Management of historical and archaeological sites in SFI – NFUonline

You probably haven’t come across SHINE (Selected Natural England Heritage Inventory) or HEFER (Historic Farm Environment Record) unless you’ve worked for Countryside Stewardship.

Both are relevant to SFI: some SFI activities cannot be performed on historical or archaeological sites. In grasslands, this greatly limits SFI’s choice of actions.

The NFU lobbied Defra and Historic England for the changes.

What are historical or archaeological features?

Historical or archaeological features include:

• undesignated historic or archaeological sites (also known as “SHINE” sites – Inventory of Selected Natural England Heritage)
• registered parks or gardens
• recorded battlefields
• planned monuments.

Do I need HEFER?

Assume you intend to carry out some SFI activities on land that has historical or archaeological features as part of the application process. In this case you need request SFI Historical Farm Environment Report (SFI HEFER).

You will need a new HEFER for each new SFI application.

HEFER will tell you about known historical or archaeological features and how they affect your SFI application.

If your SFI HEFER identifies a planned monument, you may be required to obtain Historic England’s consent before you carry out your chosen SFI activities on that land.

If land containing historic or archaeological features is not eligible for SFI, this only affects the area where the feature is located on the land. You can apply for SFI action on the remaining area of ​​the land if it meets the action criteria.

Why are grasslands a problem?

Defra’s decisions about what SFI activities can be used in relation to historic or archaeological sites are based on intended land management practices. Most arable work is suitable for SHINE functions as Defra has assumed that there is a line of ploughing.

For pasture activities the choice is limited as there is no plow line expected.

This means that herbs (CSAM3 £382/ha) and legumes (CNUM2 £102/ha) cannot be applied to historic or archaeological sites. The installation of lei may damage the excavation work. The deep root systems of some species can cause damage to archaeological sites. Even if a property already has grass or legume grass installed, SFI will not be able to finance it.

Historic England or the local authority’s environment advisor cannot give permission for these activities.

What historical and archaeological features are present in the rangeland SFI?

Available actions include very low input grazing (CLIG3 £151/ha), historic and archaeological sites on grassland (HEF6 £55/ha for five years) and winter bird feed (CLIG2 £515/ha). These are not good practices for a productive farming system. Support is also available in SFI for historic water bodies (HEF8), traditional agricultural buildings (HEF1/HEF2) and on-site bush control (HEF5).

What does NFU do?

The NFU lobbied Defra and Historic England to come up with better deals for grassland farmers.

Historical and archaeological limitations prevent the recognition of more productive pastures. It should be possible to allow SFI herbaceous and leguminous plants to be grown with precautions in grasslands. This could be as simple as using a mixture of species, excluding plants with deep root systems.

The NFU will invite Defra and Historic England to the farm to discuss the implications and potential solutions.

Be aware of the rules

When your agreement expires, the Environmental Impact Assessment (Agriculture) Regulations 2006 may apply. If land of more than 2 hectares has been returned to pasture for some time and retains historical features, it will need Environmental Impact Verification (EIA) the decision to turn these grasslands into arable land. Likewise, if grassland has become semi-natural during the agreement period, an EIA decision from Natural England will again be required if you want to increase productivity or convert it to arable land. You may need a review decision to improve the productivity of uncultivated or semi-natural land of less than 2 hectares if the land is ‘regionally significant’, meaning it has heritage or landscape features of at least regional significance, or contains a planned ancient monument. This may include lands that are part of protected landscapes.

Normally, a monument planning consent is required for work to be carried out that will affect a planned monument. However, some agricultural activities benefit from “class agreement”This means that you can continue agricultural operations that might cause damage to the planned monument, such as continuing plowing, but you cannot legally carry out particularly destructive operations, such as deeper plowing. Class consent is lost if the activity ceases for a period of six years or longer and consent for the planned construction of the monument will be required to resume the activity.

This is a quick overview of a few key rules, but it would be important to take independent advice to understand whether you can legally carry out certain activities on your land.

NFU CallFirst – 0370 845 8458 – can offer a free initial consultation to NFU members and refer you to NFU Law Firm for further advice on your specific circumstances.

Don’t agree with HEFER?

You can request SHINE objects found on your land.

HEFER uses a dataset provided by local Historic Environment Record (HER) offices. Questions should be directed to your local office. Contact details for all English HERs are available on the website Heritage Gate.

Need more information about SHINE or HEFER?

Following lobbying by NFIs, Defra and Historic England have published a full list of frequently asked questions on Portal for Historic Farm Environment Records (HEFER) it goes into more detail than we can in a short article.