The Shropshire Historic Environment Record (HER, also known as the Shropshire Sites and Monuments Record or SMR) is a continuously expanding resource covering all aspects of the historic environment. It includes not only archaeological sites, finds and features, but also historic buildings, structures and landscapes. The HER is compiled and maintained by the Historic Environment Team at Shropshire Council. It covers the whole of the historic county of Shropshire, including Telford and Wrekin.
The HER is based around a relational database linked to Geographical Information Systems (GIS) mapping. It holds core data such as location, type, period or date for each "Monument", "Event" or "Designation" record. Additionally it indexes available "Sources" (documents, books, articles etc) held by the HER and by other organisations. The HER also holds extensive supporting collections of ground and air photographs, survey reports and plans, and a growing library of unpublished, "grey literature" reports, mainly generated by the planning process.
Many of the historical documents referred to in the HER are held at Shropshire Archives, the county's record office. You can find more information on Shropshire Archives by following the link on this page.
How to access the Historic Environment Record
Visiting
If you can visit the HER, then you have the most direct access to assistance and resources. The HER is based in the Environment Group's offices in Shirehall, Shrewsbury. It is usually open during normal office hours. Please make an appointment in advance, as there is limited space and staffing.
Details of how to get to Shirehall can be found in the attachment on this page.
By phone, post or email
If you cannot visit the HER in person, you can ask us to search the system on your behalf. You can contact us by telephone, by post or by email. We can then send you the results of the search as hard copy or in electronic format.
When you make an enquiry, you will usually need to say 'where, what and why' with respect to your enquiry.
- What location or area are you interested in? (National Grid references are a great help).
- What type or type(s) of information are you interested in?
- Why you want the information?
Knowing why will help HER/SMR staff pitch their response to your specific needs, and also helps to protect the county's archaeology and historic buildings.
Please always include a telephone number or email address in case anything needs to be clarified.
Over the internet
The HER is one of the partners in a website called Discovering Shropshire's History (DSH), alongside Shropshire Archives, the Museums Service and a range of local history groups.
At present, due to some technical problems in uploading records to the website, some of our records on DSH have not been updated since the launch of the website in 2006. We hope to have this problem resolved by the end of 2009. Users will then be able to access up to date copies of the HER database records in conjunction with other resources being placed on the DSH website. As HER records are associated with National Grid references they are displayed over "Microsoft Virtual Earth" mapping.
Follow the link on this page to access the Discovering Shropshire's History website.
In April 2009, the HER also made available copies of its "Monument" records to the Heritage Gateway website. This site offers a good range of search tools, allowing the Shropshire HER records to be queried in isolation or in conjunction with other local and national records.
Follow the link on this page to access the Heritage Gateway website.