English Heritage is working in collaboration with ALGAO and IHBC in a five year project to build a Heritage Gateway to England's local and national historic environment records (find out more about the partners). A key objective is to develop the flexibility to provide integrated access to local and national heritage information resources as part of the programme of reforms proposed by Government 'Heritage Protection for the 21st Century'.

A prototype website was first made available in April 2006 after a year of planning and development.  This provided access to a boundary map of England's Historic Environment Records, with contact information and news articles as well as local education and outreach project information.

A mechanism to cross-search live local and national datasets has been developed for the website from May 2007. More datasets are being linked to this search as the project progresses.

The website is currently aimed at historic environment professionals and will be re-developed from April 2008 for later launch to the general public.

Click to see a leaflet about the Heritage Gateway (pdf, 411KB)