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Kent's historical sites at risk of crumbling

Nearly 60 of Kent's most historical landmarks are at risk of neglect or decay - more than almost anywhere else in the country.

Only Greater London notches up a higher number of buildings on an at risk list of decay, neglect or inappropritate use, according to English Heritage.

The findings were revealed when Lord Bruce Lockhart, chairman of English Heritage, announced the first part of a Domesday Book of threatened parts of of the country, called Heritage at Risk.

The results of this report show Kent has 58 sites and four wreck sites off its coast deemed to be at high risk.


Read Kent's full list by clicking here


Lord Bruce Lockhart, the former Kent County Council chairman, said: "Our ambition is nothing less than to compile a database of all of England’s designated heritage which is at risk of neglect or decay.

"The results of this first Heritage at Risk report show that everybody must live near, walk past or know of a heritage treasure at risk near them. We believe that our Heritage at Risk register will galvanise the whole nation into doing something about this before it is too late and help us save the best of the past for the future.

“We will be working closely with local authorities, encouraging them to use the Heritage at Risk register to prioritise their own resources. They need to make sure they have adequate cnservation staff and that everyone in the council considers the heritage implications of their actions, for example when planning to close a Victorian hospital or school

Dr Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, added the Heritage at Risk register was launched "to save this precious and finite resource for the future."

He added: "England’s scheduled monuments and archaeological remains provide the only record of human activity for millennia, during which we had no written history.

"Our historic parks and gardens embody one of our greatest passions as a nation. England’s battlefields are, as Sir Winston Churchill said, ‘the punctuation marks of history’ and very many of us will have ancestors who fell on them and whose bones still lie beneath. "

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