A Napoleonic lookout and an ammunition factory: the ' heritage at risk register' 2015

Historic England announces its annual 'at risk' register, including a Napoleonic lookout, a lighthouse and a First World War ammunition factory

Naze Tower, Essex, grade II* Credit: Photo: © Historic England

A Napoleonic look-out tower left damp after being patched up by builders and a lost First World War shell factory are at risk of falling into ruins, as Historic England warns the cost of conservation is at its highest ever.

Historic England, the conservation charity, said the rising cost of materials and difficult repair jobs left on the At Risk register had left the average conservation deficit at more than £500,000 for the first time ever.

The sum refers to the difference between the cost of repair compared to the end value of buildings, leaving the charity warning is it getting “more expensive” to save the remaining treasures on its to-do list.

Among the buildings announced on this year’s At Risk register, highlighting the structure under the greatest threat of decay, include a 19th century lighthouse, a pub and a Grade II listed church.

For the first time, Historic England has also undertaken a nationwide study of the types of heritage at risk, to spell out the threats facing each regions.

Ancient burial mounds, known as barrows, are at most risk currently, it found, making up 15.6 per cent of all sites on the register.

Churches are also considered to be facing difficulties, with 6.5 per cent of places of worship being included on the list.

Among the examples added to the At Risk Register this year include Naze Tower, in Essex, a Grade II* lookout post originally built in 1720.

If they're lost, then a sense of that region is lost too.
Historic England

After surviving the Napoleonic and First World Wars in tact, and being used as a radar stations during the Second World War, it has now succumbed to cracks and damp.

A spokesman for Historic England said the building, which is currently used as an art gallery, had been re-pointed in sand and cement in the 1970s, leading to a “severe damp problem”, and had a “very bad structural crack” from the 1940s which had been “patched up” with brick, sand and cement mortar.

The charity has given it a £168,000 grant towards urgent structural repairs, window repairs and repointing works while the tower remains open to the public as a tea room and gallery.

The National Filling Factory, built to house workers filling shells with high explosive and poison gas during the First World War, is also on the 2015 list after being left to the mercies of nature.

Around 1,500 people, a third of them women, worked on the ammunition site, later being nicknamed locally as “canaries” for the yellow tinge of their skin.

After the job was complete, the remains of the factory fell into disrepair and became overgrown with scrub, and are now largely hidden in bushes off the M40 in Northamptonshire.

Also now at risk is the Grade II Church of St Thomas More, Birmingham, a 1968 Catholic church built entirely from concrete and with “spectacular” stained glass windows.


Released today, the report finds that a third of the sites on the 2010 register have been rescued, beating the target to get a quarter of heritage buildings and monuments off the At Risk list in five years.

They include Cardington Airship Sheds, in Bedfordshire, whose vast shed No1 is the only pre-1918 hangar to survive in Europe, the scenic railway at Dreamland, Margate, Kent, Britain's oldest surviving roller coaster, and a 1930s Grade II* brown bear pit at Dudley Zoo, West Midlands.

Duncan Wilson, Historic England's chief executive, said: "This year's register gives us the most complete assessment of the state of our nation's heritage yet. It shows that we are making progress, but also that the challenge is still significant.

"The very things that make our regions special, are the things most at risk. If they're lost, then a sense of that region is lost too. Together we can safeguard our most precious places and buildings for future generations."