Built heritage

Although the buildings within the historic environment may range in size from large country houses to rows of humble cottages they are all integral parts of everyday life. Their presence adds to the quality of our lives by enhancing the familiar and cherished local scene, and it forms a central part of our cultural heritage and our sense of national identity.

The Built Heritage Conservation Team seeks to conserve and enhance the historic built environment of the Yorkshire Dales area for the appreciation and enjoyment of residents, tourists, and also for the generations who will follow us. It has two particularly important areas of work.

Listed Buildings

The list of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest is compiled by the Secretary of State and is comprised of buildings and other structures which are of recognised architectural or historic value. This list is held and updated by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and copies are available for viewing at local planning authorities.

Listed buildings are given a level of importance known as a Grade. Grade I listed buildings are considered to be of exceptional interest; Grade II listed buildings are considered to be of special interest; which warrant every effort being made to preserve them. Some Grade II listed buildings that are considered of particular importance are awarded an intermediate grading of II*. The listing procedure currently protects nearly 500,000 buildings and structures nationally of which over 90% are Grade II. The Yorkshire Dales National Park has almost 1800 listed structures within its area.

For more information about Listed Buildings click on the link below.

• What is a Listed Building? (opens Document Library)

Conservation Areas

The statutory definition of a conservation area is ‘an area of special architectural interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’.

The Authority has a duty to designate areas that, after research and analysis, it considers are of special architectural and historic interest. At this time in the National Park, there are 36 designated conservation areas, some covering features other than domestic settlements such as; the Settle to Carlisle Railway Line, Craven Lime Works at Langcliffe, Bolton Abbey, and the Farfield Mill complex, as well as villages such as; Castle Bolton, Appletreewick, Buckden, Sedbergh, and Gayle.

The map below shows the location of all 36 conservation areas:

It is the quality of the architecture, visual character and historic interest of these areas that makes them special and worthy of conservation. In making the assessment of an area, many factors are considered in determining its character and quality including:

• The historic layout of property boundaries and thoroughfares.
• The inter-relationship of buildings and spaces.
• The mix of building and land use.
• The architectural quality of individual buildings either grand such as Literary Institutes, chapels or churches, castles and country houses, or vernacular such as workers cottages, farmhouses, watermills and barns.
• The composition of building groups such as terraces, shops, farm complexes, almshouses or industrial complexes (such as mills).
• Vistas into, from, through and around the area under consideration.
• The interaction of the natural and the built environment.
• The age and social history of the area and its buildings.
• The use of materials in buildings, boundaries, paths and open areas.

For more information on Conservation Areas click on the links below.

• What is a Conservation Area? (opens Document Library)
• Conservation Area Character Statements (opens Document Library)

You can view all the Conservation Area Designations using our GIS system. Click here for details and then follow the instructions below (GIS website opens in new window).

Once the GIS system has uploaded, you need to select Yorkshire Dales National Park from the drop down list. You can then choose to view  Conservation Areas on the map by clicking the relevant checkbox and then selecting 'View'. Once the detail has been uploaded onto the map, you can 'zoom' in and out of the maps to see the detail or choose to view them at a different scale. If you click on the Information Tool button at the top of the screen and then click on a particular feature shown on the map, the details of that particular feature will appear in a small dialogue box on the screen

Conservation Area Character Appraisals

Conservation Area Character Appraisals for the following settlements are available for viewing on-line.

Click on the links below to download the Appraisals as PDF documents. To view PDFs you will need Acrobat Reader. Download Acrobat Reader (opens in new window)

link opens the Document Library:

• Bainbridge
• Carperby
• Castle Bolton
• East Witton
• Gayle
• Gunnerside
• Hebden
• Muker
• Reeth
• Thwaite
• West Burton

Contact details

Built Heritage Conservation Team
Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Yoredale
Bainbridge
Leyburn
North Yorkshire
DL8 3EL

0300 456 0030

info@yorkshiredales.org.uk