Registered Park or Garden
Designed historic landscape of special interest
A Registered Park or Garden is a designed landscape of special historic interest. It can be a country house park, a formal garden, a public park, an arboretum or a historic cemetery. Historic England enters these sites on the National Heritage List for England and grades them I, II* or II. Each UK nation keeps its own register or inventory of designed landscapes.
What This Means
The register asks nothing of you as an owner: occupying, redecorating and normal garden maintenance need no heritage permission. Nor does registration remove permitted development rights, though a listed building or conservation area on the same land can. It counts when you or a neighbour want to build, extend or reshape land in the registered landscape or its setting. The council must then give real weight to the landscape's historic character. Applications here are normally referred to heritage consultees, which adds weeks. This does not normally affect mortgage approval, buildings insurance or resale.
Practical Advice
- Check the National Heritage List for England, or your nation's equivalent register, for this plot's boundary and grade.
- Book pre-application advice with the local planning authority before extending, felling trees or altering boundaries.
- Have your conveyancer confirm that earlier changes to the landscape held the planning or listed building consents they needed.
- Tell your buildings insurer at quotation stage if the property is also a listed building.
Key Points
- England has about 1,700 registered parks and gardens, and roughly two-thirds of them are Grade II.
- Grade I sites are of exceptional interest, Grade II* of more than special interest, and Grade II of special interest.
Additional Information
The guidance linked below covers England only, and the registers differ in force by nation. Wales's register is statutory. Scotland does not grade its inventory sites at all. The Northern Ireland register is non-statutory but still weighs in planning decisions.