Registered battlefield

Registered battlefields in the UK are battlefields recognised as having specific historic or cultural significance. They are recognised as such by conservationist organisations for a variety of reasons, including protecting them from development that may threaten historic buildings, items, or topography. The history relating to them is often hard to unravel, as there is often little to see above ground and the historical record is often biased in favour of the victors. The UK has many historic battlefield sites, some of which have legal protection through heritage protection legislation (as scheduled monuments, listed buildings, gardens and designed landscapes, or as conservation areas) whilst others are protected through landscape legislation (such as National Parks, National Scenic Areas and areas designated for local landscape value). More recently, some archaeologists prefer the term "site of conflict" to "battlefield", because of the difficulty in defining the geographical extent of a site.^[1]

In England, the Register of Historic Battlefields lists the sites of 43 of the most important military battles on English soil. It was set up by English Heritage and since the organisations split it has been managed by Historic England as part of the National Heritage List for England.^[2][3] Historic Scotland is responsible for the Inventory of Historic Battlefields.^[4] There are currently 17 battlefields on the Inventory. In Wales, the Welsh Ministers proposed in March 2011 that Cadw also compiles a non-statutory register of historic battlefields. The consultation period ends on 10 June 2011.^[5] There is currently no battlefield register or statutory protection for such sites in Northern Ireland.^[1]