Aesthetic Value Value deriving from the ways in which people draw sensory and intellectual stimulation from a place.
Ancient Monument Any scheduled monument and any other monument which in the opinion of the Secretary of State is of public interest by reason of the historic, architectural, traditional, artistic or archaeological interest attached to it.
AONB Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: an area of countryside that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value.
Archaeological Interest Assets with archaeological interest are the primary source of evidence about the substance and evolution of places, and of the people and cultures that made them. These heritage assets are part of a record of the past that begins with traces of early humans and continues to be created and destroyed.
Architectural and Artistic Interest These are interests in the design and construction aesthetic value of a place. They can arise from conscious design or fortuitously from the way the heritage asset has evolved. More specifically, architectural interest is an interest in the art or science of the design, construction, craftsmanship and decoration of buildings and structures of all types. Artistic interest is an interest in other human creative skills like sculpture.
Art Deco A style of architecture and interior design of the 1920s and 1930s, featuring strong shapes and bold colours.
Art Nouveau A late 19th century and early 20th century style of art, architecture and decoration, characterised by designs of leaves, flowers and flowing lines and curves.
Arts and Crafts Movement English aesthetic movement which emerged from the attempt to reform design and decoration in mid-19th century. The movement was a reaction against a perceived decline in standards associated with machinery and factory production and is admired for its use of natural, high-quality materials and for its emphasis on utility in design.
Ashlar Dressed, highly finished stonework of any type of stone.
Assets of Community Value A local authority must maintain a list of land in its area that is land of community value. The list maintained....by a local authority is to be known as its list of assets of community value.
Barrow An ancient burial place; a large mound of earth or stones over the remains of the dead.
Bays Regular visual or structural divisions within building design.
Bond The pattern in which bricks or masonry are arranged within a wall.
Box Frame Construction A method of building a simple timber frame using straight vertical and horizontal pieces to form wall frames connected at bay intervals across tie beams.
Bronze Age 2600BC - 700BC approx. When first metal tools were used.
Burgage Plot Medieval land term used to describe a town rental property, usually and distinctively, consisting of a dwelling, with a narrow street or marketplace frontage, on a long, narrow plot of land.
Buttress A structural support built against a wall to give strength.
Casement Window A side-opening window light, hung on hinges, fixed into a larger frame.
Capping (or coping) The top course/covering of a wall designed to protect and throw off water.
Character Just like an individual’s personality is made up of unique qualities resulting from a combination of their appearance, age, and upbringing; similarly, a building or area is the sum of various components and features that makes it unique and stand out.
Cills Historical variant of the spelling of 'sills'.
Classical (architecture) Influenced by ancient Greece and Rome.
Cob Building material consisting of clay, sand, straw, water and earth.
Column Any shaped upright that, usually, supports a lintel.
Communal Value Value deriving from the meanings of a place for the people who relate to it, or for whom it figures in their collective experience or memory.
Conservation The process of maintaining and managing change to a heritage asset in a way that sustains and where appropriate enhances its significance.
Conservation Area An area of special or unique architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which is desirable to preserve or enhance.
Context Any relationship between a place and other places, relevant to the values of that place.
Cruck Frame Construction A pair of crooked or curved, whole timbers that go from an apex to the ground to form an A-frame supporting the roof.
Cultural Heritage Site A place, locality, natural landscape, settlement area, architectural complex, archaeological site, or standing structure that is recognized and often legally protected as a place of historical and cultural significance.
Cupola A small dome on top of a larger dome, roof or turret.
Curtilage Land contained within the boundary of a property.
Dentillated (brickwork) An effect created by the projection of alternate headers to create a tooth-like pattern.
Designated Heritage Asset A building, place, landscape, etc identified through legislation such as, a Scheduled Monument, Listed Building, Registered Park and Garden, or Conservation Area designated as such.
Diaper work A pattern created by the use of different coloured bricks.
Dormer Window A window inserted into a sloping roof with its own roof and sides.
Eaves The bottom edge of a roof slope, overhanging the wall face.
Elevation The building face.
Elizbethan Architecture built during Elizabeth I reign (1558 - 1602)
Evidential Value Value deriving from the potential of a place to yield evidence about past human activity.
Facade The frontage of a building.
Fan lights Any glazed opening above a doorway.
Finials A decorative ornament found on spires, gables, pediments, canopies and pinnacles.
Flint Occurs as nodules or in bands within chalk and is a compact crystalline silica used for building. Popular because it was easily extracted and very strong and resistant to damage.
Flush-fitting Windows Panes positioned on the same plane.
Focal Point This is a feature that draws attention to itself by virtue of its scale, design or prominence. Focal points often dominate a view but are not necessarily the end of the space, with views continuing into the background.
Gable The end wall of a building.
Georgian (architecture) 1714-1830 (reigns of George I, II, III, IV) when classical style and classical proportions became widely used.
Geographic(al) Information Systems (GIS) A system that captures, stores, analyses, manages, and presents all types of spatial and geographical data collection. GIS merges cartography and database technology.
Geophysics Geology that studies the physics of the earth, to determine its characterisation, structure, evidence of groundwater, contamination and human artefacts, based on lateral and vertical mapping using non-invasive technologies such as Magnetometers and Ground Penetrating Radar.
Gothic Revival Architectural style of 18th Century which drew inspiration from medieval architecture.
Grade I Listed Grade one indicates that the building is of exceptional interest.
Grade II Listed Grade two indicates that buildings are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them.
Grade II* Listed Grade two star indicates that buildings are particularly important and are of more than special interest.
Group Value The value of a single site or building (such as a field system) may be greatly enhanced by its association with related contemporary sites or buildings (such as a settlement and cemetery or with sites or buildings of different periods). In some cases, it will be preferable to protect the complete group, including associated and adjacent land, rather than to protect isolated sites or buildings within the group.
Headers Bricks or stone laid with the shortest dimension parallel to the wall face.
Heritage Asset A building, monument, site, place, area or landscape positively identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions. Heritage assets are the valued components of the historic environment. They include designated heritage assets and assets identified by the local planning authority during the process of decision-making or through the plan-making process.
Heritage at Risk Register The Register is an annual English Heritage publication which identifies the most important heritage assets at risk of damage or loss.
Historic Environment All aspects of the environment resulting from the interaction between people and places through time, including all surviving physical remains of past human activity, whether visible, buried or submerged, and landscaped and planted or managed flora. Those elements of the historic environment that hold significance are called heritage assets.
Historic Environment Record (HER) The HER is an information service providing access to resources relating to the historic environment of a defined geographic area for public benefit and use. Typically, they comprise databases linked to a geographic information system (GIS), and associated reference material, together with a dedicated staffing resource.
Historic Interest An interest in past lives and events (including pre-historic). Heritage assets can illustrate or be associated with them. Heritage assets with historic interest not only provide a material record of our nation’s history but can also provide an emotional meaning for communities derived from their collective experience of a place and can symbolise wider values such as faith and cultural identity.
Historic Garden An architectural and horticultural composition of interest to the public from the historical or artistic point of view. As such, it is to be considered as a monument.
HS2 Railway A new (still under construction) high-speed railway network linking London, the Midlands, the North and Scotland. The route through Buckinghamshire is 60km and will travel through The Chalfonts, Central Chilterns and to the south-west of Aylesbury.
IHBC Institute of Historic Building Conservation
International-Modern Architecture A major architectural style developed in the 1920s and 30s, closely related to modernism and modern architecture. Adhering to three main principles, volume of space, regularity, and flexibilty, it consisted of rectangular forms, stripped of ornamentation or decoration, with light, open interior spaces and a visually weightless quality.
Iron Age 800BC until the Roman invasion in 43AD. Iron was first used for tools and weapons.
Jacobean Architecture from the reign of James I (1603-25)
Keystone The block at the centre of an arch.
Lancet window A tall, narrow window with a pointed arch at its top.
Landmark An object or feature of a landscape or town that is easily seen and recognized from a distance, especially one that enables someone to establish their location.
Lintel A horizontal beam spanning an opening and supporting the wall above.
Listed Building A property included on the National Heritage List for England due to its special architectural or historic interest and considered to be of national importance and therefore worth protecting.
Local Distinctiveness Local distinctiveness is the essence of what makes a place special. It is the sum of landscape, wildlife, archaeology, history, traditions, buildings and crafts – everything that makes somewhere truly unique.
Mausoleum A large, grand tomb.
Medieval The period from 1066 (Norman invasion) until 1485 when the Tudors became monarchs.
Metroland A band of suburban areas built to the north-west of London by the Metropolitan Railway Country Estates Limited and marketed as a land of idyllic cottages and wild flowers.
Monument Any building, structure or work, whether above or below the surface of the land, and any cave or excavation.
NPPF National Planning Policy Framework; sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how these should be applied. It provides a framework within which prepared plans for housing and other development can be produced.
Non-Designated Heritage Asset Buildings, monuments, sites, places, areas or landscapes identified as having a degree of heritage significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, but which do not meet the criteria for designated heritage assets.
Open-field Systems Traditional medieval farming system in which land was divided into strips and managed as individual holdings, with crop rotation and fallow grazing.
Oriel Window Bay windows which project from the main wall but do not reach the ground.
Palladian An early 17th century architectural style developed by Andrea Palladio and introduced to England by Inigo Jones.
Pilaster A rectangular column attached to a wall.
Pillbox A small enclosed gun emplacement built of fortified concrete.
Pinnacles The top of a spire, turret or buttress.
Place Any part of the historic environment, of any scale, that has a distinctive identity perceived by people.
Planning Permission Planning permission is usually required for carrying out any development of land.
Plinth The bottom section of a building, designed to suggest it is sitting on a platform.
Portico A porch with a roof supported by many columns.
Quoin The corner of a building emphasised by raised or larger bricks or stone work.
Rafters Inclined timbers forming the sides of a roof and holding the tiles or thatch.
Rarity A building or site which is a rare surviving or relatively unaltered example of its type. An asset which is unusual and important, locally, nationally or internationally.
Regency (architecture) Influenced by ancient Greece and Rome, features including columns and white painted stucco (1800 - 1837).
Render An exterior surface of plaster, stucco or pebble-dash.
RIBA Royal Institute of British Architects
Ridge and Furrow An archaeological pattern of ridges and troughs created by a system of ploughing used during the middle-ages, typical of the open field system.
Ridgeline The horizontal top-line of a roof.
Rococo (architecture) Also known as Late-Baroque. 18th century artistic movement which was light in style and graceful.
Rubble Rough and random sized, un-worked stone.
Sash-window Where the frame is positioned in grooves to slide-open vertically or side-to-side.
Setting The surroundings in which a heritage asset is experienced. Its extent is not fixed and may change as the asset and its surroundings evolve. Elements of a setting may make a positive or negative contribution to the significance of an asset, may affect the ability to appreciate that significance or may be neutral.
Significance The value of a heritage asset to this and future generations because of its heritage interest. That interest may be archaeological, architectural, artistic or historic.
Spalling Damaged occurred to the front face of stone or brickwork as a result of frost or chemical action.
Streetscape The streetscape is made up of the visual elements of a street that combine to form its character. Features including the buildings and their architectural design, plot size and geometry, scale, materials, trees, use, boundaries, green spaces etc and how they work together.
Stretchers Bricks or stone laid with the longest dimension parallel to the wall face.
Stringcourse A horizontal band of, often decorative, moulding or patterned brickwork, usually between storeys of a building.
Stucco Hardwearing lime plaster, sometimes incorporating marble dust.
Terrace A row of adjoining houses.
Thematic Relating to a particular subject or theme.
Timber-framed Construction Traditional method of building with heavy timbers to create structures using carefully fitted and joined sections secured by large wooden pegs.
Townscape Townscape is the landscape within the built-up area, including the buildings, the relationship between them, the different types of urban open spaces, including green spaces and the relationship between buildings and open spaces.
Tracery The decorative pattern created for windows, screens, panels or vaults, etc, usually of carved stone or wood.
uPVC Plastic framed windows (unplasticised polyvinyl chloride).
Vaulted An arched stone roof, sometimes copied in timber and plaster.
Vernacular Architecture/Buildings These are houses built to reflect local customs and traditions using locally available materials like wood, stone and brick. They are ordinary, rather than monumental buildings and so different from region to region that they are a vital part of England’s local distinctiveness, defining the country’s much-loved landscape.
Witchert or Wychert A natural blend of clay, straw and limestone/white chalk used to make buildings and walls. This historic method is specific to Haddenham and the surrounding local area.