Environment Record (HER) data and respond accordingly.

Note: Charges may apply for specialist advice relating to the mitigation of impacts on heritage assets, including below‑ground archaeology. See Planning and the historic environment for details about charges.

Accessing recorded heritage data

If you need to review or reproduce information about recorded heritage assets, (for example, known archaeological or historic sites) contact the Norfolk HER directly at [email protected]

Charges for data provision will depend on the size of the area and the number of datasets required.

Search options:

Single Site Search: Suitable if you need information about the primary HER records that fall within or immediately adjacent to a particular site.
Standard Search: Required for wider areas or when additional datasets are needed such as Historic Landscape Characterisation records or transcriptions of cropmarks, earthworks and other features mapped during Historic England-funded Aerial Investigation and Mapping projects.

Further details on HER services, charges and how to make a request can be found on the Historic Environment Record webpage.

Important considerations for using online data

Although some data from the Norfolk HER is available on the Norfolk Heritage

Explorer, it is not suitable for formal assessments because:

It is a filtered version of the full dataset. Many sensitive sites do not appear or are excluded entirely.
The online version of the database is also only updated on a very occasional basis, so recent records will be missing.

For accurate and comprehensive data, you must request information directly from the Norfolk HER.