Norfolk Historic Environment Record (HER) charges

Effective as of 1 April 2025

Charging policy

Straightforward digital dataset and/or archival collections requests for non-commercial, educational or personal research are generally free of charge.

The Historic Environment Record (HER) has a policy of charging for:

Requests of any type made for commercial or profit-making purposes, such as data requests by developers and their agents, consultants and contractors.
All large or complex requests.
Image copies and publication requests

All fees are exclusive of VAT and are subject to review.

Digital datasets

Digital data curated by the HER is provided on a time-limited licence and is generally considered to be current for one year. After 12 months the data should be updated by requesting an Update Search. Upon completion of your project and expiry of the licence, the data is to be deleted.

Digital datasets may include database records and/or geospatial data. Database records are provided as PDF reports. Geospatial data is provided in a range of GIS formats or as PDF location maps.

Please allow for a minimum of 30 minutes of officer time to extract each of the main datasets.

Standard Dataset Search

Processed within 5-10 working days.

Minimum charge (includes up to 1 hour of officer time): £150
Additional officer time (charged per hour): £75

Priority Dataset Search

Processed within 1-2 working days.

Minimum charge (includes up to 1 hour of officer time): £300
Additional officer time (charged per hour): £150

Large Search Requests

An additional charge of £75 may be incurred for search areas that significantly exceed a 1km radius.

Very Large or Complex Search Requests

Further charges will also apply for very large and/or complex search areas.

Please contact us for a quotation.

Update Search

This provides details of Monument Records and (where applicable) mapped Event Records that have been created or significantly modified since an initial search. This can be requested up to 3 years after data supplied.

It is usually covered by the minimum Dataset Search charge and is only chargeable if there is data to supply.

Single Site Search

A search of a single property and curtilage or a rural site of no more than 150 acres (60 hectares) with a buffer of up to 100m.

The service will return all HER Monument Data for a set fee of £75.

Digital documents relating to these sites can also be provided on request.

Norfolk Air Photo Library Collections Search

A remote search of all Norfolk Air Photo Library collections for a specified geographical area.

The majority of searches will be covered by a set fee of £75.

Large search areas may require additional officer time charged at standard search rates.

PDF Location Maps

A surcharge of £25 will be applied to all requests for PDF maps (excluding Single Site Searches).

Large or complicated requests may require additional officer time charged at standard search rates.

NHER Archival Collections

(including the Norfolk Air Photo Library)

Although our collections are now housed at The Archive Centre alongside the Norfolk Record Office (NRO), these collections are wholly administered and accessed by HER staff.

Straightforward requests to view material from any of our archive collections in The Archive Centre search room are generally free of charge, provided they are made for non-commercial, educational or personal research.

Details of chargeable services are outlined below.

Minimum charge (includes up to 1 hour of officer time): £150
Additional officer time (charged per hour): £75

Please note that archive collections requests made in conjunction with other services such as digital dataset requests will only incur the minimum charge once.

Archive Centre Consultation

Officer time to produce documents and images for consultation in the Archive Centre search room is chargeable as per the fees outlined above where:

The request is made for commercial purposes
The request is particularly large or complex, such as parish searches or large-scale academic research projects

Supply of Digital Documents

A small number of existing digital documents can be supplied free of charge.

Larger requests and /or scanning requests will be charged at our hourly rate as outlined above.

Please contact us for a quotation.

Collections Research Service

Requests to assess collections, including locating and providing copies of material relevant to more detailed research queries, will be charged at our hourly rate as outlined above.

Please contact us for a quotation.

Image copies and publication

The majority of photographs and drawings held within the Historic Environment Record Archives and the Norfolk Air Photo Library are suitable to be copied for personal use.  There are a small number of items that cannot be copied because of copyright and other restrictions.

High-resolution electronic images are usually provided in .TIFF format and sent via file transfer.

Personal Photography in the Archive Centre Search Room

During a visit to the Archive Centre Search Room a photography permit can be purchased (card only) from reception to take photographs of documents for your own personal research. This is subject to any copyright or other restrictions. See NRO Charges for further details.

High Resolution Digital Images

High resolution digital copies of images held by the HER can be provided for personal, academic, or non-profit use as well as reproduction in unpublished works, academic journals, and publications with a print run of 2,000 copies or less.

Minimum Charge (includes first two images): £20
Additional Images: £7 each

For large volume requests, please contact us for a quotation based on our hourly rates.

Image Publication (Academic journals excluded)

High-resolution digital copies of Norfolk County Council (NCC) copyright images can be provided for reproduction in books, part works, journals, periodicals, slides, newspaper articles and magazines.

Per image: £60

Please contact us for details of fees for reproduction in other media, such as television and web.