The statutory protection of historic parks and gardens: An exploration and analysis of ‘structure’, ‘decoration’ and ‘character’

Abstract

Historic parks and gardens are an important part of English cultural heritage. Since the creation of the English Heritage Register there has been an undercurrent of debate over introducing statutory controls to protect this resource. This is seen as problematic in technical terms and in an attempt to conceptualize how it might be achieved notions of ‘structure’, ‘decoration’ and ‘character’ have been advanced. This paper considers what the overall aim of a system of statutory control might be before analysing through the use of a series of case studies whether structure and decoration might form a suitable framework for a system of statutory control. The notion of character is used as a cross‐reference. It is concluded that though the concepts of structure and decoration are useful analytical tools there are inherent problems in using them as the basis for a generalized system of regulation. This may be addressed potentially by considering structure and decoration on a site‐by‐site basis.