Protected Wreck Site
Historic shipwreck protection offshore
A Protected Wreck Site is an area of seabed designated around a historically or archaeologically important shipwreck. The designation covers the wreck and the seabed around it, not any land or buildings. Historic England advises on designation and licenses access in England. Scotland has no Protected Wreck Sites; its historic wrecks are Historic Marine Protected Areas designated by Scottish Ministers.
What This Means
The designation sits offshore, so it places no consent requirement on this house or its garden. Extensions, alterations, decoration and repairs are governed by the ordinary planning rules that would apply anyway. Within the restricted area, diving on, disturbing or removing material from the wreck without a licence is a criminal offence. Navigation, angling and bathing nearby are normally allowed. It reaches the property's own land only in a rare case. That is where the title carries foreshore or seabed rights overlapping the restricted area. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Have your conveyancer confirm whether the title includes any foreshore or seabed rights inside the designated restricted area.
- Ask the Marine Management Organisation, or your nation's marine licensing authority, whether a mooring, jetty or slipway needs a marine licence.
- Apply to the licensing body for your nation before diving on the wreck or recovering anything from it.
- Check the individual site's restrictions with the licensing body before anchoring a boat over the wreck.
Key Points
- England has 57 Protected Wreck Sites, among them the Mary Rose off Portsmouth, designated in 1974.
- Building a mooring over the restricted area needs both a marine licence and the heritage body's licence; the same mooring outside the area needs only the marine licence.
Additional Information
Each designation order fixes a restricted area around a stated position on the seabed, so its size varies from site to site. The National Heritage List for England carries the entry, the coordinates and the licence conditions for English wrecks; the guidance linked below covers England only.