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The Local Heritage List is a collection of heritage assets that are not protected as listed buildings or scheduled monuments but are important in terms of local distinctness. Planning applications for development submitted on places on the list receive additional scrutiny around the heritage and significance of the site and area.
People can nominate local heritage assets and areas significant to local communities and the history of North Somerset at any time. Nominations are then assessed by the council’s heritage and design team, with any eligible places being added to the Local Heritage List at least once a year.
Nominations come from local interest groups, town and parish councils, and members of the public. A building can be nominated based on reasons including aesthetic, communal, historical or evidential value.
Sites adopted from the latest round of nominations, submitted between January and November 2023, include:
- Kewstoke Convalescent Home – an art deco building originally opened as a hospital for women in 1935, later a military hospital in World War II, and more recently used for psychiatric care.
- Portishead Lido – one of only 100 Lidos surviving in the UK, now restored and run by a community trust.
- Bracken Hill House, Leigh Woods – built in 1895 for the influential Wills family.
- Twenty one 1930s Modernist and Art Deco homes in Neva Road and Station Road, Weston-super-Mare.
Other additions to the list include Yatton Library and a number of buildings in Portishead: the former United Reform Church, the former Post Office, and three residential properties (Upper Lodge, Mariner’s Cottage, and Woodlands Villas).
John Crockford-Hawley, Heritage and Regeneration Champion, from North Somerset Council, said: “A Local Heritage List is a way for communities to celebrate the unique history that makes an area special. It’s therefore vital that people continue to use their voice to help us identify key sites that require protection. It’s so encouraging to know that we now have more than 40 entries on the list. I encourage people to send in their nominations now for other places they feel should be added.”
Created in 2021 as part of Weston-super-Mare’s Heritage Action Zone programme, the development of a local listing programme in North Somerset was supported by Historic England.
The first Local Heritage List in North Somerset, created as a result of the first round, contained 14 properties. One of these, the World War II anti-aircraft battery in Sheepway, Portishead, has since been designated a national scheduled monument. A further 20 properties were added after the second round in 2022.
Locally listed assets can be a building, structure, or feature which, while not listed by the Secretary of State, is deemed by the council to be an important part of the county’s heritage, due to its architectural, historic, or archaeological significance.
More information on North Somerset’s Local Heritage List, and a useful guide on how to nominate sites or buildings, is available on the council’s website at www.n-somerset.gov.uk/localheritagelist.
A map of places already adopted, with details on their history and the reasons for their inclusion, can be found on the Know Your Place website.