Scheduling is a term for the process through which nationally important sites and monuments are given legal protection by being placed on a list, or 'schedule'. Historic England takes the lead in identifying sites in England which should be placed on the schedule.
The word monument covers the whole range of archaeological sites. Scheduled monuments are not always ancient, or visible above ground. There are over 200 classes of monuments on the schedule. They range from prehistoric standing stones and burial mounds, through the many types of medieval site such as castles, monasteries, abandoned farmsteads and villages to the more recent results of human activity, such as collieries and wartime pillboxes.
A schedule has been kept since 1882 of monuments considered to be of national importance by the government. The current legislation called the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, supports a formal system of scheduled monument consent for any work to a designated monument. Scheduling is the only legal protection specifically for archaeological sites.
Scheduled monuments in Surrey Heath
- Bee Garden earthwork on Albury Bottom (Ordnance Survey map reference: SU 974 643)
- Earthwork NW of Childown Farm on Chobham Common (Ordnance Survey map reference: SU 994 638)
- Four Bowl Barrows on West End Common (Ordnance Survey map reference: SU 9343 6135)
- Bowl Barrow at New England, West End Common (Ordnance Survey map reference: SU 9361 6129)