Peatlands and the historic environment in England – working together to make the difference

Peatlands are widely recognised for their rich biodiversity and their role as carbon stores. They are equally special in terms of their cultural and heritage significance; as historic landscapes, for preserving archaeological remains and palaeoecological records, and for their intangible cultural connections. In 2018 the UK Government published its 25 Year Environment Plan, a key component of which has been the development of the England Peat Action Plan by Defra. This paper outlines some of Historic England and Natural England’s most-recent collaborative work on peatlands and the historic environment. This ultimately resulted in its representation within England’s wider peatland strategy and policy – the first of the UK nations to do so. This paper discusses the authors’ work carried out between 2017 and 2022, highlighting the challenges, opportunities and experiences of cross-sector, multi-agency working. It introduces the documents and guidance, produced jointly, to support the work and schemes ‘on the ground’.